Your middle-of-the-week imaginative spark ...
This can't be good:
The U.S. aviation sector was struggling to return to normal on Wednesday after a nationwide ground stop imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over a computer issue that forced a 90-minute halt to all U.S. departing flights.
More than 10,000 flights have been delayed so far and over 1,300 canceled, according to FlightAware, in the first national grounding of flights in about two decades. Many industry officials compared the grounding to what occurred after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
A criminal organisation or proprietors of a gong show?
It’s a very good thing that public attention and opposition inquiries are at last promising to shed light on the opaque and strangely intimate relationship between the Trudeau Liberals and McKinsey and Company, the global management consultancy that mutated into a service agency for dictators, oligarchs and corporate drug pushers. Its former boss was Dominic Barton, the longtime Trudeau confidant and Canada’s former ambassador to China.
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And even though Barton has more or less moved on, McKinsey’s influence in developing federal policy has mushroomed along with its receivables from the federal treasury — at least $66 million since Justin Trudeau settled into the prime minister’s office in 2015, and most of that over the past two years. ...
McKinsey’s contracts with various federal departments and agencies — notably the Department of National Defence, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Canada Border Services Agency — end up tabulated annually and publicly in the federal “proactive disclosure” data record. It’s been almost exactly a year since reports of a spike in contracts with the consulting firm prompted the Opposition parties to ask Auditor-General Karen Hogan to investigate the government’s strange relationship with McKinsey. By last October, the Conservatives had managed to ferret out $45 million in McKinsey contracts just over the preceding 18 months.
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So why now?
It looks like a simple matter of CBC News having posted on its website a translation of a Radio-Canada investigation into McKinsey’s growing footprint at the federal level, which grew from Radio-Canada’s persistent investigations of the Quebec government’s contracts with McKinsey, including a $35,000-a- day arrangement relating to advice on managing the COVID-19 pandemic at the same time that one of McKinsey’s key contracts was with the vaccine producer Pfizer.
During Barton’s time at the top of McKinsey, the firm was helping Purdue Pharma “turbocharge” sales of Oxycontin while at the same time advising the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the firm eventually had to pay out claims of roughly $600 million for its role in promoting opioid sales. But the Barton years were boom years for the company, as it took on police states as clients, from Xi Jinping’s military-industrial complex to the disgraced pro-Moscow Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich, ousted in Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity. It was a profitable business model. McKinsey doubled its revenue to $10.5 billion annually.
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Barton came to the post as McKinsey’s global managing partner after several years as the firm’s head of operations in China, where McKinsey’s scores of clients including the state-owned giants involved in building military islands in the South China Sea, at the same time as it was hauling in hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with the U.S. Defence Department.
If the Opposition is serious about digging into McKinsey’s relationship with the Trudeau Liberals they’re going to have to go back a long way, back to the days before Trudeau was even his party’s leader in the House of Commons. When Trudeau was crafting his platform during the Liberal leadership campaign, McKinsey provided the statistics and growth forecasts to bolster Trudeau’s vision of Canada as China’s global supplier of raw materials and the world’s prime beneficiary of Chinese direct investment.
Barton and Justin made Canada China's vassal state.
An investigation isn't enough.
The Commons government operations committee will investigate more than $70 million paid to a contractor that once hosted a VIP retreat near a Chinese internment camp. “What are the results of this management company’s ingenious work?” Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday.
What gets me isn't just the journalist's refusal to answer what she plans on doing with $2 billion of Canadian taxpayer's money (and her sycophancy to the WEF). It is that there is some ovine mouth-breather who would run interference for this public servant who finds it beneath herself to answer to the public:
Watch Chrystia Freeland get busted for skimming $2 Billion of tax payers money to invest in a company that doesn't even exist. One can only speculate which of her friends the funds were for?
— Shaun Rickard (@ShaunRickard67) January 9, 2023
Thankfully this Senator very clearly demonstrates how BS doesn't always baffle brains. pic.twitter.com/AnwJj8RScN
The Liberal government is spending more than $400 million to buy air-defence systems for Ukraine even though the Canadian Forces has been without such equipment for more than a decade. ...
Anand did not explain how the government was able to act so quickly in acquiring the air-defence system for Ukraine while a similar project for Canada’s military continued to go unfulfilled.
But her office added in a statement, “We continue to work towards the procurement of Ground-Based Air Defence Equipment for the Canadian Armed Forces — and Minister Anand is committed to getting this done, as outlined in our defence policy.”
The Canadian Army has been without an air-defence capability since 2012 and has tried over the past decade to convince governments to purchase such equipment.
"Bloated" is one way of putting it:
The Department of Foreign Affairs is a bloated bureaucracy with 18 assistant deputy ministers and 90 directors general but few employees who know how to speak a foreign language, say former diplomats. “The current situation in the department is dire,” retired staff wrote in a report to a parliamentary committee.
Send the CRTC a whole metric ton of Stuxnet for Easter:
“We have… concerns it could impact digital streaming services and discriminate against U.S. businesses,” Molly Sanchez Crowe said in the statement.
The bill aims to update Canada’s broadcasting law so it reflects the advent of online streaming platforms such as YouTube, Spotify and Netflix. If the bill passes, such platforms would be required to contribute to the creation of Canadian content and make it accessible to users in Canada — or face steep penalties.
In one of four videos CBC News has obtained, Lord plays the role of a character he calls Father B, and professes to be "the High Prophet of the Church of Trudeau" as he explains what the website is about, stating, "our religion teaches the importance of socialism, of cancelling everyone that offends anyone, of being woke and highly emotional."
A YouTube channel associated with the site that was scrubbed of content in December once stated, "our goal is to convert sinful conservatives who belong to a fringe minority with unacceptable views into entitled socialist liberals just like us."
You can't have jackboot thugs mock the tyrant.
It's bad for morale.
Let us have no talk about this bizarre cover-up:
An alarming trend has become apparent: Vaccinated and boosted individuals account for a sharply increasing proportion of deaths from COVID-19.
Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) showed in an analysis posted on the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, that about 4 in 10 COVID-related deaths were among the vaccinated or boosted by January 2022.
The most recent analysis of CDC data by KFF finds 6 out of 10 COVID-related deaths from April to August 2022 were among people with some level of vaccination.
According to KFF, this is due to a variety of factors relating to how many people were vaccinated earlier in the pandemic when the shots were first made available.
When the vaccines were first rolled out, people who received their initial series of injections represented only a small share of total deaths, because they were such a small number compared to the unvaccinated majority.
But that share was expected to rise as vaccinated people represented a growing share of the U.S. population. Ultimately, if everyone in the United States was vaccinated, then vaccinated people would represent 100 percent of COVID-19 deaths. The same would be observed among those who received a booster dose.
This is because some people who are up to date with vaccines will still get COVID-19, incidents which are considered “breakthrough infections.” As the CDC states, COVID-19 vaccination is effective at preventing severe illness and death, but the shots are not perfect.
Why, it's like no one trusts China.
Was it something they said?:
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, signed a “landmark” defense agreement Wednesday in London that allows both countries to deploy forces on each other’s soil — a move that follows a similar deal with Australia as Tokyo expands its array of security partners across the globe.
The agreement, touted as the most significant defense pact between London and Tokyo in more than a century, will “rapidly accelerate” already growing defense and security cooperation between the two countries amid rising concerns over China’s military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
It will allow both countries’ forces to plan and execute military exercises and deployments on a larger and more complex scale, while also stipulating jurisdiction in the event a service member commits a crime or causes an accident in the other’s country.
It is Tokyo’s first such agreement with a European nation and the Asian nation’s third overall. In January, Japan signed a similar deal with Australia after years of negotiations. Both treaties must still be ratified by the respective parliaments before taking effect.
Sunak’s office said the agreement will be put before Japan's and Britain’s parliaments “in the coming weeks.”
“This Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) is hugely significant for both our nations — it cements our commitment to the Indo-Pacific and underlines our joint efforts to bolster economic security, accelerate our defense cooperation and drive innovation that creates highly skilled jobs,” Sunak said in a statement.
Although the U.K. leader did not explicitly single out China, the Asian behemoth has been a driver of Britain’s strategic “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific region, and Sunak appeared to hint that competition with Beijing, among others, was likely in mind when sealing the deal.
**
Seven out of 10 younger South Koreans support the idea of their country getting its own nuclear weapons, according to a survey.UniKorea Foundation and Seoul National University's Institute for Social Development and Policy Research polled 1,000 people aged 20 to 39 last November and found that 68.1 percent support South Korea possessing nuclear weapons.Asked why, 39.2 percent ticked countering North Korea's nuclear threat, followed by maintaining national stability (37.3 percent) and increased international influence (23.3 percent).Among the opponents, 40.1 percent ticked fear of international sanctions, while 26.3 percent worried about an escalating nuclear arms race among neighboring countries, 18.5 percent worsened relations with North Korea and 14.7 percent said support from the U.S. nuclear umbrella is enough.An overwhelming 89.2 percent said they feel threatened by North Korea's nuclear weapons, and 85.4 percent said they do not think North Korea will abandon them.Some 81 percent said North Korea is capable of launching a nuclear provocation, up from 67 percent in May of 2018, when inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korea talks were in progress.
Six out of 10 said North Korea is likely to use its nuclear weapons, while only 35.8 percent doubted it.
Also:
The House voted to create an Anti-CCP select committee on Tuesday, in an effort to assess and scrutinize China's military, economic and technological actions.
The committee will be headed by Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, who is steadfastly critical of China. Lawmakers voted 365-65 to establish the panel, Politico reports.
**
They could easily devote a hearing to China's willful undermining of the North Korea sanctions it voted for, & the failure of multiple administrations to hold Chinese banks, sweatshops, & shippers accountable for that. https://t.co/wDwP03pGyk
— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) January 11, 2023
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For years Chinese & Russian ports have facilitated the smuggling of North Korean coal, much of it mined in gulags, in plain sight & in violation of UN sanctions. This is the predictable consequence of our failure to sanction the shippers, ports & banks that facilitate this trade. https://t.co/ym5kYJB7rv pic.twitter.com/hGyW9Fha47
— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) December 23, 2022
**
Former North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho was executed in a purge of senior diplomats last year, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported Wednesday.Along with Ri, four or five North Korean Foreign Ministry officials appear to have been executed, it added citing sources. They are believed to have been killed last summer or fall.The newspaper said their execution appears to be linked to their activities in the North Korean Embassy in the U.K., which became a global embarrassment for the regime when the deputy ambassador, Thae Yong-ho, defected to South Korea in 2016.Ri was foreign minister from 2016 to 2020 and is an expert on U.S. affairs. He played key roles in North Korea's high-level negotiations from Geneva in 1994 to the abortive Hanoi summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018.He was a well-connected establishment figure whose father, Ri Myong-je, was guardian of the North Korean leader's household.The Yomiuri speculated that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wanted to warn the country's diplomats of the consequences of defection by executing Ri.Thae, who is now a conservative lawmaker here, said, "We must first verify the rumors of Ri Yong-ho's execution. If Ri and his colleagues were executed, that means the pro-negotiation faction in the regime has weakened, and our North Korea policy has to be fine-tuned to reflect that change."
And:
Among them, South Korea and Japan have also limited flights and require tests on arrival, with passengers showing up as positive being sent to quarantine. In South Korea, quarantine is at the traveller's own cost.
In response, the Chinese embassies in Seoul and Tokyo said on Tuesday they had suspended issuing short-term visas for travellers to China, with the foreign ministry slamming the testing requirements as "discriminatory."
That prompted an official protest from Tokyo, while South Korean foreign minister Park Jin said that Seoul's decision was based on scientific evidence, not discriminatory and that China's countermeasures were "deeply regrettable."
Deepening the spat, on Wednesday, China's immigration authority suspended its transit visa exemptions for South Koreans and Japanese.
**
Lithuanian lawmakers on a visit to Taiwan took aim at China Tuesday, saying the world's second largest economy tried to use all sorts of measures to change Lithuania's decision to break diplomatic norms in warming up relations with the self-ruled island democracy.
Taiwan is hosting German and Lithuanian lawmakers this week. China, which objects to diplomatic contacts between the island it claims as its own and other nations, held large-scale military exercises aimed at Taiwan over the weekend and into Monday.
The Lithuanian visit is focused on national security and defense as well as economic ties, lawmakers said.
“They tried to break our will, they tried to change our decision, they tried to harass investors and they tried to make economic sanctions ... but we survived,” Laurynas Kasciunas, head of the defense committee in Lithuania's parliament, said. “We are now resilient and stronger, and we can be a role model for other EU countries.”
The Lithuanian delegation is led by Kasciunas, along with the vice chair of the Taiwan friendship group in parliament, Dovile Sakaliene. The lawmakers drew parallels between the threat they face from Russia and the threat Taiwan faces from China, saying they both had authoritarian neighbors.
“We have very clear common goals, strengthening democracy globally ... and really helping everyone around us understand very clearly. There cannot be any ambivalence. You are either with the aggressor or you are with the victim," Sakaliene said.
Lithuania angered China after it broke with diplomatic convention, allowing Taiwan to name its representative office in Vilnius — a de facto embassy — “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei,” a term used by other countries to avoid offending Beijing.
If only people got it:
Father Vu’s full post reads, “Dear [Washington Post]— I don’t know if you have a Catholic journalist or editor on staff? But if you don’t — I would [gladly be] your volunteer editor for your paper next time you [cover a] Catholic Mass or event so that I might be able to help you use correct terms. Thanks.”
As of this writing, Father Vu’s Jan. 6 tweet generated over 200 comments, approximately 500 retweets, more than 4,000 likes, and over 300,000 views.
**
Subiaco Abbey in Subiaco, Ark. announced that an intruder desecrated their altar in the Abbey Church of St. Benedict.
The abbey said the incident occurred between 3:00-4:00 p.m on Thurs., Jan. 5. The suspect smashed the altar with sledgehammer and regular hammer. He stole two reliquaries, each containing three relics. (Six relics total.)
The reliquaries contained Sts. Boniface and Tiberius, St. Benedict, St. Justina, and St. Marcellus.
**
One of the focal points of the segment is an interview with 83-year-old Sister Bernadette Moriau, who until 2008 was unable to walk without a back and leg brace, an implant, and lots of morphine.
"I always believed in miracles, but not for me," Sister Moriau told Whitaker when asked if she believed in miracles at the time.Sister Moriau suffered from Cauda Equina, a disorder that affects her nerves and lower spine and reportedly rendered her left foot twisted and limp.
"I really tried everything I could. But this is something that cannot be healed," she told the 60 Minutes host, telling him that her prognosis was "full, total paralysis."
Explaining to Whitaker why she decided to go to the shrine, she said, "I didn't go there for a miracle. I just went there to pray with others. Lourdes is a place where the smallest people, or the sickest, or the poorest, they come first."But her experience turned out to be much more than that an opportunity to pray with others.
"I really had that feeling that the Lord was walking with us. And I heard him giving me these words: 'I see your suffering and that of your sick brothers and sisters. Just give me everything,'" she told Whitaker.
Three days later, she heard a voice instructing her to remove her braces and walk, which she successfully did.
For eight years, the case was examined by the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations, where world-renowned doctors and researchers investigate reported cures. They ultimately concluded that her case was "medically unexplained."
The segment concludes by saying, "It's been said about Lourdes: for those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, no explanation is possible."
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