Canada in the news

Quite a dismal surprise to find Toronto in the midst of one of our modern forms of multicultural horror. I am particularly struck by the outrage expressed in this CTV headline: 10 dead, 15 injured in Toronto van incident. Incident, as in: oh, incidentally. Adding this:

Deputy Police Chief Peter Yuen told reporters Monday afternoon that police received multiple calls around 1:30 p.m. about a vehicle “driving on Yonge Street, striking a number of pedestrians between Finch Avenue and Sheppard Avenue.”

Yuen said one suspect was in custody, the van had been located and all available resources had been mobilized to investigate the situation. Sources told CTV’s Mercedes Stephenson that the suspect is Alek Minassian.

“I want to assure the public, the rest of the city (is) adequately policed,” Yuen said.

No doubt everyone now feels reassured. Of course, the ones who are likely being policed are those speculating in public about who the killer was and why he had done what he did.

And also from the Old Dominion, and indeed also from Toronto, we have: Jordan Peterson on Kanye Backlash: Candace Owens Is Right to Object to ‘Victimization Narrative’.

On Monday, Peterson, a University of Toronto psychology professor and author, said it’s “very, very dangerous” for the radical left to divide people into two groups — those who are victimized and those who are the oppressors.

Meanwhile Shania Twain apologizes after saying she would have voted for Trump. Retrospectively, she now says she is sorry she said it, but doesn’t change what she really would have done on November 8, 2016, had she been an American and not from the frozen north.

Who knows? Maybe the worms really are turning

NeverTrumpers: What if Trump really is making America great again?

They are afflicted with a nagging suspicion. Trump might, how shall they whisper it, Make America Great Again.

The tax bill has given the economy a bit of a tailwind, most Americans have more money in their pockets, and corporations have greater incentives to step up spending and to bring some funds home. The NAFTA trade agreement with Mexico and Canada likely will be revised to America’s advantage. The president’s decision to punish Assad for crossing the red line that Obama refused to enforce is popular and his decision to defer to his military advisers and keep the response targeted so as not to induce a response from Russia has met with broad approval. His threats against North Korea—my nukes are bigger than your nukes—appalled the fastidious members of the establishment diplomatic community, but have Kim Jong-un claiming to be willing to negotiate a peace treaty with South Korea and détente with the United States.

Then there is China. Trump has done what previous administrations failed to do: forced China to make some concessions, opening at least a crack in the wall it has erected against imports. Majority-owned American financial firms will gain entry into several sectors, and tariffs on made-in-America automobiles will come down, while the United States tightens restrictions on intellectual property theft by the Chinese regime, in part by limiting China’s ability to buy tech-heavy U.S. firms. Even dyed-in-the-cotton-apparel free-traders are now conceding that the president’s negotiating tactic—threaten to bring down the international system, unless it gets fixed—is working. And should have been tried administrations ago. . . .

So here is BT and AT:

Before Trump, Assad could use chemical weapons with impunity; after Trump, he pays a steep price. BT, China could plunder American intellectual property and disregard the rules of the trading system that it has manipulated in its rise to power; AT, it fears Trump’s tariffs sufficiently to begin modifying its unfair trading practices. BT, Russia could wage cyberwar on the U.S. electoral system without fear of response from America; AT, Putin and his oligarch cronies find themselves being cut off from access to the world financial system. BT, the economy was mired in sub-trend growth; AT and his tax cut, growth is up. BT, in the post-war years most presidents projected a dignity of sorts; AT, presidential dignity is not even considered a virtue.

The above is via Instapundit. The one below is from The Guardian! The ‘deep state’ is real. But are its leaks against Trump justified? where the answer is no. This is the subhead:

Even the most severe critics of the US president should worry about this subtle form of anti-democratic abuse

And worry you should. These are the concluding paras:

The whole intelligence collection system – which has an importance that far transcends its undoubtedly large importance in this discrete context – is vulnerable here for the simple reason that the intermixture of politics with intelligence collection is the intelligence system’s Achilles’ heel.

If surveillance comes to be seen through a domestic political lens, with domestic political winners and losers, the intelligence community will have a very hard time acting with needed public credibility. And that in turn means it will have a harder time doing what it needs to do to keep us safe.

Maybe, but only just maybe, there might be a bit of realism finding its way through. There are plenty of problems to be dealt with, and for a change there is a president who not only wishes to fix things, but has actually shown that he might just be able to. Would be nice if others began to see an advantage working with him on things they can agree on, and not just opposing what he is doing just because of who these things are being done by.

AND THERE’S MORE: This is via John Hinderaker at Powerline: CANDACE OWENS’ MOMENT: I’M NOT FAR RIGHT, I’M FREE

Which also includes this:

Yesterday morning, Kanye West tweeted his approval of Candace:

KANYE WEST

@kanyewest

I love the way Candace Owens thinks

And if you go to the link there’s much more as well.

Madness is the new normal

Does seem to show how relatively incompetent all of Trump’s recent predecessors were. But there is still all of this.

China military islands now control South China Sea…
Beijing final touches on battle plan to take back Taiwan?
Xi says internet control key to stability…

Not to mention this.

Moscow sends warship through English Channel…
ISIS Threatens CNN, Universal Studios…
LONDONISTAN: Leading Surgeon Predicts Summer of Carnage…
Al-Qaeda Using GOOGLE Maps to Plan Attacks…
Iran vows ‘expected and unexpected’ moves if U.S. exits nuclear deal

Yet what are the dominant issues for the loyal opposition and the media?

Problem solving as an aim now seems to be addressed towards solving the psychological problems of around half the population and not dealing with political issues. As found here, for example:

TO ALL HER OTHER CHARMS, SHE ADDS PARANOIA:  ‘They Were Never Going to Let Me Be President,’ Said the Woman Who Thought It Was Her Due.

 

It’s much worse than you might ever have thought

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: Holocaust Museum tour by lawmaker who said Jews control the weather does not go well.

The photo, taken in 1935, depicts a woman in a dark dress shuffling down a street in Norden, Germany. A large sign hangs from her neck: “I am a German girl and allowed myself to be defiled by a Jew.” She is surrounded by Nazi stormtroopers.

D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) studied the image. “Are they protecting her?”

Lynn Williams, an expert on educational programs at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and White’s tour guide for the day, stared at the photo.

“No,” she said. “They’re marching her through.”

“Marching through is protecting,” White said.

“I think they’re humiliating her,” Williams replied.

* * * * * * *

The tour, scheduled to last 90 minutes, was halfway done. Seven of White’s staff members stayed with the guide, who soon was showing them an exhibit on the Warsaw Ghetto. As she explained the walling in of Polish Jews, one aide asked whether it was similar to “a gated community.”

Glazer spoke up.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t call it a gated community,” she said. “More like a prison.”

Via Instapundit

“The perpetrator is considered to be as much of a victim as the victim”

This is so spot on it’s amazing no one has said it before. He is talking about the stabbings in London:

“All of the attacks are non-white, and so they cannot be truthfully addressed by the British government or the Met Police or the BBC because of political correctness.

“What this means is that the perpetrator is considered to be as much of a victim as the actual victim.”

Soon they will have to start arresting the people who are stabbed for incitement to violence.

“Without me, they wouldn’t be discussing anything”

Stormy Daniels is still news, but this barely raises a ripple: US and North Korea holding ‘extremely high level’ talks ahead of Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-un.

“We have had direct talks at very high levels – extremely high levels – with North Korea,” Trump said.

“We’ll either have a very good meeting or we won’t have a good meeting,” he added. “And maybe we won’t even have a meeting at all, depending on what’s going in. But I think that there’s a great chance to solve a world problem.” The president did not answer shouted questions about whether he has spoken with Kim.

Kim’s offer for a summit was initially conveyed to Trump by South Korea last month, and the president shocked many when it was announced that he had accepted. US officials have indicated over the past two weeks that North Korea’s government has communicated directly with Washington that it is ready to discuss its nuclear weapons program.

Abe, who has voiced fears that short- and medium-range missiles that pose a threat to Japan might not be part of the US negotiations, praised Trump on Tuesday for his bravery in agreeing to meet with the North Korean dictator.

“I’d like to commend Donald’s courage in his decision to have the upcoming summit meeting with the North Korean leader,” Abe said.

Trump took credit for the inter-Korean talks, saying, “Without us and without me, in particular, I guess you would have to say, they wouldn’t be discussing anything.”

Time Magazine does, however, find the right sort of nincompoop analysis: Will Trump Make a Bad Deal With North Korea?

You never know, but he’ll likely make a better deal than anyone else has since 1950. But it is a funny thing that I share one worry with the media and the left: whether Trump will make it for another seven years. The difference is they worry that he will and I worry that he won’t.

The Plot to Kill Stalin from 1953

After watching the whole 90 minutes, I am beginning to understand modern American politics a bit better.

Watching the ads is almost as interesting as the story. Then they advertised the improving availability of energy. Now we are actually trying to make our energy supplies as unreliable as possible.

The conspiracy to make Tim Kaine president

I’ve always known this to be true: Comey: I Announced The Hillary Investigation Because Polls Showed Her Ahead.

The question is why would he do it? And the answer is that Obama and Comey were trying to craft an election outcome in which Hillary would be elected but would then have to resign, or at the very minimum step aside and then resign, because of the scandal related to her email servers. When it comes to Tim Kaine, you need to bear this in mind:

In November of 2005, during Obama’s first year in the Senate, Obama campaigned for Kaine in the Virginia gubernatorial race. Just over a year later, in February of 2007—as the Los Angeles Times reports—Kaine became the first statewide elected Democrat outside of Illinois to support Obama’s presidential bid against the Democratic heir apparent, Hillary Clinton.

The Clintons are not exactly known for their short memories. So how is it that someone who was among the first to break ranks with Hillary in 2007 was rewarded with the top prize that she could grant in 2016? Could it be that Clinton decided that the largely unknown Kaine was such a big political asset that she should let bygones by bygones? Or could it be that Clinton, who has tied herself to Obama and is highly dependent on his help in turning out the Democratic base, was told whom to pick?

They needed Hillary to win but needed a reason to then be able to push her aside.

So here is the wonderful irony. Donald Trump is President because of Obama and Comey, just as Hillary has so often said. And if you think this is all new, see my post from November 1, 2016: Raisin’ Kaine to the highest office in the land. Found here as well: I’ve worked out how it ends published three days later. Both posts are found in my blog diary of the 2016 election: The Art of the Impossible.

Comey says it. Hillary says it. But no one but them, and perhaps now you, understands what went on and how it all worked out.

ADDENDUM: I have taken in the following ten points from an earlier post on this issue titled What really happened. This is what I think really happened spelled out in sequential order.

1) Obama hates Hillary.

2) Tim Kaine is not just from the Obama side of the Democratic Party but was one of the first of the Democrats to defect to Obama in 2007. She would have hated Kaine to an infinite degree. Hillary would never ever under ordinary circumstances have chosen him for her Vice President, even assuming he would be a great campaign asset which he most assuredly was not.

3) However, she can only run for president if she is not under indictment for the undoubtedly illegal use of an insecure server. Hillary was therefore compelled to choose someone who she would never have chosen as her Vice Presidential candidate.

4) Obama’s aim was to be succeeded by someone with his own agenda to carry on where he had left off.

5) Hillary wanted to be president, but not necessarily serve as president. She is a sick woman which can hardly be denied. She might not have lasted a year before her illnesses would have forced her to resign.

6) But in any case, just in case she was reluctant to give up the presidency once she had it, the evidence of illegal activity could be used to impeach her if she chose to battle on, or at the very least, force her to stand aside and allow the Vice President to take over.

7) Comey had begun the original investigation, which was extraordinary enough. But since it is necessary for Hillary to win if Kaine was to become president, Comey – under instruction – says on his own bat that she has no case to answer.

8) Hillary then moves to the front and looks set to win the election. But now there is no means to force her from office if she doesn’t want to go. So suddenly 650,000 classified emails are found on Weiner’s laptop leading Comey – under instruction from Obama – to open the investigation again.

9) But then, to everyone’s astonishment on the Democrat side of politics, Trump begins to move ahead in the last week of the election, throwing the result into doubt. The investigation against Hillary therefore needs to be shut down immediately. Comey therefore declares that they FBI has gone through the 650,000 emails and states there is nothing there to prosecute.

10) But by then it is too late and Trump gathers just enough momentum due to the various scandals that have surrounded Hillary to win the election.

 

Live from Syria

Is the use of gas by Syria against its own population a vital American interest?