Mid-Week Post

On this, the last day of May. (sigh)

 
A suicide bomber has killed ninety people in Kabul:

A suicide attacker struck the fortified heart of the Afghan capital with a massive truck bomb Wednesday, killing 90 people, wounding 400 and raising new fears about the government's ability to protect its citizens nearly 16 years into a war with insurgents.

The bomber drove into Kabul's heavily guarded diplomatic quarter during the morning rush hour, leaving behind a bloody scene of chaos and destruction in one of the worst attacks since the drawdown of foreign forces from Afghanistan in 2014.

Most of the casualties were civilians, including women and children, said Ismail Kawasi, spokesman of the public health ministry. But the dead also included Afghan security guards at the facilities, including the U.S. Embassy, while 11 American contractors were wounded — none with life-threatening injuries, a U.S. State Department official said.

"I have been to many attacks, taken wounded people out of many blast sites, but I can say I have ever seen such a horrible attack as I saw this morning," ambulance driver Alef Ahmadzai told The Associated Press. "Everywhere was on fire and so many people were in critical condition."

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which came in the first week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

(Sidebar: there is nothing holy about Ramadan. See the Ramadan body count here.)


The Indian, Japanese and Korean embassies were also damaged.





Look - all one has to do is burn the jungle:

A week-long assault by Islamist rebels in a southern Philippine city is being fuelled with stolen weapons and ammunition and fighters broken out of jails, the military said on Wednesday, as troops battled militants resisting ground and air attacks.

The pro-Islamic State Maute group has proven to be a fierce enemy, clinging on to the heart of Marawi City through days of air strikes on what the military called known rebel targets, defying expectations of a swift end to their occupation.

The military deployed for the first time SF-260 close air support planes to back attack helicopters and ground troops looking to box rebels into a downtown area. The army said the rebels hold about a tenth of the city.

The hardline Maute had kept up the fight with rifles and ammunition stolen from a police station, a prison, and an armoured police vehicle, and were using them to hold off the troops, said military spokesman Restituto Padilla.

The militants had freed jailed comrades to join the battle and opted to engage in urban warfare because the city had stocks of arms and ample supplies of food.

(Sidebar: and innocent civilians.) 

Manchester authorities refuse to bury Salman Abedi about whom the FBI warned MI5 (and, as the authorities believe, acted "alone"):

Councils and funeral directors in Manchester are reportedly refusing to handle the body of Salman Abedi – with his corpse being kept at a morgue outside of the city where he killed 22 people last week.

According to the Manchester Evening News, authorities are doing ‘everything in their power’ to prevent his being buried or cremated in Greater Manchester, after the 23-year-old blew himself up in the foyer of Manchester Arena.

Bury him in pig crap.





These people are pieces of crap:

A Melbourne autistic teenager who was allegedly bashed by five Sudanese teenagers on a bus last month has been targeted again.

As usual, these worthless gang-attack someone who cannot fight back.





Russian warships fire missiles onto ISIS positions in Syria:

Russians warships in the Mediterranean Sea have fired four cruise missiles at the Islamic State group's positions in Syria, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday.

The announcement came as Syrian government troops pushed ahead in their offensive against IS and militants in central and northern Syria.

Moscow said in a statement that the Admiral Essen frigate and the Krasnodar submarine launched the missiles at IS targets in the area of the ancient town of Palmyra. There was no information on when the missiles were launched.

ISIS holes itself up in a mosque in a last attempt to hold Mosul:

Islamic State militants have closed the streets around Mosul's Grand al-Nuri Mosque, residents said, apparently in preparation for a final showdown in the battle over their last major stronghold in Iraq.


Dozens of fighters were seen by residents taking up positions in the past 48 hours around the medieval mosque, the site where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in July 2014.

Islamic State's black flag has been flying from the mosque since the militants captured Mosul and seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014.

U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces retook eastern Mosul in January and began a new push on Saturday to capture the group's remaining enclave in western Mosul, comprising of the Old City center where the mosque is located, and three adjacent districts alongside the western bank of the River Tigris.

The fall of the city would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the self-styled caliphate. Meanwhile in Syria, Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-air strikes are beseiging Islamic State forces in the city of Raqqa, the militants' de facto capital in that country.

 



Once more, the Ontario Liberal government will cost Ontarian jobs. No one will pay a waitress fifteen dollars an hour to serve food. When this hypothetical waitress is fired, no one will be hired to take her place. This will put strain on other workers. All parties are victims of climbing taxes and government mismanagement:

Kathleen Wynne just bid the private sector adieu.

The premier’s approval of an extraordinary 32% hike in the minimum wage — to $15 dollars an hour by 2019 — has created a union-like dystopia that will leave employers looking for the nearest exit.

While many employment activist groups are applauding the announcement, most fail to see the unavoidable fallout this move will bring.

For one, few employers can afford the cost of entry and will close their doors.

That means fewer jobs and more employees collecting Employment Insurance. For those businesses that survive, expect a proliferation of wage freezes, even for those employees in higher positions to recoup the burgeoning labour costs in the lower ranks. Promotions with any real earning potential will become elusive for hard working, loyal employees.

With the wage hike, employees will assuredly be lumped in with their less impressive counterparts because the pie can only be cut so many ways. Welcome to the union of Ontario.

I'll believe it when I see it:

On Tuesday, Conservative Sen. Linda Frum introduced a bill in the Senate to get foreign money out of Canadian elections. ...

Frum’s Bill S-239 will change that. It will amend the Canada Elections Act to state, among other provisions, that: “No third party, as defined by section 348.01, shall, at any time, accept a contribution for any purposes related to an election if the contribution is from any foreign source”.

It’s a head-scratcher that this is even allowed in the first place.

 
I have a hard time believing that Trudeau will surrender the opportunity to take Chinese bribes.





Two perfectly good reasons to re-visit the issue of capital punishment:

Homolka, who lives in Châteauguay, has been sending her three children to the Seventh-day Adventist school in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood since September. On Wednesday morning, she parked her black Honda SUV in front of the photographers, and rushed her three children inside the school. On her way back to her car, she used her purse in an attempt to block the view of her face.

Homolka served 12 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the deaths of Ontario schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. Her ex-husband, Paul Bernardo, is serving a life sentence for his role in multiple rapes and homicides.

Homolka reportedly supervised kindergarten children from the Greaves Adventist Academy on a field trip in March. Parents told the Montreal Gazette on Wednesday that Homolka has been seen in the schoolyard with her dog, and allowed the children to pet the dog. She was also permitted into school to show off her dog to the students. The school was aware of Homolka’s criminal past before she started volunteering there.

Several parents told the Montreal Gazette they only became aware of Homolka’s involvement with their school after a man, who called himself a concerned citizen, passed out leaflets to parents back in March. One parent, who tried to raise the issue with the school, was told he would not be welcome back when the new school year starts in September.

“The school has been here for a long time and we have never been involved in anything contrary to the proper norms of the students,” school superintendent Marc Bouzy said on May 17. “There is no reason for anyone to be concerned about the way we do things right now for the benefit of the students in our community.

(Sidebar: oh, really?)


**

The families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy are bracing themselves for what they know is going to be a difficult summer.

Round one for Doug French was hearing Karla Homolka has been volunteering at the school her kids attend. But round two is coming in a couple of months, when Homolka’s killer ex-husband Paul Bernardo makes his bid for parole — some 25 years after the murders of his daughter and Mahaffy.

French is not looking forward to it.

He can’t even understand why Bernardo’s getting one.

“I thought he was determined a dangerous offender? But everybody gets a parole hearing.”

French said he’s preparing for the worst.

“You mark my words, he will get a day pass or an afternoon pass or something,” he said. “I suspect it will happen.”

The thought of it makes him sick.

Just in time for Canada Day:

A month before Canada Day, a private member’s bill to make the language of the national anthem gender-neutral is facing another roadblock.
 
A Conservative amendment that changes proposed language from “in all of us command” to “thou dost in us command” could inadvertently kill the bill when it goes back to the House of Commons, said Senate sponsor Sen. Frances Lankin, an independent who was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The lyric in O Canada, sung daily at schools across the country (and at innumerable events), had been “true patriot love, in all thy sons command.” 

Because the bill’s original sponsor, Mauril Bélanger, died last year, the House would require unanimous consent for a new bill sponsor before being able to vote on the Senate’s amendment. In theory, any one of the 74 MPs who voted against the bill could block its progress by denying consent.

Thank God.

No one wanted this unilaterally decided change in the first place.

Let it die.



 
Was Maxime Bernier a victim of farmers?

Against such lunacy Maxime Bernier brought sanity. He proposed phasing out supply management over a period of years if not decades, compensating farmers for losses.

Close to half of the Conservative party members who voted Saturday supported Bernier and his relatively moderate libertarian agenda of less government and lower taxes. The official count, based on the ballot-point system, was Andrew Scheer 17,221 points (50.95 per cent) versus Maxime Bernier 16,578 (49.05 per cent).

That’s close. But if accounts from the frontline are accurate, Bernier would have won the leadership were it not for vote-rigging infiltrators from the farmers’ unions and associated backers of supply management.

That supposes that Andrew Scheer had no appeal at all.

I can believe Bernier's proposal was controversial but not that this leadership race was rigged somehow.




Cue the voters block-seeking MP now:

It was just a matter of time until an aslyum seeker died trying to illegally cross the border into Canada, the reeve of Emerson, Man., said Tuesday.

Greg Janzen was reacting to the death of Mavis Otuteye, a 57-year-old woman believed to be from the African country of Ghana, whose body was found late last week near Noyes, Minn.

“We were always expecting to find someone in the ditch when the snow melted, which we never did,” he said. “(Then) the Red River didn’t flood nearly as much as we expected so we thought it would be clear sailing, but now we have this.”

The Kittson County sheriff’s department said an initial autopsy concluded the cause of death was possible hypothermia, though a final autopsy is still pending.

The police said they believe Otuteye had been heading to Emerson, which is just across the border from Noyes.

Trump is reportedly withdraw from the Paris Accord:

President Trump will pull the United States out of the Paris climate change agreement, according to several reports Wednesday.

Axios first reported that Trump is working with a group led by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt on the exact mechanism of pulling out before announcing his final decision. CBS News also reported that Trump is telling allies about his decision.

The move marks a dramatic departure from the Obama administration, which was instrumental in crafting the deal. It also makes the U.S. an outlier among the world’s nations, nearly all of whom support the climate change accord.

But Trump’s decision fulfills an original campaign promise he made just over a year ago to “cancel” the accord.

Why not be honest with one's citizens?

The Ministry of National Defense deliberately omitted information regarding four additional THAAD launchers brought into the country, the presidential office said Wednesday.

According to Cheong Wa Dae, its probe into the development revealed that the Defense Ministry deliberately excluded the information when briefing the de facto presidential transition committee Friday.

“Cheong Wa Dae’s probe has confirmed that the Ministry of National Defense deliberately omitted the fact that four additional launchers have been brought into the country,” said Yoon Young-chan, the chief presidential press secretary.

“(The Defense Ministry’s) draft report included the phrases “six launchers” and “stored at a camp” but they were deleted.”

North Korean death camps likened to Nazi death camps:

The UN Commission of Inquiry into North Korea’s human rights violations described the Kim dynasty’s totalitarian misrule -- which “seeks to dominate every aspect of its citizens’ lives and terrorizes them from within” -- as without parallel in the modern world. Crimes committed against innocents strikingly resemble those of the Nazis, specified the commission.

Atrocities perpetrated against guiltless victims within the Kwanliso political prison camps “resemble the horrors of camps that totalitarian states established during the 20th century,” the commission indicated, while “public executions and enforced disappearances to political prison camps serve as the ultimate means to terrorize the population into submission.”

Even many among those fortunate to escape and resettle in South Korea or other countries continue to live in terror. The commission found that “most of the potential witnesses ... were afraid to testify, even on a confidential basis, because they feared for the safety of family members.”

The Kim dynasty represents a ruthless and all-encompassing despotism like no other, with origins unlike any other. Often characterized as one massive concentration camp, the UN-appointed investigation attests the inherent rights many of us take for granted, such as the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of opinion, expression, information and association and freedom of movement -- both within the territory and abroad -- are nonexistent inside the North.

“Surveillance permeates the private lives of all citizens. ... Citizens are punished for any ... expressions of dissent,” it affirmed.

Kim Jong-un and his predecessors utilized “food as a means of control over the population,” prioritizing those deemed useful “over those deemed expendable.”

The Commission of Inquiry pronounced that the domineering Kims had even “failed to feed the ordinary soldiers of its disproportionately large army,” while all resources are “directly controlled by the Supreme Leader.” As the populace conspicuously starved to death, lavish funds were allocated without interruption toward “luxury goods and the advancement of his personality cult.”

Appealing to China will not change this.





Japan should withdraw from the UN. Let the average Japanese  deal with censorship:

A U.N. rights expert who visited Japan last year noted “significant worrying signals” for the country’s freedom of expression and opinion in a report released Tuesday in Geneva.

The lack of debate over historical events, restrictions on access to information justified on national security grounds and government pressure on media “require attention lest they undermine Japan’s democratic foundations,” said David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

The report, to be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council in June, is the result of the first research ever on freedom of expression in Japan conducted by a U.N. special rapporteur.

The Japanese government voiced regret over the report, which is nonbinding, and pledged to continue with dialogue with the United Nations to clear up the misunderstanding.

Kaye aired concerns about the contentious secrecy law for the prevention of leaks of state secrets that took effect in 2014.

Under the law, civil servants or others who leak designated secrets could face up to 10 years in prison, and those who instigate leaks, including journalists, could be subject to prison terms of up to five years.

While welcoming government efforts to clarify the four specific categories under which information may be designated as secret — defense, diplomacy, prevention of specified harmful activities and prevention of terrorist activities — Kaye warned that “specific subcategories remain overly broad” and thus involve the risk of being arbitrarily applied.

This is one of my biggest fears:

A 73-year-old Australian fisherman said Monday that he caught a far bigger fish than he hoped for when a 2.7-meter (9-foot) great white shark leapt into his boat, knocking him off his feet.

Terry Selwood was left with a badly bruised and bleeding right arm where the airborne shark struck him with a pectoral fin as it landed on him on the deck of the 4.5-meter (15-foot) power boat Saturday off Evans Head, 725 kilometres (450 miles) north of Sydney.

Selwood sprung up on the gunnel at the bow of the boat to avoid the thrashing shark and steadied himself by clinging to the tubular metal frame of the sun shelter, known as a bimini.

"I didn't give it a chance to look me in the eyes. I wanted to get up and get on top of the gunnel because it was thrashing around madly," Selwood told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"Flash Gordon wouldn't have caught me," he said, referring to the athletic science fiction comic book hero of the 1930s.

Selwood used a hand-held radio to call the Evans Head coast guard and stayed on the gunnel until a rescue boat arrived.

Coast guard skipper Bill Bates said he misread the danger when Selwood reported his predicament.

"He said, 'I'm injured, I've broken my arm, I've got lacerations and there's a shark in my boat,'" Bates said.

"Often a fisherman will bring a small shark on board — maybe 2 or 3 feet (up to 1 metre ) — and they're still ferocious. That's what I was expecting, but I was totally wrong," he added.

The coast guard crew rescued Selwood, but left the shark alone. The shark was estimated to weigh 200 kilograms (440 pounds).

"The shark was thrashing inside the boat, taking up the entire deck area — there was no way you'd put a foot in there," Bates said.

The coast guard took Selwood to paramedics at Evans Head, where his badly swollen arm was cleared of any fracture.

The coast guard later towed Selwood's boat with the shark into Evans Head just before nightfall.

"We think it was already dead at that stage, but no one was game to put their finger in to find out," Bates said.

Why the shark flung itself over the motor and into the anchored boat is a mystery.

Tuesday Post

On Saturday, Andrew Scheer, something of a dark horse, was chosen to lead the Tories.

Soon after, the attacks began:

Scheer, arguably a political moderate, has promised to do the same and concentrate on issues that mean more to Canadians – like lower taxes, smaller government, and the creation of economic policies that do not kick millennials to the curb while pretending to help them succeed as the Trudeau Liberals do.

Not that it matters to the NDP.

They need ink. They are in the middle of a leadership race to replace Thomas Mulcair that no one gives a damn about.

So out trots leadership contender Peter Julian at a leadership debate Sunday in Sudbury – were you tuning in? – to tag Scheer with every social-conservative label he could think of in a few short seconds of microphone time.

"Mr. Scheer has opposed same-sex marriages, he's opposed the right of women to choose, he's opposed transgender rights of Canadians," said Julian.

"He may be a relatively young man, but he's a dinosaur in terms of attitude."

But no debate from the left worth its self-righteousness would be complete without some reference to the bogeyman.

So up stepped NDP leadership candidate Niki Ashton, claiming that Scheer's victory shows what "Trump-like politics and Trump-like ideas look like in our country."

So be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

It's total bunkum, of course, but the NDP will reach for any trigger-switch to get noticed rather than face the fact that no leader among them will ever bring back Jack Layton.

What detractors of Andrew Scheer were doing, in fact, was making a mockery of his religious views.

If Scheer were an observant Muslim rather than a Roman Catholic, social media and all the politically-correct progressives within it would be scalding them beyond recognition.

This is inarguable.

Worried that maybe some voters are bothered by governmental mismanagement and financial waste, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne appeals to the stickiest of voters:

One year before a general election, Ontario’s Liberal government is promising sweeping changes to labour laws that would benefit millions of workers, including raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019, ensuring equal pay for part-time employees and increasing vacation entitlements.

Yes, Kathleen, however ... :

Small businesses were “blindsided” by the Ontario government’s decision to hike the hourly minimum wage to $15 by 2019, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says.

“You’ve got a small business and they don’t have the wiggle room to absorb more direct business costs,” Julie Kwiecinski, CFIB’s director of provincial affairs, said. “Higher CPP, higher EI, hydro, cap and trade, minimum wage already being increased at the rate of inflation.

“What is the last straw? How much more can small businesses shoulder?” she said.

Also - maybe the "beer and popcorn" guy was just before his time:

It was widely noted that Bill Morneau’s spring budget imposed a two per cent hike in beer taxes, adding 5¢ to a case of 24 bottles.

Less widely noticed was that prices will increase on beer, wine and spirits every year thereafter at the rate of inflation.

Let that sink in.

Also in "good luck with that wacky plan" news:

NDP government, backed by the Greens, would do everything it could to kill the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, to hold a referendum in 2018 on proportional representation, to eliminate Metro bridge tolls, to increase the carbon tax, to bring in a $15 minimum wage and to put the Site C dam project before an immediate review, according to details of the power-sharing deal between the two parties.

Yeah. Okay. Sure:

Canada’s political fundraising rules are getting another overhaul, as the Liberal government is set to introduce a bill that will force all parties to follow stricter standards on transparency in fundraising events.

The federal legislation, coming on Wednesday, is expected to include largely the same measures the Liberals brought in for their own party following controversy over “cash-for-access” events, where well-heeled donors paid hefty ticket prices to mix with cabinet ministers behind closed doors.

Democratic Institutions Minister Katrina Gould outlined the broad scope of the bill earlier in May.

“We will be bringing forward legislation to give Canadians information about fundraisers involving cabinet ministers, party leaders, and leadership contestants,” she said in the House of Commons on May 1.

“Canadians will know about the events in advance, where they are being held, the cost to attend, and they will know who attended them.”

(Sidebar: like Chinese businessmen, for example? Aga Khan, maybe?)






The Indian government is bothered by the Liberals' love affair with Sikh extremists:

When Prime Minister Trudeau headed to the stage at the Sikh-Canadian community’s annual Khalsa Day celebration last month, he was thronged by a cheering, photo-seeking crowd.

It was little surprise, given the Liberal leader is not only a staunch supporter of multiculturalism but also has four MPs of Sikh origin in his cabinet.

Thousands of kilometres away in New Delhi, however, Trudeau’s appearance struck a decidedly more sour note.

The appearance was the latest irritation for an Indian government reportedly worried that the Liberals are too cozy with a peaceful but “growing” Sikh-separatist movement in Canada.

It came three weeks after the Ontario legislature passed a private-member’s motion — introduced by a Liberal MPP — that called the 1984 Sikh massacre in India an act of genocide, a politically explosive label. ...

The Sikh separatist cause had largely fallen quiet after years of turmoil that culminated in the bombing of an Air India flight from Canada in 1985, killing 329 people.

When trolling for votes, moral qualms only stand in the way of sweeping a voters block.





Yeah, Pope Francis will get to that, Justin:

Post-meeting stories followed the same script: “Trudeau asks Pope for apology.” The prime minister emerged to tell reporters that the Pope seemed open to an apology. “He reminded me that his entire life has been dedicated to supporting marginalized people in the world,” Trudeau said, though according to the Canadian Press, he “pointed out he could not compel the pontiff to agree.” The prime minister allowed that, on some issues, the Pope is already sufficiently enlightened to agree with him, like climate change. So not an entirely unpromising pupil. And the CBC quoted Trudeau as saying that, “I also had an opportunity to have a deeply personal and wide-ranging, thoughtful conversation with the leader of my own faith.”

It’s nice that a Catholic meeting with the Pope didn’t totally neglect that religion stuff. But I wonder whether Pope Francis raised abortion, same-sex marriage, or euthanasia — all vital issues where Trudeau blithely defies his church. Or even humility. If so, it apparently wasn’t newsworthy.

I keep saying this: get a map and check which country one lives in:

Ontario will have a law limiting protests outside abortion clinics this fall, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi promised Monday.

(Sidebar: This Yasir Naqvi.)

It's bad enough that Iqra Khalid soils her shorts every time someone points out how completely incompatible Islamism is with normal people but that every instance of an ostensibly free citizen exercising his or her rights must be controlled or otherwise stamped out is simply asking for civil disobedience.

And that is exactly what should happen.

People have to pay for this. They should have every g-d- right to speak out against it.


And:

Under Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, everyone has the freedom to hold beliefs that run contrary to those of the majority, and to express those views in peaceful assembly with other like-minded individuals. If we are to live in a truly pluralistic and tolerant society, the content of these beliefs (short of actual incitement of violence or hatred) shouldn’t be the target of the type of political and legal censorship that was on display in Ottawa.

The principle of state neutrality shouldn’t prohibit minority special interest groups from participating fully in public life. Watson and his colleagues would do well to remember this important constitutional principle as they reassess their city’s flag policy.

 Also - why I will never call these people "pro-choice":

A new undercover recording exposes abortion staff illegally telling an underage victim of incest not to contact authorities and directing her to Medicaid so she can get a late-term abortion at taxpayer expense.

North Korea appears to be progressing in its missile technology:

North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test involved a new rocket with a precision guidance system that landed within seven metres of its target, its state-controlled news agency said Tuesday.

Leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of the missile early Monday from the country’s east coast. Preparations before the firing were more automated than for the previous “Hwasong,” or Scud, rockets, the Korean Central News Agency said, adding that this “markedly” reduced the launching time.

The accuracy claims, if true, would represent a potentially significant advancement in North Korea’s missile program. KCNA said Kim called for the continued development of more powerful strategic weapons, though the report didn’t mention whether the missile could carry nuclear warheads.

  
The Australian government plan on introducing legislation that would ban child molesters from travelling overseas to commit their crimes:

Australia plans to ban convicted pedophiles from travelling overseas in what the government said Tuesday is a world-first move to protect vulnerable children in Southeast Asia from exploitation.

Australian pedophiles are notorious for taking inexpensive vacations to nearby Southeast Asian and Pacific island countries to abuse children there.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she would cancel the passports of around 20,000 pedophiles on the national child sex offender register under legislation that will be introduced to Parliament soon.

Poland hears you. Poland doesn't care:

It is one of the last significant tracts of the primeval woodlands that once carpeted northern Europe, but now swathes of Poland’s Bialowieza Forest are being systematically cut and cleared.

Backed by the Polish government and in defiance of repeated warnings by the European Commission, foresters have this year radically increased their operations, slicing down trees in areas that had remained free of human intervention for centuries.

Land once covered by a near-impenetrable canopy of trees and thick undergrowth, rich with flora and fauna, has been reduced to muddy fields of tree stumps.

After “a final warning” that the clear-cutting risks causing “serious irreparable damage” to one of Europe’s unique natural environments, the European Commission last month gave the Polish government 30 days to call a halt to the logging or face prosecution for breaching EU conservation regulations.

When one's art work says "pretentious @$$", one is just asking for an acerbic retort:

For a Friday

 

The last week-end of May ...

(sigh)




Just in time for Ramadan:

Masked militants riding in three SUVs opened fire Friday on a bus packed with Coptic Christians, including children, south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 28 people and wounding 22, the Interior Ministry said.

(Sidebar: in 2016, over three hundred people were killed in Islamist attacks.)


In retaliation, the Egyptians launched air strikes against camps in Libya where terrorists are believed to be hiding:

Egyptian air force planes on Friday carried out strikes directed at camps in Libya where Cairo believes militants responsible for a deadly attack on Christians earlier in the day were trained, Egyptian military sources said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he had ordered strikes against what he called terrorist camps, declaring in a televised address that states that sponsored terrorism would be punished.

The sources said six strikes took place near Derna in eastern Libya at around sundown, hours after masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in central Egypt, killing 28.

The Egyptian military said the operation was ongoing and had been undertaken once it had been ascertained that the camps had produced the gunmen behind the attack on the Coptic Christians in Minya, central Egypt, on Friday morning.

Al-Sisi finds himself in the position of putting the Islamist genie back in the bottle. Where Morsi was happy to let the Muslim Brotherhood run amok, Al-Sisi at least recognises the optics of children getting blown up and shot at.

If he truly wanted resolution, he would let Coptic women arm themselves.

 
Also - western Europe may be plagued by spineless, platitude-spewing horses'-@$$es but eastern Europe has the intestinal fortitude of a steel ox:  

Speaking in the Polish Parliament on Wednesday, Beata Szydło seized the moment to launch an excoriating attack on European Union leaders following the Manchester attack which, among others, claimed the lives of a Polish couple, leaving their two daughters as orphans.

“We are not going to take part in the madness of the Brussels elite,” she railed. “We want to help people, not the political elites.

“Where are you headed Europe?” she demanded. “Rise from your knees and from your lethargy or you will be crying over your children every day.

“If you can’t see this – if you can’t see that terrorism currently has the potential to hurt every country in Europe, and you think that Poland should not defend itself, you are going hand in hand with those who point this weapon against Europe, against all of us.

“It needs to be said clearly and directly: This is an attack on Europe, on our culture, on our traditions.”

If one put Angela Merkel and Beata Szydło in the Octagon Cage, Beata Szydło would walk out wearing a Merkel raincoat. She would then turn to Emmanuel Marcon and say: "Shine my shoes. NOW!"

He would comply because he is a wiener.


And:

Islamists don’t hate the West because of Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban.” And you can’t appease them with multiculturalism, transgender sensitivity or atheism. They hate the open society of the West for who we are, not what we do.

Salman Abedi has been linked to Abdu Albasset Egwilla:

The bomber who attacked a Manchester pop concert has been linked to an extremist imam from Ottawa whom Canadian intelligence officials had warned was “promoting violent jihad” in Libya.

Quoting a senior American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, The New York Times reported that Salman Abedi “had links to a radical preacher in Libya identified as Abdul Baset Ghwela.”

The report appeared to be referring to a Libyan-Canadian the Canadian government calls Abdu Albasset Egwilla. Formerly a cleric at an Ottawa mosque, Egwilla has been accused of inciting violence since returning to Libya.

“The RCMP is aware of the latest allegations,” Sgt. Harold Pfleiderer, an RCMP spokesman, said when asked about the alleged Canadian connection to the Briton said to be behind Monday’s terrorist attack, which killed 22.

He would not confirm the RCMP was investigating, saying it would be inappropriate to do so before charges were laid. Canada was collaborating with its international partners to “ensure the safety and security of Canadian interests and that of the broader global community,” he said.

(Sidebar: is that collaboration as successful as your wasteful boast on figuring out the bleeding obvious?)


This Abdu Albasset Egwilla:

A former Ottawa imam has issued a fiery call to arms to Libyans after his son, raised in the Canadian capital, was killed in clashes in Benghazi, where Islamist militias are battling elements of the Libyan military.

“Allah break the backs of the tyrants and the oppressors and the unjust and those nations of the world that are with them,” Abdu Albasset Egwilla said. “Allah they have gathered against us and are scheming against us, so scheme against them.

“Trick them, kill them.”

 
At least some people are decent:

Chris Parker came to Manchester Arena as an anonymous beggar, positioning himself near the crowd of exiting Ariana Grande fans in hopes that he might pocket some spare change.

He left the arena distraught after having witnessed the kind of carnage more typically seen in fields of combat.

Sometime in between, the 33-year-old homeless man became a hero, a symbol of hope in a stunned nation craving exactly that.

In turn, Parker and another homeless rescuer are being rewarded for their daring actions, though the devastation they encountered left them scarred.

Parker told the Press Association that life changed the moment he “heard a bang,” then “a white flash” followed by smoke and the sound of screaming.

“It knocked me to the floor and then I got up and instead of running away my gut instinct was to run back and try and help,” he told the wire service.

 
In 2015, Trudeau promised "modest deficits":

Canada posted a preliminary budgetary deficit of C$21.85 billion ($16.3 billion) for the 2016-17 fiscal year, largely in line with what the government had projected, the Finance Department said on Friday.  

As of now, the national debt stands at $629,572,079,450.28. Per person spending on the debt increased by $7,557 in a peace-time/non-global recession economy.

Trudeau did that.

From the same party that has no problem with money no matter where it comes from:

Leadnow acknowledges Sisu has contributed grants for its “other campaigns,” but chair Adam Shedletzky, says the election campaign was funded entirely from Canadian sources “with zero foreign dollars.” 

However, he acknowledges nearly 20 per cent of the organization’s funding comes from outside Canada and says a “privacy policy” prevents Leadnow from sharing a list of donors. 

The shadowy nature of this progressive collaboration is enhanced by a video featuring Kai Nagata, executive director of Dogwood Initiative — another recipient of Tides grant money — talking about a meeting between anti-Tory activist groups in Toronto to “divide up key swing ridings, so we’re not doubling up.” 

This looks like collusion between third-party groups to circumvent spending limits set out in the Canada Election Act. 

Or it would be, if the groups involved had spent anywhere close to the $439,410 third-party advertising limit in the extended 2015 campaign.

In the event, Dogwood spent just $80,790 on election advertising and Leadnow $137,545 — even though it raised $427,578 in contributions. 

It is nonsense for Leadnow to say the foreign money was ring-fenced. As Duff Conacher at Democracy Watch said, “any grant frees up other money, if it’s all in one pot.” ...

A far bigger threat to our democracy emerged from labour unions that united to spend millions to defeat Conservatives across the country. 

The top 10 third-party spenders in the last campaign were all labour groups, led by the United Steelworkers, which spent $431,640. In total, the top 10 spent $3.3 million on election advertising. 

The likelihood that Trudeau will close the loopholes that benefit him are pretty nil.


Also - this audacity is adorable and stems from some very public Sino-love:

Chang is making a plea for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make her family’s case a priority. If he accepts her request for a meeting next week when she visits Ottawa for a third time since her parent’s detainment, she will lay out the facts of their case and reiterate her belief that they should never have been arrested.

“This is a trade issue,” Chang plans to tell Trudeau. “Canada and China are trying to discuss a free-trade agreement. How can you let this happen to Canadian citizens abroad?”

Canadian consular officials in China have been visiting Chang’s parents every three months while a federal case worker has met with her mom just once since the arrest, she said.

But because her family has been helping support Canada’s tourism, agriculture and wine industries since 2002, Chang feels the Canadian government could be doing more to help them reunite.

She believes their case is precedent-setting and could have broad implications for any Canadians planning future business overseas.

“What’s the purpose of having a Canadian passport if you can’t even be protected?” she said.

Trudeau gave Indonesia $14 million:

Indonesian police have set up a new task force to investigate activities by gay men and women in the country's most populous province, amid outrage over the caning of two men.

Photobomb a caning, Justin.




Whatever you say, you contrary man-child:

Canada's deeply entrenched role in the fight against global extremism is more focused these days on intelligence-gathering — and sharing — than on putting more boots on the ground in the Middle East, Justin Trudeau suggested Thursday. ...

It was in this way that Trudeau brushed aside concerns that NATO's agreement to increase intelligence-sharing in the fight against terrorism comes amid accusations that President Donald Trump and others in the U.S. are playing fast and loose with sensitive secrets.

... says he who fled from child-raping ISIS at the first opportunity.




There are people who are truly soulless:

Dr. Uta Landy, the founder of the Consortium of Abortion Providers (CAPS), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA): An eyeball just fell down into my lap, and that is gross! [laughter from the crowd]

Watch the video while one can.




Unbelievable:

A federal judge has tossed out two life sentences for D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo and ordered Virginia courts to hold new sentencing hearings.

In a ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk said Malvo is entitled to new sentencing hearings after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional.

Malvo was 17 when he was arrested in 2002 for a series of shootings that killed 10 people and wounded three in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, causing widespread fear throughout the region.

His accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, was executed.

Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Morrogh, who helped prosecute Malvo, said the Virginia attorney general can appeal Jackson's ruling. If not, he said he would pursue another life sentence.

Perhaps the contempt was enough to sway undecided voters:

Republican businessman Greg Gianforte won Montana’s sole House district in a special election Thursday, keeping a seat in Republican hands despite facing assault charges for allegedly attacking a reporter who’d asked him about the GOP’s health-care bill.

The pro-Kim South Korean government to lessen sanctions put in place on North Korea after the sinking of the Cheonan:

After Moon Chung-in, President Moon Jae-in’s special advisor on unification, diplomacy and security, suggested that it would be “practically necessary to adjust” the May 24 measures seven years after the measures were first imposed, conservative criticism of unconditional concessions to North Korea appears to be making a comeback. 

“In order for the newly launched administration to take the initiative in inter-Korean relations, it needs to recognize the limitations of the May 24 measures and to resolve these in a forward-looking manner,” Moon said during a media interview on May 24, with the caveat that he was expressing his personal opinion. 

“Rather than cancelling them immediately, we need to be flexible about relaxing them as we watch for changes in North Korea’s attitude,” he added. 

The May 24 Measures are sanctions on North Korea that were independently imposed by the government of former president Lee Myung-bak (2008-13) in the aftermath of the sinking of South Korea‘s Cheonan warship on Mar. 26, 2010. The main provisions of the sanctions are to prohibit all South Korean visits to North Korea aside from the Kaesong Industrial Complex, forbid all North Korean ships from entering South Korean waters, halt inter-Korean trade and ban new investments in North Korea. 

The conservative opposition parties attacked Moon’s remarks. “Pumping dollars into North Korea by canceling the May 24 Measures and by resuming tours to Mt. Keumgang and operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex would be throwing aside our security even as the awful prospect of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles stare us in the face,” conservative Liberty Korea Party floor leader Jung Woo-taek said during a party meeting on May 24. 

Conservative Bareun Party floor leader Joo Ho-young made similar remarks during a gathering of Bareun Party members: “Many experts believe that North Korea was saved while on the brink of collapse after the ‘Arduous March’ by the unconditional aid provided by progressive governments under the name of the Sunshine Policy.” 

The Blue House has not taken an official stance on the May 24 Measures. 

“Not only are we currently focusing on sanctions, but the US-South Korean summit next month is right around the corner,” said a key official at the Blue House. “[Adjusting the May 24 measures] is an idea that could be suggested after North Korea shows its sincerity, and it’s not something that could happen right away.”

Oh, I'll bet.


Also:

Two skeletons have been uncovered under the base of the walls of Wolseong Palace, also known as Moon Castle, in Gyeongju in South Korea.

The skeletons date back 1,400 years to the 7th century. They were found lying side by side with one looking upwards, and the other having his head turned to the partner.

“Judging from the fact that there are no signs of resistance when they were buried, they must have been buried when they were unconscious or dead,” told Park Yoon-Jung, a senior researcher, to Phys.org.

Experts assume that the two people must have been buried as part of a ritual to please Gods who were believed would protect the construction from collapsing.

China warns the US to leave the South China Sea:

China’s government warned a U.S. warship to leave waters around a reef it claims in the South China Sea, saying the vessel was trespassing on its territory and undermining security in the region.

The U.S. warship entered waters adjacent to the Spratly islands, an area where China has “indisputable sovereignty,” defense ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said at a briefing in Beijing on Thursday. China “identified, tracked, verified and warned off the ship.”

The so-called freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea was the first under President Donald Trump. The guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey made the patrol on Wednesday near Mischief Reef, where China has built an artificial outpost equipped with an airfield, the Wall Street Journal reported.

China claims most of the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. In recent years it has increased its military presence in the waters by reclaiming thousands of acres of land to build artificial outposts on reefs.

 
Bees .... bees ... :

Wearing only a T-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers – and no gloves – Nathan Thompson reached up and gingerly pulled down the branch of a crepe myrtle tree as his father leaned in and clipped a branch holding a swarm of about 40,000 bees.

(source)

Mid-Week Post

 The flavour-filled centre of the work-week ...




But why are Trump's remarks about Kim Jong-Un controversial? They're true:

In a call last month with the Philippines' president, U.S. President Donald Trump described North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un as a "madman with nuclear weapons" who could not be let on the loose, according to a leaked Philippine transcript of their call.


Trump told Duterte in the April 29 call that the United States would "take care of North Korea," and had a lot of firepower in the region, although it did not want to use it, according to a transcript of their conversation published by the Washington Post and the investigative news site The Intercept.

The document included a "confidential" cover sheet from the Americas division of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

A senior U.S. official said the Trump administration did not dispute the accuracy of the transcript and declined to comment further.

Trump requested Duterte's help in impressing on China, North Korea's neighbor and only major ally, the need for it to help rein in Kim, the transcript showed.

"We can't let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that," Trump said. "We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20, but we don't want to use it."

 
Kim Jong-Un had senior officials and even his own relatives purged. His missile launches are becoming increasingly successful.

Is calling him a madman with nuclear weapons inaccurate? Really?




Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed five people in Mogadishu:

A bombing claimed by Islamist insurgents killed five civilians and injured six more in the Somali capital on Wednesday, a spokesman for the city's mayor said, underscoring the militants' ability to carry out attacks despite territorial losses.

Bombings are a near-daily occurrence in Mogadishu. Most are claimed by the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militia, which is fighting to overthrow the weak U.N.-backed government and drive out the African Union peacekeeping force that supports it. 

Perhaps the the peace-keeping force would be stronger if its members stopped raping girls.




Terrorists in the Philippines have seized hostages in Marawi, a city in the south:

Islamic State group-linked militants swept through a southern Philippine city, beheading a police chief, burning buildings, seizing a Catholic priest and his worshippers and raising the black flag of IS, authorities said Wednesday. President Rodrigo Duterte, who had declared martial law across the southern third of the nation, warned he may expand it nationwide.

At least 21 people have died in the fighting, officials said.

As details of the attack in Marawi city emerged, fears mounted that the largest Roman Catholic nation in Asia could be falling into a growing list of countries grappling with the spread of influence from the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

The violence erupted Tuesday after the army raided the hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group who has pledged allegiance to IS. He is on Washington's list of most-wanted terrorists with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

The militants called for reinforcements and around 100 gunmen entered Marawi, a mostly Muslim city of 200,000 people on the southern island of Mindanao, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

"We are in a state of emergency," Duterte said Wednesday after he cut short a trip to Moscow and flew back to Manila. "I have a serious problem in Mindanao and the ISIS footprints are everywhere."

He declared martial rule for 60 days in the entire Mindanao region — home to 22 million people — and vowed to be "harsh."

"If I think that you should die, you will die," he said. "If you fight us, you will die. If there is open defiance, you will die. And if it means many people dying, so be it."

(Sidebar: one cannot say that Duterte isn't persistent.)

It's time to burn the jungle.




How could this possibly go wrong?
 

Last March, CSIS director Michel Coulombe testified in front of a Senate committee that, at the time, there were 60 Canadians known to have returned home from going abroad to participate in terror activities.

These included paramilitary exercises, receiving jihadi training, providing logistical support for operations and more. Basically, they went to terrorist training camp. Then they came home. “Ticking time bomb” is the accurate phrase to describe this situation.

U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd recently confirmed that Abedi was known to authorities. For specifically what reasons, we’re not sure. The speculation is that it has to do with what he’d gotten up to during a recent visit to Libya.

Coulombe also said last year that there were an additional 180 Canadians who at that time were still abroad engaging in terror-related activities. A year ago. And how many of them have since come home?

These acts are serious Criminal Code violations. So if we’ve identified dozens of Canadians hot for jihad, why on Earth are we letting them move freely?

It can be difficult to build a proper case, terrorism expert and Carleton University Professor Alex Wilner pointed out on my radio show Wednesday morning. If the alleged terror offence took place in countries, such as Iraq and Syria, it’s tough to compile the evidence and get help from what exists of law enforcement in the regions.

Even when they return home to Canada, it takes dozens of officers to perform surveillance on one radical.

(Sidebar: problem right there.)

“We have to dedicate our limited resources to those that we think are the greatest threat,” CSIS deputy director of operations Jeff Yaworski told a committee back in 2014.

Despite all this, it’s clear Canada also just isn’t committed to going all in to charge these guys. RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson confirmed as much in remarks he gave to media last year.

“If we’re not getting the evidence, are we satisfying the safety issues by surveillance and other techniques while we collect the evidence or are there alternative ways of keeping communities safe by direct interventions with the individual or his family?” Paulson said last March. “In other cases, we’ve assessed that they’re back, they’re sorry, they’re working to try to get their heads straight and we’re relying on family members or other professionals.”

That’s right. If jihadists say they’re sorry and their moms promise to keep them on the straight and narrow, the RCMP opt not to charge them. It’s madness.

No one can accuse one of incompetence if one looks like one is working hard:

The brother of Salman Abedi, the suspect accused of carrying out a bombing in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people, allegedly said he knew his brother was going to carry out an attack, but did not know where or when, according to a spokesman for Libya’s counterterror forces.

** 

Police made arrests in Manchester and Tripoli on Wednesday as the investigation into a suicide bomber who killed 22 people at a concert venue packed with children focused on tracking down a network of accomplices who authorities fear could strike again.

Manchester police made four new arrests and searched an address in the city center. A source said British investigators were hunting for anyone who may have helped build the suicide bomb and who could be ready to kill again.

"I think it's very clear that this is a network that we are investigating," police chief Ian Hopkins said outside Manchester police headquarters.

(Sidebar: and you just discovered this? Of course you did.)

Please, British authorities, continue being cross with sharp-tongued columnists and embarrassing leaks:

U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd criticized U.S. officials for leaking details about Monday’s terrorist attack in Manchester, warning Britain’s ally that it should not happen again. ...

“The British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise, so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources,” Rudd told BBC Radio on Wednesday, when asked about U.S. leaks. “I have been very clear with our friends that that should not happen again.”

That, apparently, is more important than sweeping changes needed to safeguard one's country.



Also - Morrissey said this: 

 

People voted for this: 

Ontarians will be paying a net $21 billion over the next three decades to get short-term savings under the Liberal government's hydro plan, which is designed to make the province's bottom line look better, two watchdogs said Wednesday.

Both the financial accountability officer and the auditor general weighed in on the plan to lower hydro rates, which have roughly doubled over the last decade.

A report from the budget watchdog found that the government will spend $45 billion over the life of its hydro plan to save people $24 billion on their bills over the next approximately 30 years.

The $45 billion, however, is mostly the cost of funding an eight-per-cent rebate that took effect in January and assumes balanced budgets. If the government has to fund that rebate through debt, the cost could soar up to $93 billion, the report said.

Only in the mind of Liberals can this be an economic win.
 



And now,  puppies arguing with humans. Enjoy: