Mid-Week Post

 

Your middle-of-the-work-week moment of joy ...




A token gesture doesn't mean that Kim is going to surrender his nukes:

President Trump announced on Wednesday that three Americans who were being held by North Korea have been released.

“I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting,” Trump tweeted early Wednesday. “They seem to be in good health.”

Pompeo flew to Pyongyang on Tuesday to meet with Kim Jong Un ahead of Trump’s planned summit with the North Korean leader. Trump described it as a “good meeting” and said a date and time for his summit with Kim has been set.

Trump added: “Secretary Pompeo and his ‘guests’ will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 A.M. in the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!”

Those “guests” are Korean-American businessman and missionary Kim Dong-chul, who was arrested in 2015 for alleged espionage, and teachers Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, and Kim Hak-song. No other Americans are believed to be in jail in North Korea.

This only means that Kim, pressured by heavier sanctions, must give more to get more.



I'm sure the poverty activists will be all over this:

With the Trudeau-imposed carbon tax escalating year after year, everything is only going to get more expensive.

That’s why Canadians are starting to see that the carbon tax is a fraud which will do nothing to impact global emissions, while ripping more and more money out of our pockets. People are demanding that costs go down, instead of being hit with new taxes.

So, the Conservatives introduced a motion calling on the Trudeau Liberals to stop raising taxes on gas, groceries, home heating, and everything else, and stop the imposition of the carbon tax.

But as you can see in the video below, the Trudeau Liberals decided to vote against the motion ...

Carbon taxes (which are unnecessary because carbon is not a pollutant, which do not prevent or limit pollution or tackle pressing environmental problems, which raise the costs of everyday items because production and delivery costs need to be compensated for and which no major First World nation really wants) are set to go as high as $383 per household in the province of Ontario alone. So why would the majority party vote against alleviating costs?

Because India trips don't pay for themselves, that's why.



Incompetent leadership and a major world resource still stuck in the ground are only a couple of really solid reasons why Canada is un-competitive economically:

Canada has a business competitiveness problem.

We have low productivity and innovation rates, leading to suppressed worker incomes relative to the United States. We have a low private investment rate, resulting in less creation and adoption of technologies.

Now, with new tax and regulatory reforms rolling out in the U.S., 2018 confronts Canada with a new competitiveness challenge. Money will flow south when investors feel Canada is no longer comparatively hospitable to investment. ...

It is often claimed by the left — and is unfortunately publicly repeated by the Minister of Finance — that Canada’s reforms to our business taxes had no effect on investment. Not only does this undermine most credible international scholarly studies (including an excellent paper published by Finance Canada). It also goes against experience.

Our business tax reforms created an important competitiveness advantage for Canada. We offered a much lower tax on capital compared to the United States. It also helped offset our three biggest natural disadvantages: a small market, widely dispersed across vast geography, in a cold climate. Low capital taxes made up for the extra burdens of energy and labour required to move goods and services.

All that has changed. Canada no longer has a capital tax advantage, now that the U.S. has slashed its rate as part of its sweeping reform package. The U.S. average federal-state corporate tax rate is now one point below Canada’s (26 versus 27 per cent), but some important competing states like Ohio, Texas and Washington don’t even have a corporate income tax at the state level. Texas now has a corporate tax rate advantage over Alberta of six points.

Meanwhile, companies that would have looked to Canada first to locate their marketing and intellectual property assets over the last two decades will now turn to the U.S. instead, with an American corporate tax rate of 18 per cent on such “intangible” income, one-third less than Canada’s corporate tax rate.

The Canadian tax burden weighs 10-per-cent heavier on new investments than it does in the U.S., at 21 per cent here versus 18.9 per cent there. With higher energy and labour taxes, Canada now offers a distinct tax disadvantage for businesses to compete here.

But it's just money.



Semi-automatic guns and ammunition for them are already illegal in Canada.

One would think that the prime minister would know that and comment on that instead of passing the buck onto the RCMP:

Police, not politicians, should decide what restrictions to place on specific kinds of guns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday, his Liberal government under renewed pressure to curb access to semi-automatic rifles.

(Sidebar: ... says the pansy dictator.)

Moron.



No, he's a third-rate actor - at best:

Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu says that while she supports Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to apologize for Canada turning away Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust in 1939, the number of apologies he’s delivered makes people question his sincerity. ...

(Sidebar: because election in 2019, not because Canada is Israel's "special-friend" and who could forget his dad's flirtation with Nazism?)

Gladu says apologies should not be monthly occurrences, adding that it’s becoming a “show.”

The Ontario MP says she’s heard from constituents who have suggested the prime minister Trudeau is not sincere.

And how.

Anyone who shows for selfies and wears ridiculous socks can be regarded as un-serious at best. With the stream of political apologies he spews out with insincere mannerisms, it's a wonder if even Justin takes himself seriously.


Also:

One year after Harper’s apology, Pope Benedict XVI issued an expression of sorrow for the role the Roman Catholic Church in Canada had in the residential schools system after having met Canadian First Nations leader Phil Fontaine. Other denominations have apologized and expressed regrets. But years later, some of our politicians are still singling out the Pope with particular demands. Why him? Why Catholics?

Horrible crimes were committed against vulnerable children. No one denies this. In fact, it’s the opposite: the crimes have been acknowledged and apologized for. It is time for some of Canada’s politicians to focus on true reconciliation and healing instead of using tragedy for political posturing. There is little true virtue to be found in their behaviour and even less honour.

If there is anything Justin is incredibly adept at it's being a narcissistic fascist:

Andrew Bennett, who until 2015 was Canada’s only envoy devoted exclusively to religious freedom abroad, used the label repeatedly in an interview ahead of his launch today of a new religious freedom think-tank that he will be leading to stimulate public discussion on the role of faith in public life.

Bennett is kicking off that discussion with an attack on the Liberal government’s change to the Canada Summer Jobs program that requires organizations seeking funding to tick a box that attests to their respect for sexual and reproductive rights, including abortion, and other human rights.

The government says it is not targeting beliefs or values but churches and other faith-based organizations say they are being forced to choose between staying true to their values and seeking grants to help them run programs — from summer camps to soup kitchens — that have nothing to do with abortion.

Bennett said the attestation compels people with no particularly strong religious views — the owner of a small construction company who just wants to hire a few seasonal workers, for instance — to take a moral stand on a divisive issue in order to apply for public funds.

“Whether you’re a person of religious views or a person who just doesn’t want to have an opinion, the government through this action is compelling belief,” Bennett told The Canadian Press.

“That has a certain totalitarian feel to it.”

To wit:

“Justin was much too vitriolic and attacked him,” one Liberal MP, referring to Mr. Harvey, told The Hill Times, who spoke on condition of anonymity since the closed-door caucus meetings are confidential. “We’re also supposed to have the right to voice our opinion.”

**

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says anti-abortion MPs already sitting in his caucus can run as candidates, but will still be expected to vote along pro-choice lines on any legislation regarding abortion.

**

According to a government database of grant recipients, the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) has been approved to receive ten grants to fund activities for its various chapters across Ontario. MAC’s Mississauga chapter is listed as receiving three separate grants. 

In 2015, QMI news agency obtained an RCMP search warrant that linked MAC headquarters in Mississauga to the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy-Canada (IRFAN-Canada) – a banned terrorist organization with financial ties to Hamas.  ...

The Canada Summer Jobs Grant became controversial this year when the Trudeau government made pledge to uphold abortion rights and LGBT rights in order to qualify for federal funding.

Well, Just does admire China's "basic dictatorship" and is willing to ignore abuses against homosexuals in Uganda, so ...




Tanya Granic Allen should probably hand Kathleen Wynne a rag for she is done with that province-ruining cow:

The accusation by the Liberals and the press that I am somehow against the dignity and human rights of LGBT+ people — or to use the popular term, “homophobic” — is a lie. Furthermore, it is a slur against the Catholic faith and, indeed, against people of all faiths who hold their religious values dear, but who are also responsible citizens of a free and democratic and tolerant Canada. ...

At the time, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek blog in an attempt to expose their discrimination against freedom of religion. Even though I take issue with the niqab and the burka, I also support freedom of expression and freedom of religion. If a woman in Canada, of her own free will, wants to wear such garments, then it is her right to do so. Of course, my concerns with the burka and niqab, despite my overall defence of religious liberty, were twisted by the Liberals and the Toronto Star into an accusation that I was “Islamophobic.”

In 2016, I took over as head of a parental rights group called Parents As First Educators (PAFE). Our focus has been the repeal of the anti-family, anti-religion Kathleen Wynne sex-education curriculum. I am not against sexual education and believe it has a place. But not Wynne’s radical version. I have been an outspoken advocate for the rights of all parents in this province, which include those from the Jewish, Muslim, atheist, Christian, Sikh, Hindu, and LGBT+ community.

For this, I have been accused of wanting to force my religious views on the people of Ontario using the sex-ed curriculum. That is incorrect. I support the true separation of church and state, but that separation has to go both ways, which includes religious liberty free of state interference. Ontario parents have had to endure the state’s overreach into their lives under Premier Wynne. I simply hope to restore a more proper balance.

Step into the ring, Kathleen.


Also:

On Sunday, 57 per cent of United Conservative Party members who voted were in favour of R-30, which reinstates parental consent for when their children are exposed to "subjects of religious or sexual nature including enrolment in extracurricular activities/clubs."

Members also passed resolutions in favour of returning to a flat income tax rate, allowing private health care and prohibiting invasive medical procedures on minors without parental consent, a measure favoured by anti-abortion activists.

"I think what we saw on the weekend, the UCP pulled the curtain and we saw what's behind the curtain," Notley said.

"That's the product of some extreme special interest groups and it does not align with the values of the majority of Albertans."

Well, Rachel, if that were so, then one needn't have bubble zones. After all, who would these bubbles zones be for?

But ... but ... "green energy"! :

In and around my riding, water wells surrounding the North Kent wind farm project have become clogged with sediment. 

Citizens are worried. 

Installing industrial wind turbines means pile driving massive steel beams into the bedrock. 

 The problem is that the bedrock is made of Kettle Point black shale which is known to contain lead, uranium, and arsenic. 

Vibration from the pile driving breaks up this toxic shale below the groundwater and contaminates it. 

Rural water wells are being poisoned as the government continues to allow the pile driving.

And now, Mother's Day in many different nations:

The name may sound strikingly similar to its American counterpart, but the origins of Mothering Sunday are quite different. By most historical accounts, it was the Church of England that created Mothering Sunday to honor the mothers of England, and later to commemorate the “Mother Church” in all its spiritual nurturing glory. Hundreds of years ago, Christians were expected to make at least one return to their mother church each year. In other words, Mothering Sunday was the ultimate guilt trip to visit the woman or entity that gave them life. Was that so much to ask? The fourth Sunday of Lent became the designated day to make this journey, and remains the go-to holiday to celebrate Moms to this day.