More powerful than an Aztec death whistle

We took a trip down south over the weekend so we could spend some time with our grand-daughter and her parents. The parents are highly educated overachievers. They are also the practitioners of something called "gentle parenting." I, personally, have always been a practitioner of something called "gentle, but let's not overdo it" parenting. We took Mom and Dad and Baby Bean to a nice family breakfast joint. Baby Bean is a supremely confident and well-adjusted almost three. From time to time, she chooses to advocate for herself by unleashing, quite deliberately, a sound that is best described as a cross between a Stuka dive-bomber and an air-raid siren. More frightening than an Aztec death whistle. The air-raid death whistle didn't last more than 15 seconds before her father tossed her over his shoulder and exited the restaurant. So much for gentle parenting. God bless parents everywhere who recognize the fact that children need limits.

95 year-old Richard Falk deemed potential security threat by Canada

The retired Princeton prof was en route to a conference in Ottawa put on by a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups. According to the editorial values espoused by legacy Canadian media, to be pro-Palestine means you're anti-Israel, which makes you, by default, a Jew-hating anti-semite. And we don't want those types thinking they can just waltz across the border to spread Jew-hate on the pretext of attending a conference of anti-semites! So good on those alert Canadian border guards who picked up the phone when Irv Cotler called and ordered them to make an example of the 95yo retired academic. Apparently Irv still has schlep. Falk got a friendly soviet-style welcome with a four hour "examination of his papers" on his arrival. Let that be a lesson to all who imagine they can hide their Jew-hate by pretending they care about Palestinians.

Kanye West back on meds

There is a headline at the Jerusalem Post today that will bring tears of joy to the many Kanye fans in the Holy Land who have been distraught over allegedly antisemitic remarks attributed to the notorious rapper. "Kanye West meets Rabbi Pinto to make ammends for antisemitic statements." Yup, Ye is over in Israel grovelling for forgivness. "I meant no harm, Rabbi. When I said I loved Adolf Hitler I was talking about Adolph Lu Hitler, the famous Indian rapper and politician. I really love Jews, so please forgive me so I can get my career back."

Canada awakes from World Series fever dream

For a few short but glorious weeks the hopes of this great nation were fully invested in a couple dozen (mostly) American millionaires who get paid to play baseball. That's over now. Time to snap out of the trance. Back to reality! I see where our Banker-in-charge paid a visit to Chairman Xi to extend an olive branch of sorts. Sorry about that Two Michaels stuff... let's get the Canada-China relationship back on track! Fair enough. Makes sense now that we're desperate to expand our trade relationships beyond the USA. Remember, it was Ottawa's toadying to US dictats that derailed the Canada-China relationship to begin with. A couple of days after the photo-op with Xi, Carney sends his Defence Minister to Manila to sign a defence deal with the government of Bongbong Marcos, so we can help Phillipines "deter Chinese aggression." How stupid is that? In the first place, whoever came up with that moronic headline should be aware that the US has nine military bases in the Phillipines. Even a complete idiot should be able to figure out that if those nine US bases fail to deter Chinese aggression, a defence deal with Canada is utterly pointless. So why bother? I'll tell you why. Because even as our leaders loudly proclaim their defiance of Trump, they don't want to piss him off too much. That leads to embarrassments like having to apologize to Trump for that 75 million TV ad Doug Ford invested our tax dollars in. Hence the need to signal our continued allegience to the American Empire with empty gestures like the Phillipines deal.

Canada keen to commit half a trillion dollars to obsolete weapons

The Globe & Mail had a full-page fluffer yesterday re: Carney's historic choice; which foreign-built attack submarine should Canada buy? There is of course another possible answer; let's not buy any! Parse the Globe story and you'll find who the preferred target of those new submarines will be; Russia. We are told the lifetime costs of this pending contract will be north of $100 millions. Here's a thought. Ukraine, with no navy to speak of, has pretty much shut down Russia's Black Sea Fleet. How? With drones. Drones are the future of warfare. Only fools would commit billions to buying submarines that can be destroyed with low-cost drones. Same is true for our other RCN boondoggle, the "Surface Combatant Program." That's pencilled in at over $300 billion. Any one of our new billion dollar frigates can be sent to the bottom by a determined adversary with relatively simple and cheap technology. We're up to $400 billions here. Throw in the F-35 deal and the NORAD "Golden Dome" and we're heading towards a trillion right smartly. This is going to choke off social spending for the next fifty years. That's the spending that makes Canada a decent place to live, or it used to, back when we could afford it. That was before Russia started threatening our democracy though, so we have no choice.

Carney promises Canadians lower taxes, lots of high-paying union jobs, and a competitive economy that builds what the world needs

As anybody with two functioning brain cells can readily deduce, Carney's roadmap for Canada is a mashup of wishful thinking and delusion. "Fortune may favour the bold," but not until the bold move beyond empty platitudes and hollow declarations of virtue. Think the world loves us for "our values?" Maybe, but I'm guessing about zero percent of our foreign trade happens because our counter-parties are choosing to buy Canadian because they fancy our values. I rather expect these decisions are based on more traditional attributes, such as the ability to provide quality product at a reasonable price. And that's exactly why it's such a struggle to diversify away from our over-dependence on the US market. Geography gives us an advantage over India or China in the US. Unfortunately, aside from a handful of natural resources, there is nothing available from Canada that is competitive in the global marketplace. In fact, our manufacturing sector is globally uncompetitive, and one thing I can predict with some certainty is that the road to changing that will definitely NOT involve "creating lots of high-paying union jobs." So what was the point of Carney's delusional half-hour pep talk last night? He's applying the lube, as it were, buttering us up for the Big Budget Reveal coming on November 4. It is on that day that we'll learn just what sacrifices our bankster-in-charge has in mind for us. Get ready for the austerity enema of a lifetime!

Trump rushes to demolish White House so Putin can't bomb it

This is time-honoured Yanqui logic, along the lines of "we had to destroy the village to save it." We had to destroy democracy to save it. I gotta say that's one messed-up trip Mafia Don is taking his people on. I also have to admit I'm shocked at how eagerly wide swathes of the "Western World" are gleefully anticipating a showdown with Russia. There was a time Trump seemed to rise above the institutionalized Russophobia, but I'm not so sure anymore. The NATO allies realize they are a nullity without America. They will soon enough realize that even with America, NATO has already lost to Russia. We continue to prevail on the PR front, though. Western headlines are announcing Ukraine's purchase of up to 150 Gripen fighter jets from Sweden!Boo Ya NATO! I'm guessing Russia can shoot them down faster than Sweden can build them or Ukraine can buy them. I'm also guessing there's lot's of smart people crunching the numbers on the Ukraine file and concluding it's time to cut bait and move on.