Mid-Week Post

 In the midst of the work-week ...



As North Korea may very well deliver a third nuclear payload to the Japanese, one might suggest that the rules of engagement have drastically changed since the end of the Second World War and that Japan must prepare for the worst:

As Nagasaki marked the 72nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Wednesday, Mayor Tomihisa Taue demanded that the Japanese government join a recently adopted treaty banning nuclear weapons.

I have been to Nagasaki. It is a lovely city, rich in history and steeped in as much historical momentum as it is tragedy. Japan can no longer afford to be horrified by the events that ended its involvement in the Second World War. Kim Jong-Un assuredly does not share their sorrow.




Yet another "red line":

Tuesday's bombshell Washington Post story that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has determined North Korea is capable of constructing miniaturized nuclear weapons that could be used as warheads for missiles – possibly ICBMs – left out a crucial fact: DIA actually concluded this in 2013.  The Post also failed to mention that the Obama administration tried to downplay and discredit this report at the time.

During an April 11, 2013, House Armed Services Committee hearing, Congressman Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., inadvertently revealed several unclassified sentences from a DIA report that said DIA had determined with “moderate confidence” that North Korea has the capability to make a nuclear weapon small enough to be launched with a ballistic missile.

The Director of National Intelligence and Obama officials subsequently tried to dismiss Lamborn’s disclosure by claiming the DIA assessment was an outlier that did not reflect the views of the rest of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

What an @$$hole.


Also:

North Korea is working on plans for a missile strike near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, calling President Donald Trump's warning of "fire and fury" a "load of nonsense" and that only "absolute force can work on him."

Laugh it up, lard-ball. If Trump calls your bluff, not even China can help you.




There is no win unless there is a regime change in North Korea:

On Tuesday, a Canadian delegation led by senior Canadian bureaucrat Daniel Jean went to North Korea to seek Lim’s release.

At the time of this writing, Lim had yet to set foot on Canadian soil, but by all accounts it seems this effort has succeeded.

A North Korean news agency announced Lim was being released on humanitarian grounds. He will be home soon.

This is good news for Pastor Lim and his family.

Not if Lim is still in prison.




But ... but ... voters blocks!

Canada has deployed soldiers to erect tents near the U.S. border to temporarily house hundreds of asylum seekers crossing from New York state, officials said on Wednesday, an influx of mostly Haitians prompted by fear of deportation by the U.S. government. 

 
(Sidebar: smoke and mirrors.)

Trudeau can't win for losing. He wants his voters blocks but no one else does. So what does he do? Pretend that this is an actual problem.

It's like some people might get the inkling that he is a moron.




A business advocacy group accuses the NDP about concealing the truth about carbon taxes:

The NDP government says the administrative costs associated with the province’s carbon tax are $2.1 million annually, but a business advocacy group is questioning why the figures were blanked out of documents it received from the province. 

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Wednesday it had made a freedom of information request to the government on the administration cost of the carbon levy, which was introduced at the start of 2017.

The 2016 documents released by the government in response were heavily redacted, with actual figures whited out in a memo that outlined the total operating cost of design, implementation and administration from 2017 to 2022, and the capital cost for the design and build of the IT system.

You know what you're doing, France:

French police shot and arrested a suspect in the ramming of six soldiers near Paris on Wednesday after a dramatic car chase. 

Le Parisien newspaper named the driver in the suspected terror incident as Hamou B, a 37-year-old from Sartrouville in the north western suburbs of Paris.

And that is why the OFF button on your TV is so powerful:

One of the creators of a Disney cartoon that promoted same-sex "marriage" to preschoolers has admitted that they specifically aim to promote political messages on the show.

If one cannot convince the adults, grooming children is the next best bet.

Disgusting.




Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Haru Nakajima:

Following a severe case of pneumonia, Nakajima passed away this Monday at the age of 88, bringing to an end an incredible life full of contributions to cinematic history. The third son in a family of five children, Nakajima knew he wouldn’t be able to take over his father’s butcher shop, and after a brief stint as a truck driver for the occupying Allied Forces in 1947, he enrolled in an acting program at the age of 18 in 1947.

Nakajima earned a bit part in Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece The Seven Samurai, but his big break came in 1954, when he was tapped to wear the 100-kilogram (220-pound) suit of the titular Godzilla in the 1954 film from distributor Toho that launched the franchise. The actor would go on to play Godzilla for the next 18 years, culminating in 1972’s Godzilla vs. Gigan, his final time to fill the role.