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Never send a trustifarian who openly admires China (as his father did) to do an economist's job:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau departed China on Thursday without securing the start of free trade talks with the world’s second-largest economy, but said Canadians need to lower their expectations about just how quick that will happen.

I'm sure Justin meant to say just lower one's expectations, period.

To wit: Justin is a moron, China is a corrupt dealer, China needs our resources but nothing else, if NAFTA is dissolved, Justin has nothing and whether or not Justin can live with the adulation he doesn't deserve (more on that later), he can at least pretend he did a full day's work.


About that adulation:

Justin Trudeau's rocky trip to China has spilled onto the pages of the country's nationalist state press, which lashed out at Canadian media for their "superiority and narcissism," and warned that China is in no rush to step closer to Canada.

As the Canadian prime minister left Beijing Tuesday night without an expected agreement to formally launch free-trade talks, the Communist Party-run Global Times published a sharp-tongued editorial directed at Canada, and in particular the Canadian press.

It pilloried The Globe and Mail as "irritating" for a Monday Globe editorial that called China an "absolute dictatorship" and said Ottawa should "be in no hurry to conclude" deliberations on whether to move forward with trade talks.

"The superiority and narcissism of the Canadian media … is beyond words," the Global Times wrote. It added that China "is also not in a rush to develop its relations with Canada. Let it be. This is the most genuine attitude of Chinese society."

Wow.

Where does one even start with this?

Could one start with that emotionally retarded ponce who needs constant attention from his water-carriers in the popular press and elsewhere or does one begin with a stony-faced communist who believed that portraits of him would instill in the hearts of "backward" Christians love for him and the totalitarian regime that will eventually arrest and kill them?

Narcissism, cult-of-personality, a state-controlled press and its consort, censorship, make for an absolutist's best friends (SEE: Canada, China).


(Merci)




Moving  on ...




While Trump acknowledged Jerusalem as Israel's historical capital and plans on moving the American embassy there (a predictably contentious move given the short tempers of the inbred), Trudeau does the pouty, Jew-phobic, pandering thing and keeps the Canadian embassy where it is:

(Sidebar: it should be noted that Joe Clark thought of moving the Canadian embassy to Jerusalem as he also pressed ahead with Canadian efforts to save American consular workers from certain death in Iran, much to Pierre Trudeau's contrarian dismay.)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it clear Thursday that Canada's embassy in Israel would remain in Tel Aviv, in a split with its neighbor and ally, the United States.

"We will not be moving Canada's embassy from Tel Aviv," Trudeau said during a visit to Guangzhou, China, broadcast nationally in Canada.

Way to save some Islamist votes, Justin! 

After all, this is no longer the era of Israel-friendly Stephen Harper. Canada, as Stephane Dion pointed out, is not Israel's "special friend" any more:

And Justin isn't alone in fearing the spread of Jewish cooties:

Federal New Democrats want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to state publicly that the White House's new approach to the Middle East is counterproductive and "dangerous." ...

Still, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday that the prime minister should be telling Trump that his decision will not move the needle towards peace.

"It's something that needs to be pointed out as being divisive," Singh said.

(Sidebar: ... says the guy who has zero problem glorifying terrorists.)

That's some mighty anti-semitic indignation from a minor party, NDP.


Jerusalem is Israel's historical capital:

It is a remarkable blessing that almost every year I am able to visit Jerusalem, the world’s spiritual capital and the mother church of all Christians. Usually I am accompanying pilgrims to the holy places where Christians mark the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Do I feel that I am visiting the capital of Israel when I am there? My thoughts about Jerusalem are primarily biblical rather than in terms of the nation-state. Consequently, I think about Jerusalem as the national and spiritual home of the Jewish people, toward which biblical history has looked since Abraham. It was there that King David ruled over the united kingdom three millennia ago, and that King Solomon built the temple, the house of prayer for all peoples.

Should Jerusalem be recognized as the capital of the modern state of Israel, as President Donald Trump did today? I believe that there should be a modern state of Israel. I believe that it should be in Zion, in the biblical Land of Israel, with proper recognition of other peoples who live there. I believe that its capital is obviously Jerusalem. That is what Israel declares its capital to be, and generally we recognize the capitals that nation-states choose for themselves.

The Palestinians would be angered no matter what Trump said or did. When was the last time they worked out an independent peace plan and stuck to it?

Oh, yeah ...


Furthermore, Trump probably does not know or cares who is in the NDP, let alone what they think.


Canada, like many in Europe, is at a good place for its moral cowardice, partisan kow-towing and utter childishness against Israel.




Instead of banking up sick days, teachers are just taking more of them:

Ontario teachers and other school board employees have been taking more sick days since they stopped being able to bank that time, the province's auditor reported Wednesday.

In her annual report, Bonnie Lysyk said a study of more than 50 school boards found that in the last five years, sick days increased by about 30 per cent — from nine days in the 2011-2012 school year to 11.6 in 2015-2016.

The beginning of that five-year period is when the province stopped letting teachers bank sick days. Before that, teachers were allowed 20 paid sick days a year and could carry them forward, getting paid out upon retirement for up to 200 unused days.

Now, all school board employees get 11 fully paid days, plus 120 days paid at 90 per cent, Lysyk said. Several trustee associations told the auditor that 90 per cent pay is not a penalty.

 

You know what you're doing, Ontario:

Auditors found an inch of dust on Ontario’s plan of action in case of major emergencies like terrorism or a natural disaster.

The Provincial Emergency Response Plan and the Provincial Nuclear Response Plan have not been updated in almost a decade.

“Growing research about the impact of climate change has focused attention on the increasing likelihood of more frequent and extreme natural hazards,” the annual report of the auditor’s office says, in explaining why this issue should be an important priority. “In addition, there are growing threats from terrorism and an increased dependency on technology which is vulnerable to cyber attacks.”

A committee of Ontario politicians responsible for overseeing the province’s response to major emergencies didn’t meet for years, and “significant” budget cuts and high leadership turnover undermined overall emergency planning, auditors revealed.

Stop asking for politicians to do anything. Unless it's wasting time or money, they can't or won't do anything constructive.



Remember those "big fish" Morneau was worried about?

There is a common and mistaken impression in Canada that the country’s top earners are getting away with paying relatively little tax. This misperception has been fuelled by governments, especially the current federal government, which has invoked “tax fairness” to justify recent tax changes such as the creation of a new and higher top personal income tax rate of 33 percent—an increase from the previous top federal rate of 29 percent.

The fact is that Canada’s top income-earners pay a disproportionate—and growing—share of all taxes collected by government.

That's not all:

In a 2017 study, we compared the manufacturing-sector share of real GDP across Canadian jurisdictions and the U.S. between 2005 and 2016. While the share of Ontario’s manufacturing sector in national GDP dropped 5.1 percentage points, the same metric in the U.S. fell less than 1 percentage point. In fact, many jurisdictions in the American Northeast that are Ontario’s main competitors boosted their manufacturing sector as a fraction of GDP—Indiana by 1.5 percentage points, Michigan and Kentucky by almost 1 percentage point.

Ontario is also falling behind other jurisdictions for the manufacturing sector’s share of employment, which fell by 6 percentage points—from 16.7 per cent to 10.7 per cent between 2005 and 2015—compared to more modest drops in Quebec (4.7 percentage points), Alberta (1.3 percentage points) and British Columbia (1.8 percentage points). Moreover, Ontario’s dramatic decline also dwarfed the national decline in the U.S. (1.7 percentage points), and more specifically, declines among Ontario’s main American competitors Kentucky (1.4 percentage points), Michigan (1.6 percentage points) and Maryland (1.2 percentage points).

But wait! Things get better!

It is estimated that, across the 10 provinces, the total number of procedures for which people are waiting in 2017 is 1,040,791. This means that, assuming that each person waits for only one procedure, 2.9% of Canadians are waiting for treatment in 2017. The proportion of the population waiting for treatment varies from a low of 1.7% in Quebec to a high of 5.7% in Nova Scotia. It is important to note that physicians report that only about 11.5% of their patients are on a waiting list because they requested a delay or postponement.

Patients also experience significant waiting times for various diagnostic technologies across the provinces. This year, Canadians could expect to wait 4.1 weeks for a computed tomography (CT) scan, 10.8 weeks for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, and 3.9 weeks for an ultrasound.

How could any of this go wrong?




What are good are sanctions against North Korea if they are ignored outright?

A total of 49 countries including China, Germany, Brazil, India, and France have violated United Nations Security Council between March 2014 and September 2017 “to varying degrees,” the Institute for Science and International Security said in its report published on its website Tuesday.

North Korea “often cooperates with or otherwise exploits countries with weak or nonexistent export and proliferation financing controls,” the report claimed. It added that countries with “high levels of corruption” are targeted. The document pointed out that 13 countries on the list, including Cuba, Iran, Myanmar and Syria, have engaged in some form of military exchange with the rogue nation.

“In some cases, these mostly undemocratic regimes received military training from North Korea; in others, they received or exported military related equipment to or from North Korea,” the report said.

All but five countries on the list have either supported North Korean front companies, also known as shell corporations, or import of sanctioned items. These firms which are often established by the North in offshore jurisdictions, are formed to evade UN sanctions and launder proceeds for its weapons program.

Twenty nations have been accused of disguising the national registration of North Korean ships, which is called an act of “re-flagging.” This enabled the shipments to and from the isolated regime to reach their destinations.

The report comes amid the international community’s widening support for the North Korean sanctions and China’s shift in stance towards its implementation.

Is anyone still convinced that the UN and China are the keys to ending the Kim's nuclear ambitions?


Also:

“People may ask why we do not engage with North Korea. We have been engaging with North Korea for more than 20 years,” a Japanese government official told Yahoo News at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. “Our sincere will for dialogue with North Korea was betrayed, simply put.”

This is why Japan should nuclearise or specialise in gigantic robots.



And now, let us ponder the true meaning of Christmas for all of God's creatures: