Friday Post

Because the world moves on...


Police in Nova Scotia have foiled a mass shooting plot:

Police say they've stopped an alleged plan by at least two suspects to kill people in a public place in the Halifax-area on Valentine's Day.

RCMP issued a statement on Friday saying a 19-year-old man who was found dead in a Halifax-area home had intentions go to a public place with a woman and open fire on citizens before killing themselves.

The statement from Nova Scotia RCMP Commanding Officer Brian Brennan says police received information on Thursday morning of a potential significant weapons-related threat.

 
But... but... they were going to shut everything down!

A group of people taking part in a Shut Down Canada protest movement managed to slow traffic in Regina for a few minutes on Friday.

The protests, organized through Facebook, took place in various Canadian cities. It appears to have a number of criticisms about several government positions and policies. The Regina version attracted nine people.

One of the people in the Regina group, Daniel Johnson, tried to tamper with a signaling system at a level crossing on Albert Street North.

Police were ready for him.

This spectacle achieved what exactly? 

The time to push back against the paper tiger was before Nixon reached out to it:

Over the course of my lifetime, the United States has supported Chinese Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War; fought ‘commies’ in Korea; reached a ‘Nixon goes to China’ rapprochement, playing a ‘China card’ against the Cold War USSR; and watched an incredible Chinese economic surge, making Beijing the manufacturer for the world. 

Now Chinese military construction and verbal aggression appear directed at obtaining pre-eminence in East Asia, disconcerting U.S. allies in the region and challenging the United States’ long taken-for-granted hegemony.  

The U.S. needs a put-China-back-in-the-box foreign policy approach.

That mentality has resulted in our much-discussed ‘pivot’ on Asia. Unfortunately, it has led us to—if not drowning in Pacific complexities—a pudding without any theme that would equate to coherent, coordinated, allied policy toward dealing with China.

One's lips to the voters' ears:

The Liberal party’s position on the war against ISIS in Iraq is beginning to look like an egregious case of mission creep.

As polls continue to suggest that three out of four Canadians support the use of force to stop the Islamic State — including a similar percentage in Quebec, where support for combat missions has historically been lower — the Liberals are shifting their stance in subtle fashion. ...

t would seem an uncharacteristically speculative move on the prime minister’s part to ensnare Canada further in the Iraqi conflict, unless there were pressing operational reasons to do so.

He did not craft the current mission for partisan purposes. He was merely able to exploit opportunities created by Mr. Trudeau’s rash decision to oppose the limited intervention that was proposed.

Even if the Liberals are able to course correct, the reputational damage to their leader may already have been done.

While Harper often (but not always) has principled stands, he is also thinking three moves ahead. Trudeau can't decide what he wants for breakfast.

Trudeau is incapable of taking a moral or practical stand, instead pandering to a minority that has the same amount of forethought as he.

Oops.


Well, this must be embarrassing:

The prosecutor who inherited a high-profile case against Argentine President Cristina Fernandez on Friday reaffirmed the accusations, formally renewing the investigation into whether the president helped Iranian officials cover up their alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre.

Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita’s decision to go forward with the case was significant because it sets the stage for a close examination of the investigation that prosecutor Alberto Nisman was building before he was found dead Jan. 18. The next day, Nisman was scheduled to elaborate his accusations to Congress.

Nisman accused Fernandez, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and others in her administration of brokering the coverup in exchange for favourable deals on oil and other goods from Iran. Fernandez and Timerman have strongly denied the accusations, and Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in the bombing, which killed 85 people.

This ceasefire is a reprieve, not a path to peace with Russia:

Fierce fighting surged in east Ukraine as Russian-backed separatists mounted a major and sustained new push Friday to capture a strategic railway hub ahead of a weekend cease-fire deadline.

Clashes appeared only to have increased in the day since a peace agreement was sealed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France. German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautiously described the agreement negotiated Thursday as “a glimmer of hope.”

The government-held railway town of Debaltseve was on the receiving end of dozens of artillery and rocket salvos in the 24-hour period following the Minsk talks, Ukrainian military officials said.

A global warming update:

Since December 1996 there has been no global warming at all. This month’s RSS temperature shows a sharp uptick to warmer worldwide weather than for two years, shortening the period without warming by a month to 18 years 2 months.

(With thanks)