Thursday Post

The story so far...



The NDP and the Liberals are reportedly forming a coalition:

New Democrats say they'd two-step with the federal Liberals if it meant ousting Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives, but their prospective dance partner isn't hearing the music.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said Thursday that his party has always seen the defeat of the Conservatives as a priority.

"We know that they've done a lot of harm, and we want to start repairing the damage that (Harper's) done," Mulcair said from Amherstburg, Ont., where he stopped as part of an eight-day tour.

"We've always worked with others in the past, but every time I've raised this prospect with Justin Trudeau, he's slammed the door on it."

The Liberal leader did that again on Thursday when asked in Winnipeg about the possibility of a formal coalition with the New Democrats.

"Although of course we are open to working with all parties in the House to pass good legislation and to ensure that Canadians' interests are served, there will be no formal coalition with the NDP," Trudeau said.

(Sidebar: it should be noted that Justin Trudeau says a lot of things and then does something else.)

It is what one calls "hedging one's bets". The Liberals might play it cool and pretend that their political differences are far too great to form a coalition with the NDP (some poor attempt at a scare tactic for both the Tories and the voters) but really their policies are not vastly different and desperation makes strange bed-fellows. As the election draws nearer, the likelihood of a coalition will be greater. Any attempt to unseat Harper is better than none at all.



But human rights commissions are crazy:



Instead of calling the crazy human rights commissions and their kangaroo court form of justice crazy, use the adjectives "insane", "morally corrupt", "fascist", "paranoid", "thin-skinned" and "pompous". These words may expose the human rights commission to ridicule but there is nothing sane or useful about it, anyway.

Also: the Fur makes its debut at The Rebel:

To make a long story short Chris Alexander was invited to speak at the Shia Eid event.

Some of the Shia were happy to see the invitation extended as Chris Alexander has greased the entry of certain Khomeinists into Canada for some bizarre reason.

Alexander was no doubt happy to accept because this is an election year and what harm could a little vote whoring do among crazed Khomeinists?

Boy was he wrong.

Read the whole thing.



Remember when Neville Chamberlain Obama said there would be peace with Iran in our time?

President Obama won’t allow Congress to review two key aspects of the Iranian Nuclear deal, Republican lawmakers learned from international partners last week. 

 

Under the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the International Atomic Energy Agency would negotiate separately with Iran about the inspection of a facility long-suspected of being used to research long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. 

 

“The Obama administration has failed to make public separate side deals that have been struck for the ‘inspection’ of one of the most important nuclear sites—the Parchin military complex,” said Representative Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) in a statement Tuesday. “Not only does this violate the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, it is asking Congress to agree to a deal that it cannot review.” 

 

 The IAEA has been trying to gain access to the Parchin site since 2005, but Iran has refused, even as it apparently demolished various parts of the complex. “The hardliners do not want to grant any concessions unless Iran is suitably rewarded,” International Institute for Strategic Studies director Mark Fitzpatrick told the BBC in 2014, after reports emerged of explosions at the base.

 

The terms of the current agreement wouldn’t allow Congress to review any concessions the IAEA makes to get into the site. “Even members of Congress who are sympathetic to this deal cannot and must not accept a deal we aren’t even aware of,” said Pompeo.

 

(Sidebar: so goes Iran, so goes North Korea should the War-Monger-in-Chief ever get around to it which he probably won't because Koreans aren't that important of a voters' block.)

I'm sure those details can't be important.



Thank God people are worried about wedding cakes:

In our society, being gay means death. When Isis kills gays, most people are happy because they think we're sick.

It's like "Norma Rae" but more North Korean:

Fittingly, our story begins with a Chinese textile company that made prison uniforms. We don’t ordinarily think of Chinese prison-garment workers as overpaid, but then, some North Korean officials paid them a visit. The officials knew of a derelict factory in the extreme northeast of the workers’ paradise, where women would work 12 hours a day for 30 kilograms of rice a month. …

However, just one month after start of operations a major problem arose. The payment of white rice was not made as promised. Most of the angry female workers refused to come to work.

The white rice for the “monthly wage payments” was to be brought in by the Chinese company, then handed over to the workers via the county officials. That was the agreement. However, the officials first withheld about half of the rice as “army rice” before paying the workers. That’s what made the workers so angry.

The officers, in a panic, visited the homes of the workers to encourage them to come to work.

“The female workers sent the officers packing, saying, ‘How can you expect us to come to work when you will not pay us properly? We will starve!’ In North Korea today, if promises are not kept, any one will leave the workplace at the factory in the same way” …

If labor organizations proliferated throughout North Korea, they could eventually organize nationwide work stoppages and strikes. Here is an incident where a clandestine labor organization formed locally and spontaneously. It isn’t hard to believe that with a little support, more North Koreans at other factories and mines would organize, too.

Let's just hope they opt for transparency right from the start unlike some certain unions in Canada.

(Kamsahamnida)



And now, the Tennessee Duck March (completely unrelated to "The Tennessee Waltz"):

In the 1930s, Frank Schutt, General Manager of the Peabody Hotel, thought it would be funny to have ducks in the hotel’s gigantic Italian marble fountain. So he brought in three small ducks from his personal flock to see how people reacted. The ducks were a hit, so they were soon replaced with five stately Mallards from a nearby farm.  

The ducks lived on the roof in a modest roost, but getting the ducks to and from the fountain was not an easy process. That is until 1940, when a bellman, Edward Pembroke, a former circus trainer, offered to teach the ducks to walk to the fountain, thus becoming the first Peabody Duckmaster, a post he held until his retirement in 1991. Even after all these years, Pembroke’s routine has remained unchanged to this day. 

The Tennessee Dip in the Pond