A Post ... For Now

A lot going on ...



Watching Justin's useless government butt heads with the corrupt theocratic kingdom of Saudi Arabia is like watching an imminent train wreck in which two idiot engineers attempt to argue the other off of the tracks. One cannot turn away but one also cannot care who wins.

I honestly can't.

Both parties are detestable.


Justin's government has never met Islamists it didn't like:

After relations between us and the Saudis broke down, the Palestinians sided with Saudi Arabia and condemned us:

As noted in a recent report, “Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Monday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stands with Saudi Arabia in a political row with Canada, rejecting what it called Ottawa’s “blatant interference” in Riyadh’s internal affairs. He also called on the Arab countries to stand by the Kingdom to reject and condemn the Canadian intervention in its internal affairs.”

So, Justin Trudeau took $50 million away from the Canadian People, and gave it to the Palestinians, who then sided with our opponent and condemned us.

 
Contrary to what it bleats, it also doesn't stand up for human rights. One could pick any issue but the pertinent one here is the Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, and how Justin's government has dragged its feet on the criticism of his treatment at the hands of vile Wahhabi-autocrats, people no one can really bring themselves to condemn and stop trading with outright. The mere mention of Mr. Badawi's sister, Samar, seems like convenient point-making for a disingenuous government flagging for any number of reasons.


Canada could start pulling its own weight, avoid international embarrassment and drill and transport its own oil ...

 

... but Justin's advisor, Gerald Butts, would be absolutely aghast.


So Canada will continue using imported oil, even oil from its erstwhile foe, Saudi Arabia, and deal with this crap:

After years of consultations, legal wrangling and scientific monitoring, the company’s Nova Scotia-based subsidiary, Alton Natural Gas Storage LP, has said it plans to start the brining process some time later this year.

Bernard says her people are not going to let that happen.

The $130-million project has been largely on hold since 2014 when Mi’kmaq activists started a series of protests that culminated two years later in the creation of a year-round protest camp at the work site northwest of Stewiacke.

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Kinder Morgan Canada says expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline could cost the federal government as much as $1.9 billion beyond the company's original construction estimate and take 12 months longer to finish. 

Essentially cater to every foreign-funded whim and debacle instead of instituting and enforcing a practical energy policy that cuts out players like Saudi Arabia and their equally awful comrades.


Also:

The U.S. referred to both Canada and Saudi Arabia as “close partners,” and said “We have asked the Government of Saudi Arabia for additional information on the detention of several activists.”

Additionally, the statement said “We continue to encourage the Government of Saudi Arabia to respect due process and to publicize information on the status of legal cases.”

The U.S. also wants Saudi Arabia to publicize information on the legal cases against the jailed human rights advocates.

It's just money:

In the past two years, the Trudeau government has spent $270 million of our taxpayer dollars on illegal border crossers.

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The $11-million commitment from the federal government to help Toronto cope with an influx of asylum seekers is an "important step forward," Mayor John Tory said Friday, but cautioned that more money will soon be needed.

Eleven million dollars is hardly an eye-drop in the bottomless bucket that is illegal immigration but Tory grovels well.


Also - it's only a growing voters block:

“Recently, CBSA officers are noticing another phenomenon: claimants who have recently arrived in Canada as irregular migrants and have refugee claims in process are acting as an anchor relative for other qualifying family members. This means that these family members can present themselves at a port of entry and not be considered as irregular migrants. Also, they can’t be refused entry under the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA).”

And:

A search warrant from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) alleges 462 applicants to the provincial nominee program used Charlottetown homes belonging to two Chinese immigrants over the past four years as “addresses of convenience.”

If one wants to legalise drugs and create millions of hot messes everyone has to pay for, why complain about Ontario Premier Doug Ford's plan to drastically reduce beer prices in tones so Puritan?:

Of course I don’t recall any outrage when actual tax dollars were given to Steam Whistle or Beau’s to pay for the expansion of private business. But a government store profile a product on sale without charging extra for that product……unthinkable.

The real reason people are against this is that these people will oppose everything Doug Ford does. 

Plain and simple.

If they cared about corporate welfare, they would have protested the direct subsidies of two of Ontario’s most successful craft brewers.

But they didn’t.

Nor are they protesting that craft brewers, who normally charge $3 and up for a tall boy can pay a tax rate that is less than half of the big guys.

Did you know that?

Right now a big brewer like Molson or Labatt pay a basic beer tax at a rate of 88.33 cents per litre for beer sold in bottles or cans. Craft brewers pay a tax of 38.34 cents per litre.

Why are Ford’s critics silent on this? They hate buck-a-beer and call it a subsidy but say nothing of this.

Also, if you look at the chart, the tax on beer went up every year from 2010 on, the Liberals – federal and provincial – are against cheap beer.

North Korea wants the US to remove sanctions on it:

North Korea’s state media called on Monday for the United States to ditch crippling economic sanctions as a reward for Pyongyang’s show of good faith in ending its nuclear weapons testing and transferring the remains of American troops killed in the Korean War.

The calls came just days after a confidential United Nations report concluded that the pariah regime has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes, and continues to conduct illegal trades of oil, coal and other commodities, reported Reuters.

This North Korea:

The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it expects Pyongyang to keep its commitment made at a June leaders' summit to give up its nuclear arms and would press southeast Asian nations during meetings this week to maintain sanctions against North Korea.

Questions have arisen over Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearize after U.S. spy satellite material detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country's first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the United States.

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“Heinous devils.” “Narrow-minded guys of an island nation.” “Island barbarians, the sworn enemy of the Korean nation.” “A matchless political dwarf.” “A burglar that historically inflicted wars and misfortune and pain of colonial rule upon Korea.”

As evidenced by its harsh characterizations of Japan, North Korea’s state-run news wire spews vitriol like none other. But the Korean Central News Agency has recently taken a conspicuously muted approach to the United States, and to a lesser extent South Korea, as negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs continue.

Now, it has turned its sights on a new, but predictable foil — its former colonial master, Japan.

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A senior government official said it would be unacceptable for Japan to welcome the arrival of North Korean athletes without the abduction issue being resolved.

Abe has expressed eagerness for settling the abduction issue quickly, not only due to the aging of their waiting relatives, but also because he hopes to prevent the issue of whether North Korean athletes should be allowed in from being rekindled, a government source said.

The Year Zero:

While victory by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in Sunday’s general election was expected, the scale of the win was still shocking. The CPP claims to occupy every seat in Parliament. Democracy in that country has long been a ritual rather than a reality, but this campaign exposed the claims of representative government as empty. The people of Cambodia have no recourse other than protest, which will likely result in more pain for them.

Why would anyone trust vaccines from a country that let milk producers poison children?:

Changsheng Bio-technology Co Ltd, a vaccine maker at the center of a safety scandal in China, began falsifying production records for its rabies vaccine in April 2014, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

Changsheng had mixed some batches with expired solution and did not correctly record dates or batch numbers, Xinhua said, citing the findings of an investigation team established by China's State Council.

And now, Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen's ship returns home:

The ship used by the first explorer to successfully travel to the South Pole has finally returned home, putting an end to a 100-year-old chaotic expedition. 

Named the Maud, after Norway’s then-queen, the ship was recovered in 2016 from Canadian Arctic waters where it sunk in 1930, by Norwegian artist Jan Wanggard and his team. According to the website Phys Org, it was then towed across the North Atlantic on a barge from Greenland and arrived in western Norway Monday morning.  

The website added that the ship will be exhibited in the southeastern municipality of Asker, near Oslo, where it was launched in 1917, thanks to the funding of three Norwegian brothers and entrepreneurs.