Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week head-shake ...




Now, if one is quite done feeling sorry for this maladjusted, cold-blooded psychopath and her inability to sit on the correct toilet, let's examine this creature's short-lived evil for a moment and then reflect on why anyone would indulge the nutters' sexually dysmorphic delusions or get a truckload of violence:

Nashville school shooting suspect Audrey Hale was believed to have been planning other attacks on a local mall and targeting family members, it has been revealed.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake told CBS Mornings on Tuesday that investigators “strongly believe” the 28-year-old former student had other targets besides The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, where the shooter gunned down six victims on Monday.

“We strongly believe there was going to be some other targets, including maybe family members, and one of the malls here in Nashville,” said the police chief.

“And that just did not happen.”

The police chief had said on Monday night that a manifesto left behind by the shooter indicated “there was going to be shootings at multiple locations and that the school was one of them”.

The Covenant School was then singled out for an attack while a second – undisclosed – location was apparently ruled out because it had a higher level of security, he said.

Hale allegedly drove to the elementary school just after 10am on Monday morning armed with two assault rifles and a handgun.

There, Hale broke into the school building by shooting through the glass side doors and climbing inside.

Once inside, the shooter stalked the corridors, killing three small children and three staff members.

Students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney – all aged nine – and three staff members Katherine Koonce, 60, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61, were all killed in the attack.

Responding officers fatally shot the assailant at 10.27am – 14 minutes after the first 911 call reporting an active shooter came in at 10.13am.


(Sidebar: wow. They could teach the RCMP something.)


If it makes one feel better, Canada is also as morally devolved:


(Sidebar: story here.)

**

On April 13, 2005, 19-year-old Katrina Effert secretly gave birth to a baby boy in the basement of her parents’ home in Wetaskiwin, Alberta. She then strangled the newborn child to death with her thong underwear and threw the corpse over the fence into her neighbor’s backyard.

On September 9, 2011, the CBC reported that Effert’s conviction for murder had been “downgraded” to infanticide, and she was sentenced merely to time served for improper disposal of a human corpse.

The judge stated that her decision was due in part to the fact that “while many Canadians undoubtedly view abortion as a less than ideal solution to unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancy, they generally understand, accept, and sympathize with the onerous demands pregnancy and childbirth exact from mothers, especially mothers without support.”

In short, a Canadian judge ruled – explicitly – that Katrina Effert had engaged in a very late-term abortion. Canadian law does not value human life just seconds before birth. Why should a young woman languish in jail for killing a human being seconds after birth?



Rather, afraid of being stuck with serial beheaders, the federal government begs the Supreme Court to change the law:

The Canadian government says a federal judge misinterpreted the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in directing officials to secure the release of four men from detention in northeastern Syria.

Government lawyers are set to stress that point in the Federal Court of Appeal Monday as they seek to overturn a January ruling by Federal Court Justice Henry Brown.

In his decision, Brown said Ottawa should request repatriation of the men in Syrian prisons run by Kurdish forces as soon as reasonably possible and provide them with passports or emergency travel documents.


Vaguely related:

The Department of Immigration billed taxpayers $137 a day for room and board to shelter illegal immigrants at Niagara Falls hotels, records show. Refugee claimants bused in from Québec stayed months at a time with no obvious processing of their claims: “We just had people show up on our doorstep.”



Justin and his friend called this sort of thing "understandable":

The number of police-reported hate crimes targeting a given religion rose from 530 in 2020 to 884 in 2021, representing a 67% increase. This finding marked the highest number of hate crimes targeting a religion since comparable data have been recorded and followed three consecutive years of decreases. Police-reported hate crimes targeting the Jewish (+47%), Muslim (+71%) and Catholic (+260%) religions were up in 2021 compared with the previous year.

When religious affiliation among Canadians was controlled for through the census, the rate of police-reported hate crimes targeting the Jewish population (145 incidents per 100,000 population) was highest, followed by the Muslim population (8 incidents per 100,000 population) and the Catholic population (1 incident per 100,000 population). See the Note to readers for limitations on interpreting hate crime rates for specific populations.



Freaking awesome:


Did everyone forget Justin's casual bigotry?



It's budget time in Canada!:


Leading up to Tuesday's budget reveal, Freeland stopped by a Simons store on Monday to pick herself up a new pair of heels. She reportedly described the (on sale) $100 black pumps as "comfortable, practical [and] on sale," and paid for them herself.


Oh, good for her!

Does she have any tips for girls who used to pay for their own shoes and now can't fuel their cars in order to go to work and pay MORE taxes?


Oh, there's more!:

A Jamaican sun holiday for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last Christmas cost taxpayers almost $163,000, records show. Trudeau prior to the trip said he recognized holiday time was “difficult for many Canadians” due to inflation: ‘Everyone knows well that Canadians are facing tough times.’

**

Justin doesn't apologise.

That would be beneath him to show weakness in front of the proles, some of whom now question his frat boy façade:

So, let’s compare this to Trudeau’s behaviour while in London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

He caused an international furor when he was caught in camera hamming it up at the piano in the hotel lobbying. While the official mourning period was still on, Trudeau was in public singing Queen’s 1975 hit song Bohemian Rhapsody.

The headlines in the British papers were scathing.

“3-bed River Suite…. £ 4,800,” read the part of the invoice for Trudeau’s room.

The other rooms, the ones housing Trudeau’s staff, even former governors general and prime ministers, billed out at a much more modest 1,560 pounds per night.

For months, Trudeau and his office refused to admit he had stayed in the $6,000 per night room (more than $7,000 using correct exchange rates). His office ignored media questions, Global Affairs Minister Melanie Joly ordered staff not to respond to media questions on who stayed in the room and in the House of Commons, Trudeau refused to answer when asked directly.

The confirmation that it was Trudeau in the room only became public because a Commons committee demanded the answer, and the government couldn’t delay any longer. They released the information as U.S. President Joe Biden was landing in Ottawa for a two-day visit hoping it would be lost in the busy news cycle.

They even fibbed as they finally admitted what we all knew, claiming that prices were higher due to demand caused by the Queen’s funeral. As we’ve been reporting since last October, Trudeau paid the standard rate for the room with “complimentary butler” service.

There were also much cheaper five-star hotels in the same neighbourhood but Trudeau picked the most expensive one. For much lesser offences, Trudeau called for Bev Oda to resign as a cabinet minister, he demanded it and circulated a petition asking Canadians to make the same call.

Trudeau’s hasn’t reimbursed Canadians for the extra costs incurred, he hasn’t apologized and only admitted the truth when forced. It’s kind of a pattern for him and his government.

**

Canadian delegates to a climate change conference booked a luxury resort rated one of the least environmentally-friendly hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, records show. Room rates ranged from $405 to $1,300 a night at the resort with a mediocre Green Star rating but 13 bars: “How much was spent?”

**

Governor General Mary Simon had an RCAF flight crew log nearly 3,000 kilometres so she could attend a six-minute ceremony, records show. Simon earlier said it was “up to all of us to act responsibly” to fight climate change: “How we do things is just as important as what we do.”

**

Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier will not disclose how many employees were fired for defrauding a pandemic relief program. MPs have repeatedly sought the number from the Canada Revenue Agency: “The Agency has terminated the employment of a number of employees.”


Don't you love these politicians?

It's like they're regular people except that they were born into affluence and expect to be paid for being lazy, elitist @$$holes!


These @$$holes:

The Canadian government blacklisted 201 companies that were sympathetic to the , a group of truckers who participated in a protest against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 measures.

The government reportedly emailed this blacklist to foreign banks, according to Blacklock's Reporter.

The RCMP placed no restrictions on the distribution of this blacklist, which raises concerns about privacy and the government's power to freeze bank accounts.

According to the report, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's office secretly distributed this blacklist to several entities, including online investment companies and private financial advisers.

The purpose of the blacklist was to cease dealings with designated individuals and to determine whether they were in possession or control of property owned on behalf of a designated person.

The Freedom Convoy protests, also known as the Canadian Trucker Protest, were a series of civil liberties demonstrations that took place in  in January 2022. The protests were organized by a group of truckers who were opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other government policies related to the pandemic that were killing businesses and livelihoods.

Using the Emergencies Act, the government gave itself the power to freeze the bank accounts of convoy participants and their supporters.



Who did you vote for, Canada?:

The federal budget released Tuesday includes a one-time payment the government is calling a grocery rebate, but some in Windsor, Ont., say the money won't go very far in helping lower-income people with the rising cost of food.

A single person with no children could get a one-time payment of up to $234, while a couple with two children could receive up to $467 and a senior citizen about $225.


So, for ONE time, the greedy, wasteful government MIGHT give the average Canadian a bit of his money so that he can buy more marked-down cans of soup.

**

The number of insolvent Canadians skyrocketed by 33 percent on a year-over-year basis in January 2023, according to a new report, which blames rising inflation and high interest rates for the jump.
The Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (CAIRP) released a report on March 1 indicating that 8,735 consumer insolvencies were filed in January.
Consumer insolvency filings in January increased 14.2 percent from the month before, said CAIRP, citing the latest statistics from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy.
“The impact of high inflation and numerous interest rate hikes are taking their toll on Canadians, particularly those who are deeply indebted and therefore more financially vulnerable,” according to CAIRP vice-chair André Bolduc and a licensed insolvency trustee.
“These individuals and families may turn to credit cards or lines of credit to bridge the gaps in their household budgets—to pay for groceries and essentials, for example. In the higher interest rate environment, it is harder to pay off these debts,” he said.
More Canadians are using consumer proposals, a legally binding process that allows them to pay creditors a percentage of outstanding debt, administered by a licensed insolvency trustee, said Bolduc.
The process offers legal protection from creditors and stops collection calls and wage garnishees.
In January, 78.7 percent of consumer insolvencies were filed as proposals, a 5.6 percent increase from 73.1 percent in January 2022.
Across the country, Ontario (3,063), Quebec (2,167) and Alberta (1,370) recorded the largest volumes of consumer insolvencies in January.
The provinces with the largest percentage increases in consumer insolvencies were Manitoba (66.9 percent), Nova Scotia (55. percent), and Alberta (41.7 percent), but all provinces experienced an increase, CAIRP indicated.
**

For more than a decade, his Ontario-based firm Hoyes Michalos has been crunching bankruptcy and insolvency numbers for its annual “Joe Debtor” analysis, with its latest results released last month ahead of tax season.

He’s concluded that millennial Canadians have been dealt a generational losing hand as they face student loans layered with bad debts from credit cards, high-interest loans, and post-pandemic tax debt from collecting CERB.

“I think there’s a whole bunch of whammies that have hit millennials.” Hoyes said. “The CERB was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.”

The 2022 Joe Debtor study examined 2,700 personal insolvencies filed in Ontario. Hoyes Michalos says 49 per cent were filed by millennials aged 26 to 41, even though they make up 27 per cent of adult Canadians.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

The study found that on a per-population basis, millennials were 1.4 times more likely to file for insolvency than people in generation X aged 42 to 56, and 1.7 times more likely than baby boomers aged 57 to 76.

Insolvent millennials were on average 33 years old and owed an average of $47,283 in unsecured debt.

Hoyes said many people collected CERB and other pandemic-relief funds without fully appreciating the tax liabilities those programs generated, finding themselves insolvent and unable to pay down their credit cards, student loans, high-interest loans, and lastly their tax debts.

More than 100,000 Canadians of all ages filed for bankruptcy or insolvency in 2022.

**

None dare call it spite:

**

Small business has been shortchanged on carbon tax rebates promised five years ago, says an advocacy group. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business yesterday calculated rebates to date are a fraction of what operators pay in higher fuel costs: “They have received little or nothing at all.”

**

Well, then bars and breweries, what are you prepared to do?:

Charlebois predicts the tax will increase the price of a single beer by one cent, while the finance ministry told Global News in a statement that the amount would be three-quarters of a cent. Charlebois said that the price increase would be visible immediately after the tax is scheduled to be implemented on April 1.

Beer Canada told Global News in a statement that the tax increase will bring up the price of a 12-pack by 10 cents. For a 750 ml bottle of wine, the price could increase close to three cents, according to figures from the Canadian Revenue Agency.

In a statement to the Canadian Press, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) said that a 750 ml bottle of a spirit of 40 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) may increase 70 cents. Charlebois said that the tax may have a smaller impact on the price of craft beer since it is lower volume and usually at a higher price, but could affect larger manufacturers more.

The tax could have a ripple effect on costs, as well.

Beer Canada said since the tax is a production tax imposed on the brewer at the point and time of production, “it is then magnified by other fees and taxes imposed by distributors, retailers, and provinces, including sales taxes,” making the impact on a 12-pack likely closer to 20 cents.

Along with other inflation factors, beer retail prices are projected to rise 10 per cent in 2023, according to the organization.

**

Children who understand math can look beyond ideology and understand how much they've been ripped off:

Two plus two no longer equals four, according to members of the Ontario Mathematics Coordinators Association (OMCA), who consider the equation to be a white-supremacist dog whistle instead of a basic mathematical truth.
According to a webinar created by OMCA president Jason To, proponents of math’s political neutrality who use the phrasing “2 + 2 = 4” are engaged in an act of “Covert White Supremacy.”
To’s presentation, released in September of last year, features a pyramid of “White Supremacy in Math Education.” The apex of the pyramid features examples of “overt white supremacy” — classroom offenses any reasonable person would consider racist — while the base includes more nebulous examples of what To calls “covert white supremacy.” The covert forms of white supremacy allegedly plaguing mathematical education include “Eurocentric math curriculum,” “Standardized testing,” and exhortations such as “Just stick to math,” “I don’t see colour in my math class,” and “Of course math is neutral because 2+2=4.”



An open and expanded market would mean that people could avoid this.

But no:

Independent internet service providers say customers should not expect to see their bills go down despite a recent move by Canada’s telecom regulator to reduce network rates.

In early March, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission launched a review of the rates that independent ISPs must pay to the big telecom companies for access to the networks they own. The review is part of a wider effort to increase competition in the sector and slow the spate of incumbents’ acquisitions of independent ISPs over the last two years.

As part of the consultation, the CRTC imposed a 10-per-cent reduction on certain current rates, effective immediately.

However, that reduction was only applied to the portion of costs that relate to renting capacity on incumbent networks, known as traffic-sensitive components. Capacity costs usually represent a much smaller portion of an ISP’s total monthly costs, relative to the additional access fees they pay per customer.



We don't have to trade with China:

Sitting next to the party leader at a luncheon was Simon Zhong, a figure who has long been aligned with the Chinese government, once sitting on a Communist Party advisory body.

The events added to concern by some Beijing critics that the Conservatives have softened their stance on the issue since the last election, when at least three Tory MPs lost ridings with large Chinese-Canadian populations amid complaints – and a misinformation campaign – about that hawkish China platform.

**

MPs are demanding to question David Johnston, 81, “special rapporteur” on suspected election fraud. The Prime Minister has asked Johnston to take two months considering whether to call a public inquiry already sought by Commons vote: ‘People talk about him like he’s Spiderman, that he’s going to fix everything because he is a great guy.’

 

But Spiderman was a good guy who could actually fix stuff.

Didn't anyone watch the Raimi-verse Spiderman films?

**

Han Dong is being set up for the fall because Justin simply doesn't want to go down for this interference business.

But don't take my word for it:

Toronto-area MP Han Dong is at the centre of a political firestorm following a Global News report that he allegedly spoke with a Chinese diplomat in 2021, advising Beijing to delay freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, according to two intelligence sources.

While Dong acknowledged the conversation with China’s consul-general in Toronto, Han Tao, he strongly denied the allegations that he told Beijing to hold off the release of the two Canadians.

**

MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.), now threatening to sue media for libel, eight years ago as a Liberal member of the Ontario legislature helped pass a law restricting libel suits. The free speech law was to “preserve the democratic rights we enjoy in this country,” Dong said at the time.

**

As the Chinese Communist Party continues to enforce its Sinicization program, placing ever tighter controls on religions and co-opting them to promote Marxist doctrine, the Vatican remains largely silent publicly despite the program’s total incompatibility with the Catholic faith.

In an address on March 5 to open China’s National People’s Congress, outgoing Chinese Premier Li Keqiang boasted of how much the Sinicization of religions has been implemented, saying it has been carried out “gradually” and stressing the necessity that the CCP “actively guide religions to adapt to socialist society.”

The overall goal of Sinicization is the forcible acculturation and assimilation of Chinese communist culture into society — a program that has led to the brutal persecution of the Islamic Uyghurs in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, as well as minorities in other areas such as Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

Meanwhile, authorities in the province of Henan in north-central China, which has the highest percentage of Christians in the country, have been implementing the Sinicization program with zeal, forcing all religious followers to register to worship in churches, mosques, or Buddhist temples. 

Through a government-created phone app, believers must provide personal details such as name, telephone number, identity card details, permanent residence, occupation and date of birth, Asia News reported March 8. 

At the same time, state bodies ostensibly representing the interests of the Catholic Church and other civil society interests are merely a cover to rubber stamp such a policy, say China-watchers. 

China’s President Xi Jinping, who marked a decade as the CCP’s general secretary on March 14, continues to consolidate power in himself and the Chinese Communist Party. He also remains “fully committed to Sinicization of all civil society, especially religious groups,” said Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute. 

“The CCP is following the Soviets’ 1970s and 80s-era model of repression of the churches by means of surveillance, co-option, regulation and indoctrination,” Shea told the Register. “This is intended to end Catholic and other Christian belief and teaching while maintaining their public forms in order to hide its repression and to better infiltrate the Church and its teachings.” 

**

Let's see how you feel when China takes all of your natural resources:

Honduras established diplomatic ties with China on Sunday after breaking off relations with Taiwan, which is increasingly isolated and now recognized by only 13 sovereign states.

Foreign ministers from China and Honduras signed a joint communique in Beijing — a decision the Chinese Foreign Ministry hailed as “the right choice."

**

Two Canadian citizens whose detention in China sparked an international firestorm were guests during President Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa on Friday, a nod to the solidarity between the U.S. and Canada over rising tensions with Beijing.


No, once more, the men were pawns.

**


For more than 15 years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has developed an elaborate espionage campaign to gather insight on American businesses, strategic assets, and supply-chain weak links. The goal: to gain a competitive foothold it can leverage against the United States and our allies.



Japan and South Korea need each other.

A few guesses why:

North Korea has unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads for its increasingly potent missiles, photos in state-run media showed Tuesday, as leader Kim Jong Un ordered the boosted production of weapon-grade nuclear materials in his quest to follow through on a pledge to increase his atomic arsenal.

Images accompanying a Korean Central News Agency report showed Kim and senior officials inspecting the new warheads, which were labeled Hwasan-31, as the North Korean leader and other senior officials visited the country’s Nuclear Weapons Institute, where he guided work “for mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles” on Monday.

**

China has detained a Japanese national on suspicion of being a spy, with Tokyo pressing for his immediate release as ties between the two neighbors continue to sour. But this is far from the first time Beijing has detained a Japanese citizen over alleged espionage. And it may not be the last.

The detention in Beijing earlier this month involved a Japanese man in his 50s who is being held on suspicion of violating China’s notoriously opaque counterespionage law. The Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma has confirmed that the man is one of its employees. He had planned to return home this month.



Now this is just sad:

An image of Texas Department of Safety Sergeant Lupe Casarez "consoling a terrified 2-yo toddler dumped alone across the border by a ruthless smuggler" was posted to Twitter on Thursday, highlighting the "ruthlessness of the Cartels" as they operate along the porous southern border.

 



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