Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week fun-run ...
 



From the same man who wanted people to believe that there were only sixty returned ISIS thugs and that it was no big deal:

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, perhaps forgetting he grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan where Varmint rifles are not exactly foreign objects, says anyone who thinks the Liberals’ new gun legislation is just another “back-door gun registry” is either “honestly misinformed or deliberately not telling the truth.”

But, when shops legally selling guns are compelled to keep a list of both their buyers and their inventory, what else would you call it? ...

Goodale insists Bill C-71, the legislation that has resurrected the gun debate, will not revive the gun registry that the Harper government tossed in the dumpster back in 2012.

He claims, instead, that the legislation is aimed at making communities safer and preventing firearms from getting into the hands of criminals.

The only firearms criminals are interested in, however, are handguns, and the information tossed out by various politicians and mayors is that these handguns are being increasingly acquired domestically.

In some jurisdictions, any handgun seized with its serial number filed off are catalogued as being locally acquired, despite the fact that the lack of a serial number makes them untraceable—to anywhere or to anyone.

So, it’s a dishonest fact-fiddling and fear mongering.

In Canada, acquiring a handgun legally requires the potential buyer to go through a series of hoops which go way beyond acquiring the proper firearm Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL) and passing the requisite firearms safety courses.

Any legally-purchased handgun must then be registered and totally documented with the Chief Firearms Officer of Canada where the buyer is vetted, and his or her background thoroughly checked. 

In Ontario, this office is run through the provincial police headquarters in Orillia.

There is no need, therefore, to beef-up regulations.

Gang-bangers bypass all these requirements, of course.

People who don't respect the country's borders probably won't respect anything else about it, either, but hey! - election in 2019:

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol had a “busy weekend” a few days ago as they apprehended 20 individuals crossing illegally into their country from Canada. The illegal crossings took place on the borders of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.

In the middle of the night last Friday, Champlain Border Patrol guards stopped nine people crossing via the West Service Road in Champlain, New York.

“All the individuals are citizens of Haiti with no immigration documents that would allow them to legally enter or remain in the United States,” a U.S. Customs release states. “Agents apprehended all nine individuals and transported them to the Champlain Station for processing.” ...

When people cross illegally into Canada, the response from the federal government has typically been to provide them with housing and support until their asylum claim can be heard many months and potentially years from their date of arrival.

The United States appears to be treating those crossing illegally into their country differently, instead gearing them up for deportation as soon as possible.

Perhaps Pope Francis is just not keen on playing Big Aboriginal's game:

The frustrated comments by some after the news last week that Pope Francis would not travel to Canada to apologize indicate precisely why the TRC made a mistake. The spirit of goodwill and trust that over years led to the 2009 meeting is now being eroded.

Will anything good emerge from this latest friction? Perhaps it will invite observers to consider more carefully the status of the TRC “calls to action.” There is much good in them, but not all are of the same value.

For example, the TRC calls upon the “host countries of international sporting events such as the Olympics, Pan Am, and Commonwealth games to ensure that Indigenous peoples’ territorial protocols are respected, and local Indigenous communities are engaged in all aspects of planning and participating in such events.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quick to ask Pope Francis to make an apology visit to Canada. Will he soon be pressing the Chinese communists to make sure the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing respect Indigenous concerns? 

Oh, hell no, Father Raymond!


Also - don't make fun of the fairies! It hurts their little feelings:

What’s relevant to Carpay’s piece is that where once, it seemed that all the gay community wanted was equality — freedom from persecution, if you like, and the ability not to be fired from a job, not to be refused service, not to get an apartment, etc. because of sexuality — now, those who don’t embrace the full spectrum of gay and transgender life are often silenced, usually through government instrument or policy. And the community that once wanted only to be included is sometimes less than inclusive itself.

Carpay gave a number of examples: the Chilliwack, B.C., school trustee Barry Neufeld, who is being taken to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal by a union for his allegedly homophobic and transphobic statements (most notoriously, he said that teaching children that gender is fluid is akin to child abuse); the Toronto printer Scott Brockie, who refused to do a job for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives though he’d served individual gay customers and was in 2004 ordered to do the print job and pay the Archives $5,000 and the Ontario Human Rights Commission (as it then was) $15,000; and the Edmonton couple who were approved as adoptive parents by Catholic Social Services and then rejected last year by the Alberta government (Child and Family Services) who were concerned their Evangelical Christian beliefs would render them unable to “help” a child with “sexual identity issues.”

As Carpay wrote, “In a free country, you can argue that gay sex is sinful, or that gay sex is normal, natural and good.

“But a society can no longer be called free once the state attaches penalties, or withholds benefits, for speaking out one’s moral or philosophical beliefs, or for practising them peacefully with others in voluntary communities of like-minded citizens.”

Oh, dear:

Nearly a third of Canadians say they're not convinced that climate change is being caused by human and industrial activity, according to a newly released Abacus Data poll.

Imagine their surprise when they have to pay a carbon tax that they didn't want.




Of course she is:

Premier Kathleen Wynne is defending government debt fanboy, Liberal MPP Bob Delaney.

Delaney told the Mississauga News that not only was he OK  with tripling the province’s debt over the past 15 years, he’d “cheerfully” do it again.

“And I would do it proudly,” Delaney could be heard saying on an audio recording of his “budget breakfast” held Thursday.

Asked about the unusual comments Tuesday, Wynne said all her MPPs are enthusiastic about the investments her government has made and will make in people who need help.

 

That would be this Bob Delaney:

A Liberal backbencher said he was sorry Tuesday after police were called on a mother of an autistic child who had threatened a solitary protest at his constituency office.

Bob Delaney’s apology – four days after police knocked on Melanie Palaypayon’s door – came only after Premier Kathleen Wynne spoke to him and called him into her office for a meeting.

 

And this Kathleen Wynne: 

Dr. James Porter of IBI Behavioral Services says 85% of kids on IBI are older than five, so Wynne may be wiping out treatment for the vast majority of them.

When Wynne says she has the science to back this up, she’s referring to the report, “Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Expert Committee, An update on Clinical Practice Guidelines and Benchmarks in Ontario, January 27, 2014.”

But nowhere in that report is cutting off young children from IBI recommended. The 10 recommendations that conclude the report make no such suggestion.

Asked what he thinks Wynne is basing her decision on, Dr. Porter said: “I have no idea, because here is one expert telling her that what she is doing is wrong, totally harmful. We’re going to see, over the years, if it does not change, a huge impact in many different areas.”

 


Also:

Turns out he was not only wanted in Peel Region.

Toronto Police were looking for Ronjot Singh Dhami, too.

The 25-year-old surrendered to Peel Police last Monday and was charged with aggravated assault in a random attacked on an autistic man in Mississauga. Toronto officers were also looking to question him about a fight at the Rebel Nightclub on March 11.

“This was one of the reasons police were not happy when it was said he would turn himself in at his own pace,” said a police source. “Detectives knew Toronto Police wanted to talk to him about a fight between two distinct groups of men.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has requested that South Korean president Moon Jae-In visit Japan before the summit but has yet to receive a reply:

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked South Korean President Moon Jae-in to visit Japan before the planned summit between North and South Korea in late April, Japanese government sources said Tuesday.

He made the request during phone talks with Moon on March 16, but South Korea has yet to respond, and Moon may find it difficult to make time for a visit to Japan amid his preparations for the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on April 27, the sources said.

Abe wants to get Moon to raise with Kim the issue of North Korea’s abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.

Abe has said resolving the abduction issue is one of his government’s priorities. Tokyo officially lists 17 citizens as having been abducted by North Korea, and suspects the country’s involvement in other disappearances.

Moon might not see it but it is in his best interests to confer with Abe as it is highly doubtful that Kim Jong-Un will surrender his nuclear weapons.




Of course China has Russia's back:

China's military leadership has pledged its support to Russia as tensions between Moscow and the West further deteriorate into diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions and dueling defense drills.

It is no wonder that the Americans want to keep their Second Amendment. It's not like the cops are effective or anything:

Police in Northern California defended on Wednesday their decision not to detain the woman who later opened fire at YouTube’s offices after they found her sleeping in her car hours before the shooting, saying she gave them no cause for concern.

The shooter, Nasim Najafi Aghdam, wounded three people at YouTube’s San Bruno, Calif., headquarters on Tuesday before killing herself. Investigators said they believe Aghdam, an active YouTube user, was upset with the video-sharing site’s monetization policies and practices. The 39-year-old Iranian-born woman of Persian descent, who lived in Southern California, was reported missing by her family on March 31 in San Diego County.

According to a lengthy statement issued by the Mountain View Police Department, authorities said they discovered Aghdam sleeping in her car in a parking lot around 1:40 a.m. on Tuesday. Officers ran her license plate and discovered she had been reported missing and was considered “at risk” because she had never gone missing or left home before.

Post-Easter Sunday Blitz: the Rest of It

A closed mouth gathers no foot, Justin:

Noting that Trudeau’s message had been picked up by the New York Times, an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada official anticipated in an email to colleagues, the same evening as the tweet, that “there will be more pressure” to respond the following day.

Two days later, officials stickhandling media requests were worrying about overloading spokespeople. “I’m sorry, I’m trying to figure out how not to max you out,” one said in an email.

In addition to requests from media there were queries from Canada’s own officials posted abroad. 

Concerns from the embassy in Mexico appear in an email chain with the subject line “Guidance required on how to respond to increasing number of refugee enquiries in the region following change in US administration and Prime Minister’s tweet.”

The first secretary and “risk assessment officer” at the embassy, whose name is redacted, sent an initial message on Feb. 1, 2017, four days after the tweet.

“I am seeking official guidance/response from Ottawa on how to address refugee enquiries following all the publicity around the US ban on some nationalities, and our Prime Minister’s tweet on welcoming refugees,” the email began.

“We are receiving an increasing number of enquiries from the public about requesting refugee status in Canada, and a number clearly having links with our Prime Minister’s tweet this weekend. A significant number of the enquiries received since the weekend have been from nationals of the ‘US banned countries’, but we are also receiving them from all nationalities, both through emails and directly at our reception.”

I just don't even know here to begin with this:

Over the years, federal environmental assessments have measured everything from the number of endangered lynx near a proposed New Brunswick mine to the presence of dragonflies and butterflies at a British Columbia hydro site.

But under new federal legislation tabled in February, the scope of impact assessments is being broadened well beyond fauna, requiring project proponents to take into account “the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors.”

Part of the Liberal government’s embrace of gender-based analysis, the new provision has left environmental lawyers puzzled over how the provision will work if the bill becomes law.

“If you’re asking, ‘What does that mean?’ I’m going to have to say I don’t really know,” said Richard Lindgren, a staff lawyer at the Canadian Environmental Law Association.

You and me both, brother.


Also - you don't say:

Investigators said Monday they were examining "red flags" in a Washington state family's past in hopes of explaining why their SUV went off a 100-foot cliff in an apparent suicide plunge.

The wreckage was discovered last week on rocks along the coast near Mendocino, California, a few days after child welfare authorities in Washington began investigating whether the children were being abused or neglected.

The Hart family's two moms and three of the six adopted children were found dead; the three others are missing and presumed dead, possibly washed out to sea.

Police said Monday that social service authorities in Oregon contacted the West Linn Police Department about the family in 2013 while they were living in the area.

The questions were referred to the Oregon Department of Human Services, which cited privacy laws in refusing to confirm or deny the agency was involved.

Long before the crash, Sarah Hart pleaded guilty in 2011 to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota over what she said was a spanking given to one of her children. And last month, concerned neighbours in Woodland, Washington, contacted child welfare authorities, saying the children may have been going hungry.

On Sunday, authorities announced that data from the vehicle's software suggested the crash was deliberate.

Censorship, the Canadian way:

Canadians do not enjoy a universal right to freedom of speech; expressing and consuming certain ideas and opinions is regulated by law. This is rationalized by the Canadian constitution’s declaration that government has a right to restrain freedoms with “reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”

Ottawa has thus elected to impose “reasonable limits” on speech deemed obscene, seditious, treasonous, pro-terrorist, or hateful. Since “hate speech” tends to be the most controversial category, it’s worth walking through the numerous layers of law and authority that Canada’s government invokes in order to prevent Canadians from, say, reading the wrong sort of book.

Shark attack in Hawaii:

The scream came from the ocean off the private Kukio Golf and Beach Club on Hawaii’s largest island where, moments before, a man had been stand-up paddleboarding.

There’s no lifeguard on the beach at the private community, but there is a “private safety team” that launched a four-person canoe.

In the water, they found “a male individual who had been bumped off his paddle board about 100 to 150 yards offshore,” Fire Capt. Michael Grace told Honolulu Fox-affiliate KHON. “They recovered him from the ocean. He had injuries to his right-side extremities.”

Post-Easter Sunday Blitz: the Raw Deal Edition Redux

 Because some people are jerks.



Wynne's minion is proud of his wasting of tax-payers' money and would do it all over again:

During a constituent briefing about Ontario’s new budget, a Liberal MPP said he was “proud” of the province’s high levels of debt and “would do it again.”

“We have tripled (the debt) and we’re proud of it, because we can afford it,” MPP Bob Delaney said in comments published by the Mississauga News.

Ontario’s debt, which currently stands at $311.7 billion, is the most held by any sub-sovereign government in the world. It has also grown precipitously under the current Liberal government, who first took government when Ontario’s debt stood at $138.8 billion.

 
This Bob Delaney:

Premier Kathleen Wynne has told a Liberal backbencher to apologize for calling the police on the mother of an autistic child who had threatened a protest at his constituency office.

Wynne will meet later today with MPP Bob Delaney, but says she told him on the phone to apologize to Melanie Palaypayon.

I bet he's proud of that arm-twisting, too.




Wynne is going to regret her anti-"Buy American" policy:

The Ontario government is pushing back against New York State's Buy American law by limiting public sector procurement with suppliers in that state.

A new regulation that took effect Sunday restricts government contracts with New York State suppliers, specifically when it comes to the use of structural iron.

In a statement Monday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said the move is a response to legislation that took effect in New York State this weekend requiring the use of American-made iron in certain government road and bridge construction projects.

Wynne said Ontario's regulation is meant to level the playing field, and will immediately be repealed if New York State abandons its Buy American restrictions.

"I have consistently supported open and competitive procurement because it helps create good jobs on both sides of the border, but it has to be a two-way street," she said.

... says the broad who creates jobs losses. 

It's just money:

The Trudeau government’s trip to this year’s exclusive gathering of global elites in Davos cost taxpayers almost $700,000, with tens of thousands of dollars for pricey accommodations in the swanky Swiss resort, newly released documents show.

The total cost of the three-day trip in January to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland was $678,000, most of that for hotels, office and room rentals and transportation, according to figures recently tabled in Parliament. 

The cost of flying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his delegation on a government jet from Ottawa to Zurich was almost $200,000, the documents said. The RCMP requires prime ministers to fly on government aircraft for security reasons.

Not all amounts associated with the trip have been publicly reported yet.

No, Andy. ALL of it goes on record:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has accepted the Liberal government's offer of a briefing on the Jaspal Atwal affair, but he has some conditions.

In a statement released Tuesday, Scheer said he told the government that he will invite members of his caucus and the media to attend the portion of the briefing dealing with non-classified information.

If the briefing moves to classified details, Scheer said only Tory MPs who are, like him, members of the Queen's Privy Council, will stay in the room for a separate briefing.

This only enables Justin to get away with his wrong-doings, Andy. Step up your grill game.




But that would require humility and empathy. Liberals don't have the capacity for either:

Someone needs to send this Liberal government an urgent message: Stop calling us deplorables!

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, under calm but persistent questioning from Evan Solomon on CTV’s Question Period, blurted out Sunday that “I have no time for folks who are like, you know, ‘we shouldn’t take action,’ ” on climate change.

She later clarified that she meant politicians, not ordinary folk. But the minister acknowledged ”I get frustrated,” when people oppose the Liberals’ national carbon tax to fight global warming.

This is no way to win votes and influence premiers.

Bill Morneau has much the same mindset as Ms. McKenna. The Finance Minister was testifying before a parliamentary committee last week when Conservative MP Lisa Raitt accused him of hypocrisy for promoting gender equality in words but not deeds.

“I actually find your line of questioning to be offensive,” Mr. Morneau responded, insisting that promoting women was a core Liberal priority.

“We will drag along the Neanderthals who don’t agree with that and that will be our continuing approach,” he concluded.

It’s all reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s statement during the 2016 election campaign that “you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,” who were, “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic − you name it.” That sentence helped make Donald Trump president.

That's because the Americans would not put up with a mincing attention-seeker who is prone to anger but Canadians will every time.

Bob Rae may feel perfectly entitled to judge Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung Sung Suu Kyi, because he is a white liberal who has never had his house of worship burned to the ground but is he ready to grill Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim nation, for turning away the Rohingya, the refugees-du-jour?:

Malaysian authorities said Monday that they have stepped up patrols to intercept a boat thought to be carrying dozens of people from Myanmar's beleaguered Rohingya Muslim minority seeking refuge in the country.

Meanwhile, an expert on the plight of the Rohingya said the sighting of the boat people does not portend a new exodus by sea.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said it has increased patrols in the Malacca Straits and Andaman Sea, especially near Langkawi island, after hearing of Sunday's stopover of a fishing boat with 56 people at an island in southern Thailand's Krabi province.

The boat stopped at the island because it had been damaged in a storm. Thai officials said it was repaired and supplied with food and fuel, and sent on its way to predominantly Muslim Malaysia, the destination sought by those aboard.

Rohingya, treated as undesirables in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, used to flee by sea by the thousands each year. About 700,000 have fled western Myanmar's Rakhine state to Bangladesh since last August to escape a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by Myanmar's army.

Thailand has an official policy of pushing back boat people from its shores. Those who have landed in recent years — especially during a deluge of boat people in 2015 — have been kept in detention centres . There have also been many cases of Rohingya landing in Thailand being taken by human traffickers and forced into near-slavery, held for ransom or otherwise abused.

Most Rohingya prefer to head to Malaysia, whose dominant Malay Muslim population makes it a more sympathetic destination, although its policy on allowing them in is somewhat nebulous.

What Israel won't take, Justin will:

In an abrupt and startling reversal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nixed his own deal Tuesday with the United Nations to resettle tens of thousands of African migrants in Israel and other Western nations, caving in to nationalist critics who have demonized the migrants for taking over poor neighbourhoods in Tel Aviv.

If people were truly appalled at what Putin has done, he would have been a pariah since he invaded Georgia, not scorned for allegedly meddling in the American election or  the collateral damage of a failed poisoning:

How far a row escalates between Moscow and the West over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain does not depend on Russia, its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news briefing on Monday.

In times of cold war there were some rules, but now Britain and the United States had dropped all propriety and were playing children's games, he said.

Post-Easter Sunday Blitz: the Raw Deal Edition

Sympathy is for particular voters blocks, apparently:

Justin Trudeau was very quick to comment on the Hijab Hoax story, yet over 24 hours after two Catholic Churches in Halifax were defaced, Trudeau hasn’t said anything.

As I reported earlier, two Catholic Churches in Halifax were found defaced with anti-Christian graffiti on Easter Sunday.

Many were quick to condemn the hateful anti-Christian message, including Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer …

Yet, Trudeau hasn’t spoken out like Scheer. In fact Trudeau hasn’t said anything about it.

 
This graffiti:

A Halifax pastor says he felt "violated" after the front doors of his parish were vandalized.

St. Agnes Church was one of two Catholic churches in the Nova Scotia capital that were hit with obscene graffiti overnight on Saturday.

Father Paul Morris was preparing to deliver the 10:30 a.m. Easter mass when a concerned parishioner alerted him to graffiti on the front doors of the building.

Someone had spray-painted obscene words and drawings on the building, where Morris was expecting nearly a thousand people to attend the service.

"When you're the victim of crime, there is a great feeling of being violated. And that's how I felt. I felt sad, I felt angry, my head was spinning," he said in an interview Sunday.

"I think it's atrocious. It's appalling that someone would desecrate any house of worship."

 
Apologies are for closers:

The NDP plans to table a motion in the House of Commons calling on Pope Francis to apologize for the abuse suffered by Indigenous children at Indian residential schools, according to a letter sent by the federal party's MPs Monday to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The letter did not state when the NDP planned to table the motion, which would call on the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to invite the Pope to Canada to issue the apology. 

"Easter is traditionally a time of renewal. But in Canada there can be no renewal, and the work of reconciliation will not be complete, without an apology from the Pope," said the letter written by NDP MPs Charlie Angus and Romeo Saganash.

The MPs called on Trudeau to support the motion.

Screw off. 

If he was so bothered by this egregious abuse of rights, why did he wait until he knew how everyone felt before acting? :

In a letter to an employer in his Ontario riding, a Liberal MP says his own government is wrongly invoking the Charter of Rights and Freedoms on its controversial Canada Summer Jobs attestation, and calls the whole thing “regrettable” and a “lamentable state of affairs.”

The newly added clause requires applicants for the grant program to declare their core mandate respects “the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” and goes on to specifically mention reproductive rights, which means access to abortions.

“In my riding of Scarborough-Guildwood, I am personally aware of a number of organizations negatively impacted,” says the letter from John McKay, who is known to be pro-life.

“I consider this to be a lamentable state of affairs, and have expressed my views both inside and outside caucus in the strongest possible terms.”

Anyone who votes for this is the reason why we can't have nice things:

Interest expenses are set to increase by over $2 billion from 2021 relative to the last fiscal year. If debt costs take up a larger share of total revenues, that leaves less room for other priorities. Let’s put that $2 billion in perspective. It will take all the province’s tax revenues from alcohol and tobacco just to cover the expected increase in interest expenses over the next few years. Similarly, the province’s expected revenues from the cap-and-trade carbon-control program are about how much interest expenses are set to grow. That $2 billion is also the entire budget of the provincial Ministry of the Attorney General.

I still wouldn't hand over the corpses:

The Israeli military has said it will not return the bodies of two Palestinian gunmen killed in Friday’s clashes until Hamas frees two Israeli citizens being held in Gaza as well as the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in the 2014 war.

Post-Easter Sunday Blitz: Climate Barbie's Crazy Adventures

"Weather" Minister Catherine McKenna

Perhaps someone needs to remind this bit of walking plastic who she works for:

Solomon pointed out that the government – despite imposing carbon taxes on some unwilling provinces – is a decade behind their targets, and many provinces are poised to elect leaders who promise to fight the carbon tax.

He also noted that Alberta signed on to the federal climate plan in exchange for the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Yet, Alberta signed on, and the pipeline is being delayed to death.

Clearly, McKenna’s climate plan – which is a total scam designed to fleece taxpayers – is on the ropes. However, McKenna had no good answers to the questions put to her by Solomon, repeating tired talking points.

Then, she exhibited the arrogance that has become the trademark of the Trudeau government, saying she has “no time” for those who “don’t want to take action,” (AKA disagree with her climate plan).

Amazingly, Solomon actually had to remind McKenna that this is a democracy, saying “your job is to have time for folks who care about this issue and want to understand it.”
McKenna then desperately tried backtracking, saying she was talking about “politicians.” Of course, we know she was talking about everyone in Canada who has a different view than her, as she regularly smears all opponents as “deniers.”

 
Any member of the public or in her constituency has the right to grill Climate Barbie on whether or not carbon is a pollutant or why she doesn't think that a sweeping imposed tax based on faulty science is a dictatorial and ineffective measure. If Climate Barbie is too arrogant for such public service, she is welcome to pull that crap in the private sector where her plastic @$$ would be canned and her belongings packed up in her Barbie camper with Ken and Skipper.


It says a lot that Justin hasn't shelved her elsewhere as he has done with the other female members of his cabinet because, you know, election in 2019.


 

Post-Easter Sunday Blitz: the Asian Edition

Is everyone enjoying the Easter season?

Good.




The Soviets used to deny the existence of gulags, too:

North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun complained about the “human rights racket” on Monday, charging that the United States and its “vassal forces” have fabricated complaints about the appalling state of human rights in North Korea to justify ongoing sanctions and trick the North Korean people into turning against their government.

Rodong Sinmun fulminated against what it described as lies “cooked up” by the evil Americans and propagated by “egging despicable human scum” at international organizations.

(Sidebar: yes, about that ...)

 


Secure in the knowledge that the upcoming summit is just a convenient stalling tactic that everyone is entertaining, the third Kim can afford to be cocky. It's not like anyone will assassinate him or anything.

Unlike a certain elder half-brother who was.


Also:

The head of North Korea's United Front Department on Monday identified himself as "what South Koreans are calling the mastermind of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan sinking" in 2010.  ...

Kim was the chief of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, which is charged with espionage against South Korea, from February 2009 to early 2016, and South Korean military and intelligence authorities concluded that the bureau was behind the sinking. 

But both the regime and Kim himself claim the entire operation was faked and have never apologized for the death of 46 South Korean sailors. 

It seems that by joking about his role, Kim was in fact trying to distance himself from the attack. But the families of the fallen sailors were enraged. A spokesperson said it was "intolerable" for Kim to joke about the incident.

China, North Korea's backer, does not want to be left standing when all is said and done after the May summit:

Chinese President Xi Jinping is trying to push his way back to the front in negotiations about North Korea's nuclear weapons.

Xi swiftly invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Beijing when an inter-Korean summit and a U.S.-North Korea summit suddenly appeared on the horizon. China is the first foreign country that the reclusive North Korean leader has visited since taking power.

North Korea isn't the only pie in which China has its fingers:

The Global Times – a newspaper controlled and run by the Communist Party of China – has taken an insulting, arrogant, and threatening line towards Canada.

As noted by Reuters, the paper attacked Canada for proposed measures against steel being dumped into Canada (often from China) and then shipped into the US to bypass tariffs. ...

Here are some key parts of the Global Times article:

“Canada’s steel imports from China only make up 9.8 percent of its total imports, with nearly no aluminum imports from China. In fact, Canada is more like a US colony economically, and half of its trade is with the US.”

“Meanwhile, China is Canada’s second largest trading partner, with the fastest growth in trade. The two countries enjoy sound trade ties and have no major disputes. But by following the US suit, Canada is acting like a crafty merchant.”

Well, China ought to know about colonies and buffer states.

It should also have a few contingency plans for when India reduces it to a pile of radioactive rubble and therefore not in a condition to dump steel anywhere.


Also - two can play at this game:

The Chinese government plans to immediately impose tariffs on 128 U.S. products, including pork and certain fruits, a direct response to President Trump’s recent moves to pursue numerous trade restrictions against Beijing.

 Jesus is still bigger than Xi, no matter how many bishop plants China installs:

Restricting the Vatican’s control over the appointment of bishops in China does not infringe on religious freedom, a Chinese official said Tuesday, amid historic negotiations between Beijing and the Holy See aimed at healing divisions.

Chen Zongrong, an official overseeing religious affairs, said Beijing would not allow “foreign forces” to govern the country’s faith groups.

“The Chinese constitution clearly states that China’s religious groups and religious affairs cannot be controlled by foreign forces, and (the foreign forces) should not interfere in Chinese religious affairs in any way,”

“I disagree with the view that preventing Rome from having full control over the selection of bishops hinders religious freedom,” Chen said.

If the Vatican cannot install bishops then it clearly has no freedom.

But this obfuscation is just an exercise in arrogance from a totalitarian government and nothing more.



(Paws up)