Like the late-stage Leonid Brezhnev, Biden is now a president in name only. – Victor Davis Hanson
Thursday On Turtle Island
Woke Europe: Paul Joseph Watson on tourism in Spain. And grow up Greta.
Dementia Joe’s America: Inside the Biden administration. The cravenness of the media. His first interview. The Joe Biden experience.
Blackie’s Canada: New big screen TVs and pickup trucks for everyone. Our elites burn jet fuel to fight global warming.
Your morning meme. A cartoon.
Let Them Eat Taser
It’s official: forced Covid-19 nasal swab PCR tests for incoming travellers under the Quarantine Act, were unlawful. This is according to Justice Paul Monahan of the Ontario Court of Justice. Stay tuned for full decision. The implications of this ruling are massive.
An Historical Examination of NATO
Prior to the Soviet Union falling apart in 1991, the presence of NATO made complete sense. But after that, why did it grow and not contract?
July 11, 2024: Reader Tips
This evening, we return to 1971 and present The Vanishing Point. It has pretty high Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 79%/81%.
Your highest rated tips are always appreciated here!
Empty Promises
I’ll believe it when I see it. “Senior government officials” were likely waiting to backpedal at precisely the moment the announcement was made.
Canada definitely plans to move forward with the purchase of new submarines, the federal government announced on the margins of the NATO Summit on Wednesday.
Up to now, the government has spoken only about the possibility of replacing the aging Victoria-class boats. But in the face of mounting criticism of Canada’s defence spending by allies — notably the United States — Ottawa has given the proposal the green light.
A senior government official, speaking on background, said they could not confirm how much the plan will cost, how many boats will be purchased or when they will arrive.
I Miss The Earth
Globe and Mail- Astronauts confident Boeing space capsule can safely return them to Earth, despite failures
NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Boeing’s BA-N new Starliner capsule early last month, the first people to ride it. Leaks and thruster failures almost derailed their arrival at the International Space Station, and has kept them there much longer than planned.
Spreading The Love
Eugyppius- Disorderly “refugees” turn Erfurt commuter rail line into a daily hell
The problems are especially acute on a route between the state capital in Erfurt and a mid-sized town 50km to the south called Suhl. The reason is that Suhl is home to Thüringen’s initial refugee reception facility. At any given time, hundreds of migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey are housed in these flats, and they’re constantly taking the train to and from Erfurt, and terrorising everybody else who is doing the same thing.
Ben Shapiro Testifies Before Congress on Conservative Ad Suppression
Worth the watch: Ben Shapiro Testifies Before Congress
Update: 5 minutes of Shapiro vs Swalwell
Your House Is Too Big
Anti-Taxxer- I watched this entire 34 minute video so you didn’t have to. It starts with the usual land acknowledgment blah blah blah and is rather boring. There is a lot of newspeak which confuses home equity with housing equity. But at the 19 minute mark Justin Trudeau drops this bomb.
No Rush
We can wait.
Globe and Mail- Ottawa recommends timelines for access to historical records
On Wednesday, the Treasury Board announced that it was introducing “sunset clauses” – which establish a date at which sensitive records can be released, often 20, 25 or 30 years after their creation – for federal records. These clauses are common in democracies around the world.
California Dreaming
Nickels and Dimes
Blacklocks- Blair Figures Inflated: Report
Defence Minister Bill Blair inflated numbers on military spending, says a Budget Office report.
“The Budget Office forecasts Canada’s military expenditure will rise from 1.29 percent of GDP in 2025 to a peak of 1.49 percent of GDP in 2026 before falling and stabilizing at 1.42 percent by 2030.
The defence department in an April 8 budget note Addendum: National Defence Spending predicted military expenditures would grow to 1.76 percent of GDP by 2030. NATO mandates a two percent target.
Best Healthcare System In The World
We need more administrators with higher salaries that should be paid for by higher taxes on primary health care providers. Easy peasy.
Canadian Press- Nova Scotia emergency department deaths hit six-year high, doctors point to ‘bed-blocking’
Retired doctor Robert Martel, who worked in Nova Scotia ERs for decades, says many beds in emergency departments are blocked because they are occupied by patients who can’t get a spot in long-term care or who need community services. He says patients are also showing up at emergency rooms far sicker than they should be, because they don’t have a regular doctor who could have detected their illness earlier.
A Crack in Trudeau’s Rainbow-coloured Iron Curtain
NATO is not happy with Lil’ Justin:
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Canada’s failure to hit the NATO target came up in meetings Trudeau held Monday and Tuesday with American politicians, and that the government was aware that Canada is being “called out” for falling short as the alliance gathered in Washington to mark its 75th anniversary at a time of global tensions and war in Europe.
The discussions were taking place as the Canadian delegation fielded criticism over the lack of a clear plan to increase Ottawa’s military spending to at least two per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP). With Russia’s war in Ukraine, American pressure and increasing competition between the West and China fuelling a drive across the alliance towards military expansion, a growing number of NATO’s 32 members are hitting that two-per-cent target — more than 20 by the end of this year, according to NATO’s most recent estimate. But Canada remains near the bottom of the list, with military spending equivalent to 1.37 per cent of its GDP, the NATO estimate says.
“Free”
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Such A Nice Boy
RCMP- 25-year-old man arrested following sexual assault
When police arrived at the scene, they learned that a man had been walking around the premises, and was groping people. There were at least twelve victims, some of whom were under the age of 16.
Police located the individual who was still on the premises, and arrested him without incident. He was later released from custody.
Canada Is Back Baby!
Fellow Travelers
In the pantheon of fellow travelers who visited the Soviet Union over the years, few stand out more in their abject appeasement of that totalitarian nightmare than American socialist John Dewey. In 1928, he wrote a series of articles concerning Russia for the “progressive” magazine The New Republic, which are still accessible in their archives. His ability to produce pages and pages of such tripe without a hint of critical thought is nothing less than stunning.
For there was a time when the whole industrial structure of Russia was so disorganized from the World War, the blockade and civil war, that the government practically took over the management of the cooperatives. (even of this period it is important to know that the latter jealously safeguarded in legal form their autonomy by formally voting, as if they were their own independent decisions, the measures forced upon them by the government.) This state of affairs not longer exists: on the contrary, the free and democratically conducted cooperative movement has assumed a new vitality –subject, of course to control of prices by the State.
It seems that “misinformation” was even a term back then, and, like today, was used as a device for diverting attention away from the excesses of the state.
For there is reason to believe that the misinformation I received about the status of cooperative undertakings in Russia was not only honestly given, but was based on recollection of conditions that obtained several years ago.
Leave It To Beaver
The Canadian Greens continue as the punchline of Canadian politics. If they had any real integrity, they’d campaign under their true identity — The Elizabeth May Party.
Green Party deputy leader Jonathan Pedneault has announced he is stepping down from his job for “personal reasons.”
Pedneault made the announcement on Tuesday in Ottawa, where he said he will provide no further comments on his decision.
“angry, cranky” @ElizabethMay vows to lead Greens into another elxn to remind voters how they “f–ked this planet.”