Sunday Post

And they're off:

Good morning. A few minutes ago, I met with his excellency, the Governor General, and he has agreed to my request that parliament be dissolved. In accordance with our commitment to a fixed election date, the next general election will be held as prescribed by law. As it is my intention to begin campaign-related activities, as is also the case for the other party leaders,… it is important that these campaigns be funded by the parties themselves rather than taxpayers. It is also appropriate that Canadians have the time to consider the alternatives before them,… because this is an election about leadership on the big issues, the issues that affect us all: Our economy, and our nation’s security. It is an election about who will protect our economy, in a period of ongoing global instability, and secure Canada’s future prosperity. And it is an election about who is best-equipped to make the tough calls to keep our country safe. 

It was expected so I have no idea why the other parties et al have wet their shorties over this.

Also: elections by the numbers and promises that will soon be broken.



Well, this must be embarrassing:

Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, maintains that she did not send classified materials using a personal email account and an Internet server kept at her home in Chappaqua, New York. But a new batch of correspondence, released by the State Department Friday afternoon, shows that she and her aides did share sensitive information — including potential vulnerabilities in American diplomatic facilities overseas — over her private network.

Self-interest has forced Turkey's hand, not horror or want of stability:

There are three broad reasons for Ankara’s change of heart. The first is Turkey’s deteriorating relations with the United States. Second, Ankara was alarmed by increasing U.S. cooperation with Syrian Kurds, which was growing deeper with every day that Turkey refused to cooperate with Washington. And finally, the Turks realized that IS had become a formidable entity potentially representing a threat to them as well.

The Turkish government is Islamist in its sympathies and heavily opposed to the Kurds or any state they wish. That it has realised only recently that ISIS will reduce it to rubble is a bit of an about-face but perhaps a temporary one.



Another imprisoned foreigner, another forced confession:

The head pastor of one of Canada's largest congregations who has been detained by North Korea since February appeared before media in Pyongyang and confessed to crimes aimed at overthrowing the state, the North's official news agency said on Friday.

The KCNA news agency said Hyeon Soo Lim, of the 3,000-member Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, "honestly admitted to all crimes" he was accused of committing.

KCNA quoted Lim as telling a news conference he had traveled to North Korea in the guise of humanitarian work and gathered information that he used in sermons outside the country in a bid to drive the regime to a collapse "with the love of God."

His purpose was to "overturn its social system by taking advantage of the hostile policy against it sought by the South Korean authorities and set up a base for building a religious state," KCNA quoted him as saying.

Lim also said he worked with South Korean and U.S. authorities to "lure and abduct" North Koreans in a campaign of aiding defectors from the country, KCNA said.

China was twice awarded the Olympics and its water is filthy:

A day after the high-profile vote which awarded Beijing the 2022 Winter Games, International Olympic Committee members dealt Saturday with issues affecting the next two Summer Games — severe water pollution in Rio de Janeiro and the fuss over Tokyo's choice of emblem.

And now, August 3rd is the start of Psychic Week but you already knew that.