For a Sunday

 

A lot going on .... 




Iran shakes its impotent yet mad fist at the US and Israel after Trump, responding in kind to an embassy attack (not unlike the one that Obama failed to respond to), blew a top Iranian general into chunks:

Iran told the UN Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday it reserves the right to self-defence under international law after the United States killed its most prominent military commander Qassem Soleimani.

How was Iran defending itself in Iraq while attacking an American embassy, the Iranians do not say.


Also - barely satire:

At a press conference held on Capitol Hill Friday, mourning Democrat leaders called for flags to be flown half-mast to honor the death of Qasem Soleimani.

Flags were spotted flying at half-mast around the country, notably at The Washington Post, The New York Times, and in front of several celebrities' homes. The celebrities went out and bought an American flag for the first time just to fly it at half-mast for this important time of grief.

"The grieving process is painful but necessary," said Rep. Ilhan Omar. "As a nation, we need to stop and grieve this great, austere, revered religious scholar. He was one of the good ones."

In a rare moment of unity with The Squad, Pelosi gave each of the girls a hug, telling them to just "let it all out" in their time of sadness.

Ocasio-Cortez didn't seem to know what was happening but adjusted her glasses to look smart.

A teary-eyed Barack Obama was also seen solemnly lowering the flag in front of his seaside mansion. "To think, this all could have been prevented with a few pallets of cash." He sighed and stared off into the distance, a look of pain and regret on his face. "If only Trump had targeted a U.S. citizen with a drone strike instead."

Canada responds with a mixture of stupidity and anxiety:

Rising security risks posed by the death of a prominent Iranian general have prompted NATO to temporarily suspend a training mission in Iraq being led by Canadian troops, the federal defence minister said Saturday.

Harjit Sajjan released a brief statement reiterating comments from the military alliance, which said the non-combat operation dubbed NATO Mission Iraq was on hold in the wake of the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The general, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force and mastermind of its regional security strategy, was killed along with other senior Iraqi militants in a Friday morning airstrike ordered by United States President Donald Trump.

Sajjan said that while the NATO mission's goal of preventing the resurgeance of Islamic extremism remains valid, the current political climate made it necessary to suspend the operation for the protection of those involved.

(Sidebar: bullsh--.)

**

Foreign affairs minister François-Philippe Champagne is calling on all sides to exercise restraint after a U.S. air strike in Baghdad killed Qassem Soleimani, a high-ranking Iranian general.

“Canada is in contact with our international partners. The safety and well-being of Canadians in Iraq and the region, including our troops and diplomats, is our paramount concern,” he said. “We call on all sides to exercise restraint and pursue de-escalation. Our goal is and remains a united and stable Iraq. ...

“I think de-escalation is certainly an appropriate call, but to somehow insinuate that American foreign policy has unnecessarily escalated the situation is not the best way to frame it.”

You may be perfectly fine with people committing terrorist acts on your soil but the Americans feel differently.

**

If you can’t even tell the difference between Iran and Iraq, maybe best to stay out of it and let the adults talk. https://t.co/7ZBJsb9AGg

— Jacqui Delaney (@JacquiDelaney) January 3, 2020

 

It's Iraq, by the way, Jag, and you count on people forgetting these little tidbits:

Is it appropriate for Sikh temples in Canada to display posters hailing the alleged architect of the 1985 Air India bombing as a martyr?

The bombing of Air India Flight 182 killed 329 people — 280 of them Canadians. Talwinder Singh Parmar was killed in India by police in 1992 and never brought to trial for his alleged role in the plot, but subsequent inquiries into the bombing identified him as the leader of a conspiracy hatched in British Columbia to bring down the plane.

Singh, who is an observant Sikh, danced around the question. His first response was to caution against exaggerating the conflict between Sikhs and Hindus. He then condemned the “heinous massacre” of people aboard Flight 182, calling it a terrorist act.

Pressed a fourth time by Milewski to denounce the posters of Parmar, Singh replied, “I don’t know who was responsible, but I think we need to find out who’s truly responsible. We need to make sure that the investigation actually results in a conviction of someone who is actually responsible.”

Some commentators have argued it was unfair, even racist of Milewski to ask the question. Writing in Maclean’s, Arshy Mann said the question reflected “a double standard that a white, non-Sikh politician would never have to face.” He noted that when Patrick Brown was elected leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, the CBC did not challenge him over his friendship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That friendship was forged at a time when Modi was an international pariah, accused of failing to stop the 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim riots that left more than 1,000 people dead when he was chief minister for the state.

But for Bal Gupta, chairman of the Air India 182 Victims Families Association, Singh’s non-answer was a missed opportunity. “If leaders in Canada don’t disown terrorists and terrorism, then who would?” asked Gupta, whose wife Ramwati was killed in the bombing. He said families of the victims were very upset by Singh’s reply.

**

A second video of Jagmeet Singh has surfaced showing the NDP leader speaking on a panel focused on Sikh sovereignty, alongside another speaker who appears to endorse violence in the quest for an independent Sikh state.

This and other things are reasons why I refuse to believe that this country even cares that it must morally and politically condemn and act against terrorism. Canadians believe that terrorism is a "brown people's" problem overseas and politicians troll for any vote, even ones from those sympathetic to terrorism. 

Canada is rather like an unprepared simpleton surprised that as a major nation it has to take action and doesn't know if it should be angry or thank its lucky stars that its chief moron is getting drunk off of his @$$ somewhere.

Actually, that is exactly what Canada is right now.

We fought on D-Day and now look at us.

Yes, while the adults are minding the store, Justin is on yet another vacation (sans Sophie):

Photos of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on his vacation in Costa Rica are showing up on social media, leading to questions on the cost and carbon footprint of his vacation.

Photos over the past few days have popped up on social media, triggering questions over the cost of Trudeau’s vacation to the taxpayer.

**

So how about attempting to determine “middle class” by what it is not? And just for fun, let’s use some Liberal behaviours from the past to assist–consider them a window into future expectations for this government.

For starters, middle class Canadians are not seconding government jets for a Costa Rican Christmas like Trudeau has done.

According to the PM’s New Year’s Eve itinerary, he will ring in 2020 at this tropical locale while middle class Canadians suffer through another winter, and now pay the Liberals’ carbon tax for the privilege of heating their homes.

Wow.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had a new belly button ripped open for his holiday (more on that later).


In the mean time, Canada burns in another way:

A CBC article states that on Jan. 1, the new federal carbon tax will be imposed on Alberta. But it then goes on to say that it might be “good news for your wallet.”

The article claims that “The new federal carbon levy will start at $20 per tonne, increasing to $30 per tonne in April and $50 per tonne by 2022. Prices are set to rise by about 4.4 cents per litre for gasoline and $1.05 per gigajoule of natural gas—but experts say that doesn’t mean a bigger hit to the average Albertan’s wallet.”

Alright.

Let's tax the CBC $600 million in carbon taxes. It could help!

**

Some Indigenous communities could soon take over authority for their child-welfare systems under a federal law that took effect this week. But it could be years before others are prepared to take on the responsibility under what federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller calls a “complex” piece of legislation.

What could go wrong?

**

Of the respondents who completed this survey, 92 per cent had had at least one or more interactions with the CRA in the previous 12 months. Respondents were asked whether their interactions with the CRA had met their needs or not, their level of satisfaction with these interactions, what worked well and what needed improvement.

Approximately 83 per cent of respondents had had an experience with the CRA that did not meet their needs. Of those, a total of 84 per cent of respondents ranked their interactions as “poor” (between 1 and 3) on a scale of 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent).

The CRA is a government agency and doesn't care about anyone.

Figure it out.

**

The opposition Conservatives are pressing the Liberals to deny Huawei a role in assembling the country’s 5G infrastructure, alleging it will allow Beijing to spy on Canadians more easily.

Some security experts say Huawei’s participation could give it access to an array of digital data gleaned from how, when and where Canadian customers use their electronic devices. In turn, the theory goes, Chinese security agencies could pressure the company into handing over the personal information.

Such fears stem from the fact China’s National Intelligence Law plainly states that Chinese organizations and citizens shall support, assist and co-operate with state intelligence work.

Hhmmm ... why would they distrust China? What possible reasons could there be?




If Canadians believe that communism is a viable economic and political success then maybe having teachers walk off the job might be a good thing. They are obviously not doing their jobs:

Ontario public high school teachers will hold another one-day strike Wednesday at designated school boards including Peel District.

Just over 41,400 students attend the 42 public secondary schools operated by the Peel District School Board in Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga.

This will be the fourth rotating strike day by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF).

For a country that is practically a desert and where wildfires are common, Australians sure are dense about this:

Thunberg’s tweet takes aim at the wild fires that have raged across the continent over the past few months, many of which investigators allege have been started by people, both intentionally and on accident.

In Australia, those responsible for starting fires, especially if done so in a deliberate act, are often referred to as “firebugs.”

“As firefighters remained on high alert, police revealed 103 of the destructive fires that had lashed Queensland since September were deliberately lit,” The Brisbane Times reported. “Figures obtained by AAP revealed police had dealt with 98 people – 31 adults and 67 juveniles – for deliberately setting fires.”

“More than 120 fires are still being investigated and more people could be charged,” The Brisbane Times added. “The firebug revelations come as fire crews continue to face challenging conditions as a strong upper ridge sweeping across the south-east combines with fresh east northeasterly winds on Friday.”

Yet they look to this nobody for advice (even blaming Scott Morrison's personal faith because that's helpful and so accurate).

Interesting.

Whatever Australians do, let them not remember the "fire-bugs" or the myriad of mistakes made by hysterical eco-evangelists that they would rather people not remember.




At least ten people are dead due a building collapse in Cambodia:

At least 10 people were killed and 23 injured after a building in Cambodia collapsed, trapping workers under rubble, officials said on Saturday.

The seven-story concrete building collapsed on Friday in the coastal town of Kep, about 160 km (100 miles) southwest of the capital Phnom Penh.

It came a year after another construction site collapsed, killing 28 people in Preah Sihanouk province.

Wow. The state of New York really has a handle on these anti-semitic attacks:

The man charged in the machete attack on a Hanukkah celebration north of New York City had been questioned by local authorities in connection with an earlier stabbing of an Orthodox Jewish man in the same town, police said Thursday.

Grafton Thomas faces state and federal charges in Saturday’s Hanukkah attack, which wounded five people at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York.

That attack came as police in the same town were investigating a Nov. 20 stabbing in which a man was critically injured while walking to a synagogue.

And now, a feel-good story:

When Margaret Cortes found herself unemployed in 2018, she decided to open a bakery to make sure she could afford her child’s education.

But the bakery also had another purpose: to employ her 16-year-old son, Frankie, who has cerebral palsy.

Cortes named the shop Special Kneads Bakery.

“He’s got a lot of diagnosis against him,” Cortes told KWQC-TV in a recent interview.

“He’s got cerebral palsy, he’s got Dandy-Walker variant, which is a malformation of the brain, he’s got vision issues so he’s blind in one eye.”

When her son was born, she added, doctors said he may not ever be able to walk.

Now, Frankie not only walks, but the high school senior works in the front of the shop, serving customers with a smile.