Mid-Week Post

One hopes one's Christmas Day was most enjoyable ...



Just in - an explosion at a Christmas market in Saint Petersburg:

A homemade bomb blast at a supermarket in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg injured 10 people Wednesday, officials said.

"According to preliminary information, an explosion of an unidentified object occurred in a store," Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. 

The blast was caused by a "homemade explosive device with the power equivalent to 200 grammes of TNT filled with lethal fragments," she said.

"The investigation is looking at all possible causes of what happened," she said, adding that a probe for attempted murder had been launched.

"Ten people have been hospitalised, their lives are not in danger," said the head of Saint Petersburg investigative unit Alexander Klaus, Interfax news agency reported.

An AFP correspondent at the scene observed first responders and police as well as a car belonging the Federal Security Service (FSB), which investigates acts of terror.

Police said the blast occurred in a supermarket northeast of the city centre, with sources telling Russian agencies that the explosive device had been placed in a storage locker.

"About 6:30pm there was the sound of a blast. As a result, several people have been injured," the Saint Petersburg police said, giving the incident's location.

"There is no fire. All shoppers have been evacuated," an emergencies ministry representative told Interfax.

Witness Artur Yeritsyan told TASS news agency that he heard the blast and saw smoke in the shop, but that there were not a lot of customers at the time, with some victims being taken away by ambulances.

Russia's second city Saint Petersburg was the target of a metro bombing in April, which lead to fourteen deaths and dozens of people wounded.

The bombing was claimed by a group linked to Al-Qaeda which said it was a message to countries engaged in war with Muslims.

 More to come.



Also in Russia:

Aleksei A. Navalny, a Russian anticorruption activist, would have no real chance of defeating President Vladimir V. Putin in an election. The authorities have cast him as an utterly irrelevant showboat.

But on Monday the Kremlin barred him from running for president in March. Then on Tuesday, threatening legal action, it warned him against organizing a boycott of the election.

In one surreal turn after another, the Russian authorities have dismissed Mr. Navalny, a charismatic and canny street politician, as a nonentity — and then have done everything in their power to make sure that is the case.

The boycott warning came from Mr. Putin’s spokesman, and was issued the same day the president, who has been in power for almost 18 years, was formally nominated to seek a fourth term.

**

President Trump’s long-delayed decision to provide Ukraine with defensive lethal weapons signaled a new willingness to oppose Russian intervention in its neighbor, but has made European allies nervous that a recent hike in fighting could escalate.

**

 President Vladimir Putin is using the threat of additional U.S. sanctions to encourage wealthy Russians to repatriate some of their overseas assets, which exceed $1 trillion USD by one estimate.

Putin told lawmakers late Monday that a new capital amnesty program was needed “given the foreign restrictions, which instead of lessening are now worsening,” according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin’s website. This “should stimulate the return of capital to Russia,” the president said, without specifying how long the measure will last.

“People should feel comfortable and secure and it shouldn’t involve additional expenses,” Putin said Tuesday at a Cabinet meeting where he ordered officials to finalize the plan.

In Russia, one calls that ОТЧАЯНИЕ.




Canadians, no doubt horrified that child rapists could be driving their snowflakes' school buses, differ from Hair-Boy's government's position and demand prosecution and rehabilitation for the larger than sixty number of returned ISIS terrorists:

Nearly two-thirds of Canadians say the government should prosecute and lay criminal charges against individuals suspected of being involved with jihadi groups overseas, instead of focusing on rehabilitating them when they return to Canada, according to a new survey.

A Nanos poll found that 62 per cent of respondents support prosecution of Canadians suspected of jihadi involvement abroad, as opposed to 28 per cent who say the government should prioritize rehabilitation and deradicalization; 10 per cent said they were unsure.

The survey raises questions about the Trudeau government's multifaceted approach to dealing with returning suspected jihadis, which includes enforcement, surveillance and deprogramming individuals.

"I think the message for the Prime Minister should be that, yes, deprogramming should be a priority but that we should not lose sight of the security interests of Canadians, and Canadians wanting to make sure that if someone is suspected of being involved with jihadi groups, that this is primarily a legal matter first and then a rehabilitation matter second," pollster Nik Nanos said.

The poll, commissioned by The Globe and Mail, asked 1,000 respondents how the government should deal with Canadians when they return from overseas and are suspected of being involved with jihadi groups, such as the Islamic State: "Should the government prioritize prosecution and criminal charges against them or focus on rehabilitating and deradicalizing them?"

Lorne Dawson, director of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society, an independent research organization, took issue with the survey question itself.

"The question suggests 'either or,' when in fact I would say it's both, meaning we should prosecute whenever we can but have to realistically recognize we're not going to be able to prosecute a lot of the time. So if you can't prosecute, wouldn't you like to have some kind of rehabilitation or deradicalization option available?" he said.

(Sidebar: this Lorne Dawson.  His tattered reputation is on the line.)

How does one go about rehabilitating this?

A baby was fed to its own unwitting mother by Isis, who also raped a ten-year-old girl to death in front of her own family, an Iraqi MP has claimed. 

Also - this criminal who committed a crime in the US and was tried fairly there can "reform" himself where he is:

The federal government says a Canadian who has been on death row in the United States for more than three decades should be granted clemency because he has "reformed his life" and received poor legal counsel when he was convicted.

Ronald Smith, 60, and originally from Red Deer, Alta., has been on death row since 1983 after fatally shooting two young men while he was high on LSD and alcohol near East Glacier, Mont.

He refused a plea deal and pleaded guilty. His request for the death penalty was granted.

He has all the filling of a puppet and just as much sway over his backers:

The prime minister doesn’t have business meetings. He has relationship sessions.

That’s the view Justin Trudeau outlined to the ethics commissioner during her probe of Trudeau’s family vacations to the Aga Khan’s private island, which ended with Mary Dawson finding the prime minister violated four parts of the conflict of interest act.

But her report also offers a glimpse into how Trudeau views the job as prime minister and how that shapes the inner workings of his government.

Some prime ministers view themselves as a CEO who set ideas and are the face of the government, leaving the heavy lifting to their ministers or senior civil servants. Others consider themselves the CEO types who are more involved in the day-to-day operations.

Experts say Dawson’s report points to the former model for Trudeau.

Then that would mean Trudeau knew damn well what he was doing and is entirely responsible for his fraud.


This Trudeau:

Trudeau was never terribly qualified to be prime minister. Before his quick political rise, he was known simply as the wealthy, dilettantish son of a popular ex-prime minister who had trouble choosing a career. First elected to Parliament in 2008, he was abruptly made Liberal boss in 2013 in what was dubbed a “personality cult” gimmick by a party whose popularity had slumped to record lows.

Trudeau’s initial steps on the national stage were defined by George W. Bush-style gaffes, such as expressing envy for the efficiency of China’s “basic dictatorship.” During his inauguration, it was revealed he didn’t know how to pronounce the word “heir.” To this day, he still stumbles when forced to express opinions outside his talking-point comfort zone (watch, for example, his painful attempt to articulate thoughts on North Korea). Carefully staged photo ops, such as Trudeau’s supposed “off-the-cuff” description of quantum computing, can be seen as a deliberate effort to reassure voters that their leader actually has something under that carefully coiffed hair.

His handlers cannot walk back on Trudeau's alleged innocence in the Aga Khan affair and claim that he is a serious broker after it has been established by Hair-Boy himself that he was just long overdue for a visit with his favourite uncle.




It would probably help if cities with a leftist bent got a clue and stopped handing out drugs, hospitalised the truly mentally ill and allowed tent cities to form in the first place:

Just outside the city centre, this semi-industrial neighbourhood — home to strip malls, a bottle recycling depot and a branch of the Royal Canadian Legion — has long had a homeless presence. But over the past year, the camp along 135A Street has more than doubled in size to about 90 tents and 130 occupants, according to police. Two 40-bed shelters on the street are at capacity.

Like Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, The Strip has become a potent symbol of the province’s growing housing inequality, opioid addiction crisis and lack of mental health resources.

Also - welfare isn't charity. It is money the government takes from the taxpayer and hands out to people it thinks will keep them in power year after year. Welfare creates dependency and reduces people's ability to cope in the real world. That, coupled with cultural and moral relativism, create a culture that believes helping is someone else's responsibility. No one can expect anyone to save the world but one can do what one can. Not here, however:

Boxing Day is losing its meaning in Canada.

Traditionally, the idea was that on the day after Christmas the well-to-do would give gifts to those of less fortunate means; a day of charity.

But charity is less important to Canadians today.

The Fraser Institute recently said, “the percentage of Ontario tax-filers reporting charitable donations fell by 19.4% from 2005 to 2015 — the largest decline of any province.”

Volunteerism is down across Canada as well.

The Calgary Sun quoted Abe Brown, executive director of Inn from the Cold, which assists homeless children and families.

“A tougher economy means people have less to share. Corporate donations in particular have struggled,” he said. 

“It makes sense because when you’re laying off 50 people, it’s pretty tough to write a charity a cheque for $50,000. Companies have had to make tough decisions about how they keep their businesses running and, unfortunately, part of that means that charities can often be left behind.”

Ontario’s Liberal government has instituted policies putting companies in exactly the position Brown laments.

A recent study by Angus Reid with the Charitable Impact Foundation noted, “previous research has indicated that while they are unable to give as much in a raw dollar amount, lower-income individuals are often more generous with their money – in terms of the percentage they donate – than wealthier people.”

That speaks well of low-income people, who are closer to the problems of those in need.

But conceivably, those paying the highest share of tax feel they are already giving huge amounts of money to the government, which promises to fix social ills.

So the government has taken over responsibility for the care of the poor. Or at least it says it has.

Why not train more professionals in Canada and make the transition of said-professionals from different provinces or territories easier? Then one could concern one's self with an experienced foreign professional willing to be Canadian.


Oh, but that would just make sense:

If you’ve spent any time in taxis, you’ve probably met the proverbial over-educated but underemployed immigrant: the lawyer or doctor toiling away as a cab driver because he’s been unable to qualify as a professional here. Canada admits these immigrants into the country—in large part on the strength of their credentials. To what extent does it then owe them help in landing professional jobs when they arrive?

(Sidebar: yes, about that ...)

For fairly obvious reasons, the government can’t guarantee educated immigrants jobs in their occupation of training; it can’t even offer this to Canadians educated here. But surely it does owe them a level playing field—that is, a process for becoming licensed and employed that’s roughly comparable to the one Canadian-educated professionals face. Foreigners shouldn’t be penalized because their credentials are foreign.

If a domestically trained Canadian could not get a job because his degree and references were obtained in the next province over, why should it be easier for anyone else?




What is so amusing is that he still gets people bent out of shape:

On the Shepherd incident being an anomaly
“No, no… that is precisely the state of the universities which is exactly why this got so much attention.”

On whether Shepherd’s professors were victims, too
“They could easily make the claim that we had to go down this route because that’s what the legislation demands and the policies that the university put into place demands.”

No more Mr. Nice Guy:

The United States government has claimed to have negotiated a significant cut to the United Nations budget.

The US Mission to the UN said the 2018/19 budget would be slashed by over $285m (£213m) and reductions would also be made to the UN’s management and support functions.

Just withdraw already.


Also:

President Jimmy Morales’ top diplomat defended his decision to move Guatemala’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, rejecting on Tuesday international and domestic criticism after he followed Washington’s lead in announcing a switch.

Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel said the change amounts to “a foreign policy decision, therefore sovereign,” and there is no intention to reverse it.

“What we are doing is being coherent with our foreign policy and the ally we have been for Israel,” she said.

 
This Israel:

Hatred of Israel, and Jew-hatred, run so deep at the UN that the real news was that 65 countries opposed (9), abstained (35), or skipped the vote (21), after the U.S. said it would remember how nations cast their ballots.

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the UN, tweeted her thanks to all 65, including Canada, which abstained, noting: “We appreciate these countries for not falling to the irresponsible ways of the @UN.”

Canada’s UN ambassador, Marc-André Blanchard, will attend a reception hosted by Haley Jan. 3, thanking these countries for their “friendship” with the U.S.

Canada’s abstention was the best supporters of Israel could have expected given Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s lobbying for a two-year seat on the UN Security Council, with that vote taking place in 2020.

In the modern era, Conservative PMs have been far more supportive of Israel than Liberal ones, especially Stephen Harper, and Brian Mulroney.

Same goes for Republican presidents, including Trump, George H. W. Bush, who successfully campaigned in 1991 to revoke the UN’s loathsome 1975, Soviet-backed resolution equating Zionism with racism, and Richard Nixon, who provided Israel with military supplies at a crucial moment in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war that turned the tide in Israel’s favour.

The UN, ironically, was instrumental in creating Israel in 1948.

But ever since it has treated the Jewish state with open contempt, driven largely by the 22-nation Arab League and the 57 member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

With ill and anthrax-vaccinated soldiers defecting like crazy, Kim Jong-Un has no choice but to rely on family:

The younger sister of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, appears to have cemented her position at the heart of his inner circle after making a rare public appearance next to top officials at a Worker’s Party congress. 

A photo which appeared in the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed Kim Yo-jong, believed to be 28-30, in the front row of an all-male line-up of senior party officials, clapping as her brother addressed the room. 

Ms. Kim is seen next to Choe Ryong-hae, her brother’s right-hand man and party vice-chairman, and Kim Pyong-hae and O Su-yong, the Worker’s Party secretaries, reported the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. In a country known for its staged optics, the seating arrangement suggested her quiet promotion and the growing importance of her role in navigating the hermit kingdom through an international crisis.

And China:

China’s foreign ministry has defended its enforcement of U.N. sanctions against North Korea following reports Chinese ships improperly transferred oil to North Korean vessels at sea.

A ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said Wednesday she had no information about the latest report. But she said China has “completely and strictly” enforced trade restrictions aimed at discouraging North Korea from developing nuclear and missile technology.

(Sidebar: except for the oil tankers.)
 

This China:

The death toll from the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre was at least 10,000 people, killed by a Chinese army unit whose troops were likened to “primitives”, a secret British diplomatic cable alleged.

The newly declassified document, written little more than 24 hours after the massacre, gives a much higher death toll than the most commonly used estimates which only go up to about 3,000.

It also provides horrific detail of the massacre, alleging that wounded female students were bayoneted as they begged for their lives, human remains were “hosed down the drains”, and a mother was shot as she tried to go to the aid of her injured three-year-old daughter.

And now, a baby sea turtle on a tread mill. Enjoy: