American Empire awaits final curtain

Just watched a ten minute segment on Fox where General Keane was 'splainin' to Larry Kudlow how, in spite of appearances to the contrary, the USA is in fact in full control of Hormuz. For ten minutes they danced around the very obvious fly in the ointment, to wit, the fact that four months into a four day war, the mightiest military the world has ever seen has proven incapable of achieving any of the goals it proclaimed when they started this war. In normal parlance, that's known as "losing." But not at Fox News. No, the extended pause in US attacks is 100% due to Donald's humanitarian bent. He just wants to make sure he gave the terrorist thugs every last chance before he unleashes hell etc. The truly sad (and might I add dangerous) fact is more Americans get their news from Fox than anywhere else, and I can't imagine they're likely to change the chanel to CNN or Al Jazeera for a second opinion. What will it take before reality sets in?... I figure $12/gallon diesel should do it!

Winter's coming and I got nothing but fear and loathing

And that's a radical departure from my usual winter announcement, which typically comes late November or early December, to the effect that, by golly, looks like winter's back... who knew? Yup, the advent of winter reliably takes me by surprise every year. But here's why things have changed. Last winter was an unexpectedly stiff one, as in way cold and way too much snow. Turned out I was completely unprepared, and it was only the kind intervention of my neighbours John Deere and Massey Ferguson, together with their snowblowers, that got me through. Never again! So I've been keeping an eye out for reliable and affordable snow-clearing tech. I saw a nearly new Suzuki quad with a blade for a whisker under 10k. At least that would give me a 4-wheeler when I'm not clearing snow, but it's not what you need when you get an overnight dump of four feet or more, which is known to happen in these parts. So I've been thinking maybe it makes some sense to have the old Ford 4000 diesel refurbished. It's a 53hp unit from about 50 or 60 years ago, and I have a snowblower for it. But I haven't had a diesel since my VW died, what, 15 years ago? I therefore know nothing about diesels and besides, between my shaky hands and fat fingers I struggle to pick up a wrench, let alone turn one. So this job gotta be farmed out, but whereto? As fate would have it, a few of the kids who went through my shop class went on to become all sorts of trades, including diesel mechanics. I happened to run into one of them at a funeral last week. He works at an iron ore mine on Baffin Island, which is somewhere nearby Santa's place. The company flies him up and back for a three-week rotation, and when he's home he wants to spend time with his three teen boys, not with my derelict tractor. Fortunately, he was able to provide the name of a classmate, who had just left a prominent farm equipment dealership and opened his own biz. Perfect! He'll be looking for work! A few days later I drop by the kids place. The kid is now a middle aged man with a family. There's a float dropping off a hydraulic Skyjack unit as I pull up. There's two or three tractors lining either side of the drive to his shop, and there's a massive high-hoe in the middle of all this stretching out its arms to the sky! Ya... I'm pretty sure Jeff ain't looking for work! Anyway, I'm happy the kids are kicking ass. They seem to have survived my tutelage just fine! But winters coming...

Up a stump with Donald Trump

Remember when USA-Israel unleashed a surprise attack on Iran last year, in the midst of alleged peace talks, which utterly obliterated Iran's nuclear program and military? Remember when USA-Israel unleashed another surprise attack this past February, again against the background of more fake peace talks, murdering the Supreme Leader and much of his extended family, and once again totally obliterating Iran's military? Remember when Mafia Don told the world that he personally would appoint the next Supreme Leader? Well, all of that and oh-so-much-more is already down ye olde memory hole. In fact, USA-Israel has since February obliterated the entirety of Iran's military-industrial complex several more times, to the point they have exhausted their ammo and are now awaiting Iranian retaliation. How such a thing is even conceivable after their non-stop obliteration over many months should raise a few questions, the paramount one being just how brazenly over-the-top the Trump regime's nonstop cavalcade of bullshit would have to get before the American people realize it's time to change the channel.

CBC wants you to know 51st state status a tempting option

Just check out their home page right now. Top headline... Oh my God millions of jobs and trillions of dollars will be gone if our fabulous free trade agreement collapses... what to do what to do... well by golly wouldn't it be great to short-circuit all that nasty trade war shit and just be friends? Frankly, by accepting Trumps offer of statehood, we're just making official what's been de-facto reality at least since John Diefenbaker axed the Avro Arrow. We're looking at a most impressive record of Canadian politicians currying favour in DC while pretending not to. Elbows up and all that silly shit! Obviously the unspoken message that screams out is we gotta save trillions of jobs and millions of... oh, whatever! Just a few stories later we read that over 29,000 Canadians have petitioned our government to kick out the US ambassador. I can certainly think of reasons to do that, but defying the deranged occupant of the White House's threats to annex Canada wouldn't be one of them. Contrasting "threats to annex" to the kidnapping or murder of a head of state makes us look a wee bit unserious. It's hard to get revved up about petty side-shows when we're 100% silent on America's role in the Gaza genocide and we support the unprovoked and illegal war on Iran.

Pot-addled pinko blogger beats Toby Lutke to the nitty-gritty by 12 years!

Yup, it's a true fact, that. Well, except it wasn't actually me who beat the Shopify guy to the insight that poor people are superfluous in a proper democracy, it was California hedgie billionaire Tom Perkins. Being a recovered socialist, I immediately posted the following to the web, where perhaps several dozen people may have noticed.********************** neumann's blog Saturday, February 15, 2014 Three cheers for Tom Perkins! Tom Perkins attracted more than a little ridicule a couple weeks ago with his assertion that the super-rich like him are being persecuted in contemporary America just like Jews were persecuted in Nazi Germany. Hold on a minute. Maybe Tom is the canary in the proverbial coalmine. Maybe some of us are just too blind with envy to see what is really happening. Already we see the super-rich being barred from the boards of directors of major corporations. None of the big banks will any longer be publicly associated with billionaires. They are increasingly shunned even by the very media they own! Rumours abound of private jets ferrying planeloads of billionaires to secret camps deep in the woods. We are told these camps are for "economic summits." Of course they are... just like the Jews of Europe were attending "economic summits" at Belsen and Auschwitz. And what of the future for our beleaguered billionaires? Will enough survive these dark days to achieve, someday, a homeland of their own? Luckily, Tom has an idea that may nip this tide of anti-oligarchism in the bud. The fatal flaw in democracy has always been that a lot of lazy stupid people have this so-called "right to vote." This manifestly unfair feature of US democracy has lead us straight to the current crisis of billionaire-bashing. If Tom's net worth is the equivalent of the combined net worth of 150 million poor Americans, why should they get 150 million votes while he gets one? Tom's plan is brilliant in its simplicity. Every dollar paid in tax would entitle the payer to one vote. That way Tom will no longer be punished for working a million times harder than a million lazy stupid poor people. This plan would also increase government revenue by incentivising many billionaires to pay taxes for the first time! So enough with the ridicule already. Let's give Tom's plans a chance! **************** Don't know what to say... either Toby was scrolling through my blog again and found something he liked, or (probably more likely) he happened to be sharing quality time with Tom at Davos or Aspen recently!

Gonzo hypocrisy; zero journalism

The crap that's showing up on CBC of late is beyond fake news, beyond ridiculous, and beyond even a caricature of actual "news." Here's what I believe lies at the root of the problem. As an occupation, the journalism profession has been shrinking for decades. Since the 1980s something like three-quarters of all mainstream journo jobs have disappeared, the kind of jobs with real salaries, benefits, and career paths. While the jobs disappeared, university journalism programs kept pumping out fresh grads - into a zero jobs economy. That's where the government decided taxing Google and Meta would raise the money required to provide at least temp employment to all these budding journalists. And here we are. A news environment dominated entirely by press releases from activist groups, think tanks, corporations, and govt spokepersons. Where's the "journalism?" Whatever happened to "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted?" Whatever happened to "speaking truth to power?" I'll tell you what happened. When you come out of Carleton or TMU or any of the others with that shiny new degree, or, God forbid, even a Masters and $100k in student loans, what are you gonna do in that bullshit fake job? Speak truth to power? No way! You'll do everything you can to get a pat on the head and get noticed by power, because the only possible hope you have of ever paying down your student loans and having a life is if you get into a rare paying slot at the Globe or the CBC, and "truth to power" ain't gonna take you very far up that road!

Celebrating small victories

There's a story on view at CBC today; " Na-Me-Res opens its doors to a new complex for unhoused men." I guess that's a good-news bad-news story. The good news is they're getting twenty dudes off the street and into proper housing. The bad news is this program is run by an Indigenous charity and is understandably focused on getting their people off the street. What we need to do is replicate this program x1000 and extend it across the country. The one thing I noticed is the program demands 100% abstinence from its former-addict residents. I'm surprised there hasn't been a civil-rights challenge on that. The way things have evolved over recent years makes public inebreation a basic human right. And if your public intoxication, regardless of cause, causes you to defecate in the flowerbeds in front of City Hall, well, everybody gotta shit, so fuck off with your judgementalism! Anyway, while the story headlines a small victory, it mentions in passing that Toronto is decades behind in its affordable housing goals. Now that we've gotta spend gazillions on fighter jets and warships and submarines, we'll be centuries behind!

Large white supremacist meeting shakes residents of Alberta town

That CBC headline caught my eye this morning. The CBC investigative journalism crew really has its finger on the pulse of what's going on in small-town Alberta. Remember a couple of years ago when they had a sudden surge of personal essays on what it's like to be the only Black trans teen in a small prairie town? Well, aside from empathy, there's not much those teens demand of us. Today's expose is an entirely different kettle of fish. We might feel sorry for that loney kid, but we need to be absolutely outraged about these white supremacists who terrorized a small town! The locals were stunned and shellshocked! Except if you actually read the story, they weren't. In fact, apparently nobody in town was even aware this army of 60+ white supremacists had visited until several weeks after the fact, when CBC brought it to their attention. Only then did the alleged "shellshock" set in. According to Grokepedia, the population of that Alberta hamlet is 58. You'd think they'd notice 60+ nazis in their midst, especially when they were waving banners from the overpass over the highway. The cbc quotes the owner of the general store as saying he had no idea. That's where you buy beer in Millarville... we're supposed to believe over five dozen middle-aged racist white goobers, mostly CAF vets, came to town for a week and didn't buy any beer??? We're in get-the-fuck-outta-here territory with that one! Anyway, I see two plausible explanations for this story. Is it possible those small-town Alberta bumpkins are secret fascist symps? The other possibility is that the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, the NGO 100% funded by our federal government, and whose "research" underpins this CBC story, is desperate to have its funding renewed, and is hoping to scare up some scary headlines.

If Chrystia Freeland is out of politics, why is she making speeches in Taiwan promising we'll protect them from Chinese aggression?

I have two observations about Chrystia's moronic interference in Taiwan-China affairs, and I have to say the only thing stupider than her actual speech is the Globe's coverage thereof. If one were completely ignorant of the last 100 years of China's history with the West, you'd think Chrystia was taking a bold stand for freedom and democracy and all that great stuff, just like when she was schlepping the hapless dumbshit Juan Guaido around the world. What she's really doing is working hard to further the Trump regime's mission to destroy the Trudeau-Nixon era's rapprochement with communist China. That is in itself an unfortunate lapse in good judgement. How is it up to the boss of one of the world's most lavishly funded foundations to pronounce on Taiwan-China relations? But here's where it gets really stupid. I mean, she's telling Taiwan to pick a fight with China, and we, meaning the collective West, will be standing shoulder to shoulder with them, yessiree, with whatever it takes for as long as it takes?... How is that working out for Ukraine?

Former Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine Army admits Russia has defeated NATO

Well, there's an oopsie! That's the exact opposite from the message the NATO vassals were singing in unison at the NATO summit in Ankara recently. "Ukraine has turned the tide!" Anybody who put any stock in that piffle needs to look up General Valerii Zaluznhy's address to the assembled Western ambassadors. Zaluznhy is the guy who oversaw the first half of Ukraine's war before being promoted to the post of ambassador to the UK. I think it's safe to assume the General knows whereof he speaks, unlike the myriad "experts" who have been shovelling blatant NATO propagada our way non-stop since at least 1991. Recall that at the dissolution of the Soviet Union Ukraine was by a good margin the most prosperous province. By the time of the Maidan coup, it's GDP per person had shrivelled to a third of Russias. Zaluznhy knows intimately the entire trajectory of post-Soviet Ukraine. Unlike our FM Anita Anand, who declared last week that "Ukraine has turned the tide," the former C in C of the Ukraine Army claims ain't no tide been turned, nor will there be. Not only has Russia destroyed Ukraine's military, its economy, and its industrial infrastructure, it has effectively demilitarized NATO to boot! But don't take my word for it.

Men of a certain age

Now that I'm solidly ensconced in God's waiting room, just waiting for my number to come up, I've developed a keen eye for the tell-tale signs that moment could be drawing nigh. For instance, maybe a month ago or so I had a mishap coming in the front door. My right foot didn't quite negotiate that first step, causing, in no particular order, broken glass, a deep gash on my arm, and a question mark in my mind about how it's possible to miss a step you've successfully negotiated multiple times per day for the last 20 years. I initially put it down to the fact it was late evening and I'd had a coupla pints and a toke... but that's just a regular day, so it didn't add up. Then, just a week or so later, it happened again! Except this time at 7 am. No beer. No tokes. Just a coffee and a cigarette out on the stoop. Once again, righty didn't quite attain the first step, causing a face-plant, a broken cup, and two rolls of paper towels to mop up the coffee. Obviously, I was having an issue with my right foot being reluctant to follow instructions from my brain. So, for the first time since I was maybe two, I've been thinking about every step I take, especially the steps that require lifting righty. That understandably gets you noticing others practicing "deliberative walking," if I may call it that. All my life I've been the kinda guy who chooses to wait in the car while the Farm Manager goes shopping, and all my life that was a pleasant respite when one could watch pretty women coming in and out of the store. Now I'm watching men of a certain age. And holy sh!t, damned near everybody's obviously deeply engaged in making sure that next step lands where it needs to. Praise the Lord! I'm not the only one!

When it comes to posh sinecures, absolutely nothing compares to House Marm at Rhodes House

Think about it. If you're a president or prime minister in a liberal democracy, your salary won't amount to more than a few hundred thou. Not only that, but you will be disparaged every day of your life as a lying shitbag. Who needs the aggravation? Ask Mark Carney how much he enjoys playing capo dei capi. On the other hand, as near as I can gather, School Marm at Rhodes House pays around 2 mil per annum. Plus a full staff including chefs, sommeliers, drivers and generic flunkies, not to mention residence in Cecil Rhodes' mansion itself! When's the last time you saw a Rhodes person taking any questions whatsoever from hostile media? Never! And lo and behold, that's where our former deputy PM finds herself today, at what's gotta be the tippy-tip-top of the greasy pole of cushy sinecures that await our Epstein class political operatives.

Fresh new Epstein scandal discovered in Michigan

Ho-hum... another posh private school for the children of folks who think for $80k their kids will escape the depravities of the public ed system, only to have them buggered and abused by Epstein & Company. Here's a quote from Jeffrey Epstein that's worth a momentary ponder:"Many members of the global super-elite have helped me to understand their world and some have become friends." Well, did they ever! And now, thanks to some intrepid investigative journalism at the New York Times by reporter Graham Bowley, even more Epstein Evil has come to light. Here's what got me sniffing the air for the wiff of conspiracy theories. While the above quote could very plausibly be an Epstein original, it actually comes from Chrystia Freeland. Yes, Epstein and Freeland both mixed freely among the global elite, Chrystia as a self-confessed small-time anti-Russia spy and A-list journo (top gun at Reuters), and Jeffrey as the most prolific pedophile and sex trafficker in known history. Oh, and by the way, by far the most consequential spy for Israel since Jonathan Pollard. Jeffrey's and Chrystia's paths must have crossed many times while they inhabited the same milleu. In fact, he variously swindled, promoted, partnered with,mentored,advised, sued, or defrauded many of the name's dropped by Freeland in her bountifully footnoted memoir of that time in her life, yet no reference to Epstein? Maybe after he gets to the bottom of this Michigan outrage, that NYT reporter can look into this. After all, Graham Bowley remains married to Ms. Freeland... maybe they can collaborate! I see a Pulittzer Prize ahead!

How Canada stands up to Donald Trump

This is a reprint of a story first published six years ago. Back then our leader was the one-time high-school drama teacher, the haircut that walks like a man. Today our leader is one-time elite global banker, the urbane technocrat who wowed the world with his defiant Davos speech. The six-year-old piece is fresh as this mornings's news headlines for one reason; our approach to Trump has not changed one iota. Lots of feisty op-eds and political grandstanding, but behind the curtain, strictly business as usual. Its hard to keep your elbows up when your pants are around your ankles.******** neumann's blog Sunday, October 4, 2020 How Canada stands up to Trump Canadians generally and Canadian media in particular have an ingrained antipathy toward Donny J. We are, after all, a sophisticated, educated, and morally superior nation, and Trump is...well, just so darned yucky and gross. Today, Jaime Watt's column in the Sunday Star is titled "Trump is running against democracy." Who can even imagine such a thing! Trump is so yucky and gross he is running against the very democratic ideals that make civilization possible. Star columnist Vinay Menon, meanwhile, advises his (presumably Canadian) readership to "seek out the remarkable healing power of Biden," although evidence that Biden has "healed" much of anything in almost a half century in politics is threadbare at best. While these A-list Canadian pundits are polishing our smug and sanctimonious superiority complex, the Royal Canadian Navy was, for the fourth time in four months, sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait. While Canada is blessed with an abundance of coastlines, none of them are anywhere near China, so it's not as if we're over there "defending our interests." No, what we're doing is "standing with our allies" in a signal to the commies that we're a vital part of the coalition of "liberal democracies" ever anxious to keep the Yellow Peril in check. The leader of the "liberal democracies," also known variously as "the free world," the Nations of Virtue, or simply Uncle Sam's Club, is of course America's Donald J Trump. One could question just how sound America's claim is on either liberalism or democracy, but aside from the ubiquitous Trump bashing, these questions don't come up. It's as if our pundits believe that America was that "shining city on a hill,"right up until January 20, 2017, when the light of freedom was suddenly snuffed. If we all wish hard enough, perhaps it may flicker back to life after November 3rd, when we can once again huddle under Uncle Sam's skirts without embarrassment. In the meantime, our allies UK and US, sail through the Taiwan Strait on a regular basis, and it is imperative that we "stand with our allies," the same "liberal democracies" currently busying themselves with destroying Julian Assange in revenge for exposing their war crimes. Here's the problem; talk is cheap. It costs nothing to write anti-Trump op-eds. On the other hand, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per day to sail a Halifax-class RCN frigate through the Taiwan Strait. And our frigate fleet is getting long in the tooth. We need to upgrade the fleet if we are to continue standing with our allies. To that end, Canada is forging ahead with plans to build 15 state-of-the-art frigates at a cost of 45 billions. The lead contractor is US military supplier Lockheed Martin. For all our Trump-bashing and anti-American posturing, it is clear that, virtue-signalling aside, Canada's ruling elite remains as desperate as ever to ingratiate themselves with the Big Dog, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office. They remain American Empire Loyalists to the core.

Mothers and beer

Back when I was a teen living under my mother's roof, she had concerns about my beer consumption. In the first place, as a pious Christian woman, the fact her underage teen son could get his hands on the devil's brew pointed to the overal disintegration of society. Not only that, but once her boy had tasted beer, cigarettes and gambling and loose women couldn't be far behind. Well, I generally missed out on the loose women, to my chagrin, and gambling is one vice that I never heard calling my name, but she wasn't wrong about the smokes. And the crazy thing is, now that Mutti is in her nineties and I'm in my seventies, she's more worried than ever about my beer consumption! Obviously, I stayed ahead of the devil's brew long enough to have a career and raise a family, but by God, have things ever gone off the rails since I retired. I suddenly come down with a gluten allergy. Yup, bread and beer are suddenly verboten! Try telling that to a guy who has lived his whole life on bread and beer! I have to say, for all my adult life, I'm sure I never met a sandwich I didn't like. That got Mom overly interested in my diet, so when the next turd dropped into my retirement punch bowl, ie the alleged "congestive heart failure" business, she was primed to unleash a generous dose of motherly love. Long story short, now that I'm an invalid, or if not quite yet, soon, wouldn't it be smart, before you're completely incapacitated, to sell your place way up there and move closer to your family? I don't know Mom... In the first place, once I'm completely incapacitated, I can't imagine it's gonna be you changing my adult diaper. Secondly, it's getting easier to find gluten-free bread and beer. Just today I had a lovely Reuben on gluten-free Pumpernickel from the Boone bakery, and I've been washing it down with a four-pak of Ancestral brand organic quinoa beer, which comes from a brewery not 100 km up the road in Barrie. Anyway, liebe Mutti, the world is becoming a better place,at least for the gluten-free! Looks like I'm gonna try to make a go of it here, at least for the time being. (And in case anyone thinks I'm abandoning my 90-something Mom, know that of her five children, none of the others live more than ten minutes away.)

Canadian Museum of Human Rights still wallowing in petty political squabbles

In the quarter+ century since Izzy Asper first proposed a Museum of Human Rights for Winnipeg, I've often poo-pooed the idea. Seems kinda smug and pretentious. Relegating human rights to a museum doesn't bode well for human rights, in my view. As I predicted, planning for the project was soon mired in endless squabbling between various interest groups over who deserved more floor space. The rancour continues to this day. While the planning team was able to mollify, at least somewhat, the Ukrainian and Jewish lobbies, they left many others disgruntled. One of the groups that felt excluded were Arab-Canadians. They were finally thrown the bone of a temporary exhibit commemorating their expulsion from their homes on the creation of Israel. This has riled up Canada's Jewish lobby. Today, CBC informed us that Gail Asper, Izzy's daughter and Chair of the Asper Foundation, was resigning, because the Nabka exhibit would not have been to her father's liking, and since her family had once put in $20 millions in seed money CBC obviously figures she has a point. Here's a few things CBC doesn't mention. While Izzy Asper's fortune may have provided the first 20 mil, the federal government spends more than that every year just to keep the lights on in the joint. Another thing CBC neglects to mention is that serious museums world-wide are managed by professional curatorial staff, not by the children of wealthy donors. Not that these visionary donors have been able to see their vision through. Izzy Asper was riding high in those days. He was on Forbes Billionaire List!... but not for long. Izzy's master stroke was to pay Conrad Black $3+ billions for his portfolio of money-shredding media properties!(probably the last time in his career Conrad walked away from a deal with the satisfation that he'd totally pantsed the guys on the other side of the table). In 2002 Asper sponsored a cross-Canada speaking tour for The Greatest Leader Since Moses. He was and his children remain outspoken promoters of Netayahu's Greater Israel project, which ultimately demands the expulsion of the remaining non-Jewish population of Palestine. Alas, Izzy's golden age as a billionaire media mogul was short-lived. By the time Canwest's 4.5 billion market cap was down to twenty bucks (and I'm talking market cap here, not share price) Izzy's vanity project had long transformed into a goverment project, with somewhere in the range half a billion in taxpayer funds to date. In one of my early posts on this farce, I positted that Winnipeg, which was at the time the child povery capital of Canada, would at least now have a venue to which Winnipeggers could take their hungry children and show them they don't have it too bad after all.

Not all genocides are equal

Back in April of 2022, our government passed a resolution declaring Russia's full-scale and totally unprovoked invasion of Ukraine a "genocide." And what a genocide it's been. Five years on, multiple Ukrainian news outlets reported,early in June, that child deaths in the war had passed 700. The nation was in mourning. While even one child death is of course one too many, let's try to get some perspective here. More than four years after Ottawa declares a genocide in Ukraine, child deaths pass seven hundred? Israel blew through that threshold within the first two weeks of their war on Gaza. The child deaths are in the tens of thousands, yet our political establishment dare not utter the word "genocide?" What are they afraid of?

Reality preps rude surprise for Trump regime

Pretty much the entire planet sees by now that the Emperor be buck-naked. The towelhead scum, to paraphrase the leader of the liberal-democratic world, have done stole the Strait of Hormuz, and won't hand it back, even though we've totally destroyed their entire military infastructure many times over. So, what to do when you've won a historic victory, the likes of which the world has never seen, and the fuckers you just decimated for the nth time are still blithely firing missiles through your imaginary air defenses every day? That's a conundrum the world truly has never seen before, especially the Western World. Sure, it took us twenty years and trillions of dollars to lose to the Talibs, but this is an entirely more spectacular scale of humiliation for the American Empire. If America's flailing military efforts are not embarrassing enough, the duct-tape, baling-wire, and bullshit that keeps the bankrupt US economy afloat are becoming hard to ignore. Thanks to a few brave souls like Gary Marcus and Ed Zitron, the massive hoax that is the "AI boom" is coming unglued, and there goes at least a trillion USD worth of haircuts to the biggest names in global finance. What's that gonna do to Donny's 'hottest economy in the world,' where fully 40% of the heat was being generated by a massive hoax? While I generally try to avoid any engagement whatsoever with AI, it's hard to avoid. I asked Google today if the ChatGPT-Huggingface story was a hoax. The first thing that comes up is of course Google's AI summary. The first line of the AI summary reads "The ChatGPT story was not a complete hoax," how reassuring! At the end of the summary, there is the ever-so-helpful reminder that AI makes mistakes, in other words, it's prone to making stuff up and it's best to check its results... more reassurance! Between the military fiasco on one hand and the economy swirling round and round in the big white telephone, Donald J Trump is cementing his place in the history books!

Doo-doo just keep gettin' deeper... and deeper and de..

After a quiet day at home, spent mostly on the stoop, watching the turkey vultures soar, I opened my laptop and checked out the latest news. OH! MY! GOD!!! No matter where you look, it's nothing but bad news all over every channel! A little war here, a little genocide there, and that's enough to stoke fear galore. And that's exactly what our thought-leaders intend. Spread the fear thick enough and long enough and eventually you'll have people clamouring for warships and submarines and fighter jets! No point investing in health-care, education, or housing when our entire way of life is under threat.

Holy chrystal ball! This blog predicted 2021 Nobel Prize winner by name in 2017

I was rooting through what folks have looked at on this blog with three (3) followers, according to my dashboard. We're slowly and steadily on our way to 6 million views. I happened across a post from 2017 that predicted David Card would snag a Nobel in the fullness of time, and sure enough, he did! While I'm cetainly happy for Dave, I'm also a little miffed. Dave made his rep as a lefty economist with "Myth and Measurement," which he co-wrote with Al Krueger when they were both at Princeton. That initially got way more rasberries than accolades, but Dave's rep as a "lefty" persists to this day. That's why I encouraged him to use his high profile in the way certain other high profile academics, like Jeffrey Sachs, for example, have done. Dave's reply was that sort of thing is best left for retirement. Well, around the time he's getting his retirement paperwork in order, he suddenly becomes a Nobel Laureate! Berkley will for sure provide him an office, desk, and support staff for the rest of his life, even if he lives to 120. He is inundated with invitations to guest-lecture at the most prestigious universities in the world, invitations that inevitably include luxury accomodations and generous honorariums. I can't imagine the farm boy from Wellington County starting to rock the boat now. Here's the post from 2017. ******* neumann's blog Friday, June 30, 2017 Props to an old pal Me and Dave hooked up at Ponsonby PS in grade four. We were inseparable buddies till about grade seven or eight, after which our high school careers took us in different directions. I'm thinking about Dave because there's a story in today's Globe, penned by major league practitioners of the dismal science, that heavily references my old pal. Seems Dave was the first Dismal Scientist to stick his neck out for the proposition that increasing the minimum wage did not necessarily mean that jobs would be lost. He more or less got his head chopped off for that. Twenty years later everything old is new again. Raising the minimum wage is not a job-killer after all! Dave will no doubt have a Nobel with his name attached in a few years. Good on you, buddy!

Can the beautiful game survive Trumpian douchebaggery?

I'll be perfectly blunt. Personally, I don't get the allure of "the beautiful game." My late father and all three of my brothers can converse knowledgeably about who's who and what's what in the British Premier League and all the top Liga across Europa.They can spend an afternoon watching a 0-0 draw and act like they witnessed a great sporting event! As far as I'm concerned, normal fans in any other sport feel ripped off by a 0-0 tie. Nevertheless, FIFA is in charge of the biggest televised sporting event in the world. Bigger than the World Series. Bigger than the Indy 500. Bigger than the Super Bowl! That's why I'm shocked that FIFA boss Johnny Infantino's impeccably-coiffed head has been permanently wedged between Mafia Don's butt-cheeks ever since he presented him with the "FIFA Peace Prize." First one ever! I mean lots of people have won Nobel Peace Prizes... ho hum... But Donny J won the FIRST EVER FIFA PEACE PRIZE!!! The world has never seen anything like it! I don't get it. In the big picture, Infantino is a big deal and Trump is... well, not doing all that great. Then again, that name rings a bell... Infantino. Wasn't there a New Jersey Mafia boss by that name back when Donny was building casinos in the Garden State? Anyway, Spain won and the Argies didn't. The country that denied America its airspace for its criminal attack on Iran defeated the most obnoxious cheerleader for Israeli apartheid and its US-supported genocide. Let's try to enjoy that, at least for one day.

Sec War Pistol-Pete Hegseth introduces 'High Tea' tradition to US Army

What a great idea! If you saw that raggedy-ass "military parade" the US Army put on recently, you'll agree a little discipline and decorum in the ranks would go a long way. Those American war-fighters looked like they spent basic training at Dunkin' Donuts. We may have to Americanize the time-honoured Brit tradtion of crumpets and tea... how does Red Bull and donuts sound? In any event, Greasy Pete is obviously on the right track. American warfighters are known across Washington as the best, nay even better than best in the entire world. In fact, as Sec War reminds us daily, the world has never seen anything like it! Once the new and improved 'high tea' US Army takes Iran, Pete Hegseth will be venerated as the visionary leader he is, a veritable Sun Tzu for our time! Onward Christian soldiers!

Mark Carney proves he was just joking around with that whacky Davos speech

What a jokester this guy is! What a kidder! He had the entire world agog at his affrontery, his bold defiance of Empire! Yup, we're all sick and tired of a world where the Big Dogs do whatever they want, regardless of the norms they impose on the rest of the world! Mere weeks after that anti-Empire shot heard 'round the world captivated the media, the US Empire, together with its trusty vassal Israel, launched an unprovoked war against Iran. According to the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, that's the crime of crimes where war crimes are concerned. There is no question that this illegal invasion of Iran is the most egregious example conceivable of a Big Dog shitting all over international law to impose its will on weaker nations. So what has been the response of the hero who delivered that sharp rebuke of US impunity at Davos? Why, every public utterance on the matter has been in full support of US and Israeli war crimes! What a phoney!

CBC will have us dining on pie in the sky till we die

Back in the pre-digital era, a crazy power-mad empress in France once advised her subjects, starving due to a bread shortage, to eat cake instead. That's a quote that has ever after served as a marker of elite detachment from reality. CBC today offers some hope for this world. Just after a spot of bad news about some youthful gangbangers shooting up the Toronto Salsa Festival, they sprung a good news story about how we are destined to get yucky stinky diesel engines off our highways. Yup, Canada is a world leader, or at least maybe not too far behind the actual leaders, in the race to replace diesel with anything but diesel. According to the CBC, once the world comes to its senses, Canada will possibly maybe be a world leader in providing clean and ridiculously virtuous hydrogen to replace diesel! That's a beautiful story, but try this little experiment. Next time you're out on a road trip, and you pass a truck stop, cruise through the acres of trucks parked and count the number of hydrogen-powered trucks. I'm guessing you won't need more than the fingers of one hand to keep track, if that. Meanwhile, the same CBC home page barely mentions that USA and Iran are "exchanging shots." Oh ya! Not only that, but the Towelheads 'o Terror have closed the Straight of Hormuz! Again! And while CBC is not keen to trouble you with the details, this time round we're on the cusp of global shortages of everthing from fertilizer to helium to sulfer to diesel. As Canada's official propaganda network, it's their job to keep us entertained, distracted, and ignorant. Once all those diesel trucks are permanently stranded at Irving and Husky truck stops all along the Trans Canada Highway, no doubt they'll hector the truckers about why they didn't switch to hydrogen sooner!

Canada's submarine fleet was a joke in 2013 - it's only been getting funnier ever since

I was busy mocking our laughable "fleet" all those years ago. If you recall, somehow some very gullible experts decided to buy four obsolete British subs which were otherwise destined for a beach in India. Here you go:***** Saturday, August 31, 2013 Entire Canadian Navy in dry-dock after mishap at sea Both ships of the Royal Canadian Navy were being towed to port yesterday after running into each other. Navy Lt. Raul Pendergast says initial reports suggest that both Captains may have been texting while driving. If that is confirmed it would be a violation of Navy rules of conduct. The RCN only permits the use of smart phones while its ships are at anchor or in dry-dock. One of the most sought after assignments in the Canadian Navy is with the submarine fleet because all four submarines have been dry-docked for the past 14 years. While at one time that fact made the sub fleet something to guarantee death by boredom, the advent of the iPad and smart phone has made it highly desirable. Swabbies assigned to the Halifax dry-dock where the Canadian sub fleet undergoes a perpetual "refit" report that a typical day consists of eight hours sleep and sixteen hours spent surfing the internet. ***** Thirteen years on, it's noteworthy that today gaming skills are considered a bonus in fresh recruits!

Canada's first Hindu cabinet minister is a know-nothing windbag

I happened onto a EuroNews interview with our Foreign Minister Anita Anand this morning. With all the heavy hitters in attendance at the NATO pow-wow in Ankara, somebody had to draw the short straw. Anita made all the right noises. Ukraine has turned the tide, Russia is on the brink of collapse, Ukrainian victory is in the bag, and our fleet of new submarines serves notice to Russia and China that we're serious about protecting our Arctic sovereignty. That's the script, and she's sticking to it. Let's start with a few facts. We have allegedly contracted for a fleet of 12 German-built diesel-electric submarines at an estimated $2 billions per unit. The first four are to be delivered by 2034, six years hence. At the moment, China is building six new diesel-electrics per year. Assuming they don't scale up going forward, that means by the time Canada takes delivery of the last of those German-built vessels around 2040, China will have added at least 80 new subs to its fleet. Do we really think parking half a dozen German submarines at either end of what we call "the Northwest Passage" will keep China out? Our Arctic sovereignty is doomed if we think we'll prevail in a submarine war. That's without even considering Russia's Arctic footprint. Russia has more soldiers on permanent bases above the Arctic Circle than Canada has residents there. Over half of the global pop north of the Arctc circle is Russian. They have by far the world's largest icebreaker fleet. They're serious about their Arctic sovereignty. Canada talks a big game. The reality is Canada's Arctic is defended by our "Rangers," who just had their WWII era Lee-Enfield rifles upgraded to, I shit you not, "state of the art bolt-action carbines with a ten shot magazine!" Then there is the unspoken subtext that German technology is so vastly superior that it's worth paying a premium for. We know from Chinese export deals that were made public that they sell their diesel-electrics in the $300 -400 million range. In other words, we could buy four subs from China for the price of one from Germany. Chinese tech generally, in terms of cars, electronics, and weapons systems are at least the equal to German industry, and are often clearly superior. Why would their submarines be any different? At the end of the day, apparently, it all boils down to "values." Anita stressed that the democratic nations of NATO have them and the bad guys don't. Hmm... let's ponder that for a moment. By far the most crucial enabler of the ongoing genocide in Gaza is NATO boss Uncle Sam. The second is Germany. Alrighty then, values it is!

Carney announces only 9 countries support the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, 7 of which are bankrupt

Reuters reported today that PM Mark Carney announced the list of countries who have pledged support for this new lender of last resort, to be based in Canada. Ominously, other than Canada, most of the support for this boondogle comes from countries already technically bankrupt. Here's the list: Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Turkei, and Ukraine. Take Belgium and Luxembourg out of the mix, and all the support for this so-called "bank" comes from economic basket cases. Not hard to see why any country with a serious economy is giving this stinker a wide berth. There are sound reasons why no commercial bank on planet earth will touch these losers with a ten-mile pole! But here comes the favorite Banker of the Globalist elites riding to the rescue with a made-to-order "public-private-partnership" that will backstop Big Bank loans to them! That's why the Big Bank Bosses all agree this is a Great Idea. In Canada, our legacy media seem to be promoting this as a great idea. The new HQ for this new bank will be based in Canada after all, and will allegedly create 3500 well-paying jobs. Ya, and insofar as that ever comes close to being true, every one of those 3500 paycheques will come from the pockets of the Canadian taxpayer.

RIP Johnny Hirtle

They say somewhere inside anybody celebrating their 70th birthday, there's a 17 year old wondering what the hell happened. You gotta admit that it's really hard to deny your age when it starts with the number seven. As it happened, it was just a few months after my 70th I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and it was just a few months before his 70th that Johnny was diagnosed with lung cancer. Almost seems like our meters are running down about the same rate. Which should not come as a surprise. We are, after all, descended from the same hardy Prussian gene pool. Technically, we were second cousins, his family emmigrating from the same Bavarian village a year or two after mine (if your wondering how Prussians ended up in Bavaria you've got some reading to do). For the first year or two we all shared the same roof, first on Derry Street, and then on Neeve Street in the Ward. The Derry place was a rental, and new immigrants had to do what they do to this day; stall the landlord at the front door while spiriting a dozen non-existent guests out the back door whenever he stops by for a look! In due course the Hirtles found themselves out of the Ward and in a new house in the northern 'burbs. My family became the country bumpkins, or at least that's what I thought, whereas my cousins were sophisticated urbanites! When we all hit driving age it was only natural I'd be hanging out in town more. In the first few years I spent many winter hours playing pick-up hockey at the rink behind the local school. It was nothing for Johnny to spend eight or twelve or even more hours every day with his skates on in those years. Of course, playing hockey on an outdoor rink past midnight wasn't the only urban temptation city life offered. Wasn't long before Johnny and his peer group were eagerly experimenting with the cornucopia of new recreational drugs that were flooding the market. In fact, Johnny and Tim McIvor were my tour guides on my first-ever LSD trip! You cannot imagine a more loving pair of shepherds helping a neophyte through an entire night of utterly bonkers hallucinations. Ya right... anyway, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... As we outgrew the worst excesses of our youth, Johnny and I married aound the same age, bought houses around the same time, started families around the same time, and suffered marital collapse around the same time. By that time life had taken us in radically different directions. Johnny stuck with GE-Westinghouse-ABB till the bitter end, and the end truly was bitter. On the other hand, I had the dumb luck to transfer to a teaching career. I figured it would be awhile before they could move teaching jobs to Mexico, whereas most of our industrial base was already gone. Ironically, I recently read an article about the difficulties facing America's re-shoring of heavy transformer production, because the dumbfucks have realized Mexico and China cannot be relied on. One of the critical bottlenecks is the absence of skilled core-winders. Imagine that! An entire craft tossed in the trash as redundant, and then back in high demand when it's too late! That was a workforce that had been under threat for so long I think many convinced themselves it would never happen. Just months before the shit hit the fan I recall Johnny telling me he'd switched to steady day shift so he could spend more time with Kellan and Kari. He was planning his life around the job right untill the day his employer destroyed his livelihood. I know it's pointless to go over the might-have-beens once somebody's gone, but my late father, who spent way too much time haunting any arena where his sons might be playing, to the point where he was an unofficial hockey scout, often saw John play, and opined regularly that Johnny could have gone places. Indeed, Johnny played in a Guelph beer league packed with guys who had played Jr. A or professionally, so who knows? Till well into his 50's Johnny was more than holding his own against ex-Jr A guys half his age. That all ended with a detached retina, and at least I can admit he beat me to that milestone by about ten years! I'd only seen John intermittently in recent years, usually on the rare occassion when he attended a family get together. I was shocked when I was forwarded an email from his sister Reg last September announcing John could be in hospice in a matter of days. The last time I saw Johnny was a few days after I got that email. I arrived unannouned and rang the buzzer a half dozen times, to no avail. I go knock on his patio door. "Hey Dieter! Great to see you! Come on in!" For a guy who was hospice bound, he was remarkably cheerful. He was busy changing the bandages on his legs. He was looking forward... to the Blue Jays game that night, to the Raptors season, to the Leafs, to tomorrow's cross-word puzzle in the Globe, because he'd already done that day's... I left him that afternoon convinced a guy with so much to look forward to had a few years left, for sure. Sorry I was wrong. Happy trails to ya, Johnny! I'm hoping someday we'll get together again with a 500 horsepower SuperBee and a straight stretch of road. Love you, bro!

How CBC fuels the residential school denialism they pretend to fight

A headline at the CBC's Front Burner program this morning asks the rhetorical question;"What's fueling residential school denialism?" The story leads off with a photo of the Kamloops Residential School. The caption under the photo repeats the same brazen lie CBC first broadcast to the world in May of 2021; "The remains of 215 children were discovered buried near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School." That's the sort of slovenly reportage that gets skeptics asking why taxpayers are subsidizing this nonsense to the tune of $1.4 billion per year. The original whopper had an element of plausibiliy about it, but more than five years on, surely everone in Canada knows exactly zero remains of any children have been found. Recycling old lies won't win the anti-denialist activists many allies.

Putin doomed, public support collapses, regime change imminent

That was the gist of a story I ran across at the Ukraine Today website this morning. Like most Ukrainian news outlets, they are kept alive only by the generosity of taxpayers in the West who have fully embraced Zelly's pivotal role in saving Western Civ from the predations of Bad Vlad. Unfortunately, all of them exhibit a marked tendency to slant things a certain way.Imagine my disappointment when I realized that the only evidence presented for a "catastrophic collapse" was in Putin's polling numbers. Yup, it's a disaster alright; Putin's approval rating has catastrophically collapsed... from 74%... all the way down to 69%. Wow! Vlad might as well pack his bags! Meanwhile, the EU's got the three dorkshits, Stormer, Schmertz, and Micron, spearheading what's left of the "whatever it takes for as long as it takes" crowd. Every one of these champions of democracy is labouring with approval ratings in the teens! Starmer's already been deposed and the other two won't survive their next elections. Every one of them will be replaced by politicians who put their own country's interests before those of Ukraine and NATO. So it looks to me like the odds against Ukraine surviving until their Western sponsors have rebuilt their indusrial capacity to begin fulfilling the empty promises they've been making these past four+ years are getting slimmer by the day. That's why we're being absolutely inundated with bullshit stories about how "the tide has turned" and "Putin is on the back foot." We've been seeing plenty of this crap in Canadian media. Today CBC informs us that "some Russians are turning against Putin." Then the sub-head; " 'Not only are they not winning, but the war is coming closer', says Pulitzer-prize winner Anne Applebaum." That's fairly typical. What they're studiously avoiding is any reference to what's actually happening on the ground, which is that for the past two weeks the Russian army has over-run the last of the "fortress cities" that were holding out in Donbas. We mocked Putin when he demanded Ukraine hand over the last Donbas real estate. What? He can't take it from us, so he expects us to give it away! OK then... now he's taken it. Are you happy? The CBC of course neglects to mention that Anne Applebaum is a one-trick pony who has literally built her entire career on Putin-bashing. Nor did they mention her husband, the rabid Russophobe Sikorsky, Polands former Defence Minister, who famously held up a sign reading "Thank-you USA" in the Polish parliament the day after the Nordstream pipeline mysteriously blew up. The only other "expert" CBC quotes in their story is a guy named Michael Kimmage, a historian at the Catholic University of America. I'd never heard of it, but they are in fact a real school, rated 169th in university rankings. While I'm not familiar with Professor Kimmage, he appears to be another academic who's built his entire career around Bad Vlad. Of course, just because I've never heard of the guy or his school doesn't mean he isn't a font of profound insights into the Ukraine war. Maybe. On the other hand, guys like Jeffrey Sachs (Harvard, ranked number 1) and John Mearsheimer (U of Chicago, ranked no. 6) argue convincingly that Ukraine doesn't have a hope in hell. That opinion guarantees you'll never see them on mainstream media again. Finally, let me point out yet again what a fool-hardy trajectory my country, Canada, is on. Since assuming office a little over a year ago, Carney has either confirmed or approved new military purchases that will add at least 500 billions to our deficit, because every penny comes from money we must borrow. This spending spree is justified because it is, according to Carney, essential to meeting our NATO commitments, preserving our freedom, etc. Sounds good, but it's mostly bullshit. We're spending this money because Donald Trump told us to, and we wouldn't want to upset him, elbows up or not. What is the real deal? A hard-nosed assessment would conclude that most of these purchases are for obsolete technology. With the possible exception of ice-breakers, everything else is being replaced by drones. We're making a multigenerational financial commitment to obsolete junk. The F-35 is a prime example. We're absolutely desperate to replace our 40 year old fleet of CF-18s. The availability of these antiques for missions ("ready rate") has sunk to an unacceptable 40%. Thank God we got those brand-spankin'-new F-35s on their way to save us from Putin. Paying $40,000/hr operating costs, as opposed to the Swedish Gripen at $12,000/hr, is a small price to pay to preserve our way of life. Except for one thing... according to USAF, the ready rate for F-35s is... 25%!

A solitary buzzard's been circling overhead for days...

Seems to be keeping an eye on me. Normally, you don't see these guys flying solo. Where there's one, the rest of the gang is never too far away. Here's my theory. The crew spotted me long ago while out on their daily hunting trips. No, they're not "hunting" in the conventional sense, they're just hunting for roadkill or a reasonable facsimile. That's how I came to their attention. I'm obviously not roadkill, but I'm only 150 feet off the road, and I'm sure they've noticed me inert in my lawnchair on the stoop often enough they may have thought I was ready for dinner! I figure this solo scout's job is to keep an eye on me and, when I finally do expire, to sound the dinner bell for the rest of the gang. Then they'll be eating like kings for at least a week!

Keeping your elbows up while your pants are down

Mark Carney has garnered much favorable PR since he embarked on his mission to push back against Trump's bullying. "Elbows up" and all that good stuff. Then back in January, he hit the proverbial home run with his speech at Davos. PM Carney made headlines around the world with his claim that "powerful nations" defied international law whenever it suited them, and that middle powers need to work together to prevent the world collapsing into a dystopia where might makes right. Fast forward a few months. Most of the middle powers Carney has been consulting are even more beholden to Trump than he is. These are people who refer to Trump as "Daddy," for fucks sakes! So when the USA together with Israel launched a war on Iran, a war completely in violation of any concievable aspect of international law, all the so-called middle powers raised their voices in praise of this war crime! I think we can forget about any of these losers ever standing up to Uncle Sam. If you saw them at the G7 you got a sense of their subservience. Trump strolled into their meeting an hour late, and the first words out of his mouth were; "I'm the boss." And, contrary to what the current PR campaign wants you to think, Mark Carney and the entirety of the NATO/EU leadership are 100% hunky dory with that.

Moments that restore faith in humanity

I was coming back from town this morning, and just as I'm rounding the last curve before my driveway, a woman jumps out on the road in front of me. She's parked her Audi sedan on the other side of the road with the four-way flashers on, and she's blocking traffic on this side, wildly gesticulating with what appears to be a golf club in one hand, maybe a 3-iron by the looks of it. I was obviously going to stop anyway, but as I pulled over I realized what she was so excited about. This well-dressed, well-turned-out gal who tools around with a set of golf clubs in the trunk of her high-end foreign car, was shepherding a mamma snapper across the street. It's that time of the year when the snapping turtles come out of the marsh to lay their eggs. There must be something in their DNA that makes them have to cross at least one road before they can lay their eggs, because helping them across the street is pretty much a local past-time. I pulled into my drive and walked back out with my snow shovel, still leaning against the stoop even though snow's been gone for two months. I tell the woman this shovel has ferried many a snapper across the road. Between the 3-iron and the snow shovel we got mamma snapper safely to the other side. I find it a beautiful thing that random strangers passing by will make an effort! Snapping turtles are awesome. They can live well over a century, and the females are still laying eggs where they've layed them the last fifty or sixty years. A mamma will drop a dozen or more eggs and bury them. Generally, the 'coons have dug them up and eaten them by morning. But, if you're dropping a dozen eggs a year for 75 years, a few will always get through. They successfully keep the species alive. I told her my neighbour, an ex-army guy, just picks them up and carries them over. I won't try that for the same reason I'm not an ex-army guy; fear! Those snapping turtles are a vicious piece of work. There's reasons they survived pre-history when nothing else did. They'll survive the coming Nuclear Winter too.

Trump declares "peace in our time" for 39th time in three months

Donny J is working on the premise that if you repeat utter bullshit often enough, eventually it becomes reality. Or at least seems realistic enough to much of his fan base that they go along with it. I can see how that happens. I just spent ten minutes watching Larry Kudlow interview Gen. Jack Keane at Fox. Aside from being a retired General and the boss of the Institute for the Promotion of War, Keane is always keen, in every appearance on screen, which is multiple times per day, to remind the Fox audience that Trump's tenure as Commander-in-Chief has cemented America's status as World Hegemon. The reality of things of course points entirely in the opposite direction. In the first year-and-a-bit of Donny's second term, the wheels are falling off the Empire's bandwagon everywhere you look. No matter the extravagant lengths the narrative managers go to divert our attention, it's hard to come to any other conclusion than non-nuke Iran has fought two nuke powers to a stalemate. I predicted months ago that America didn't have the resources to crush Iran, and that once US power in the 'hood was throttled, Israel as we know it is doomed. That's not a bad thing. The Israel that every Christian kid who ever went to Sunday School was taught to revere, has long since morphed into a racist apartheid state committing mass murder on an industrial scale. The end of the US empire that facilitates and fully pays for Israel's atrocities can only be welcomed by the entire Middle East.

For a quarter billion $ I'd kiss Carney's ass too

There was a remarkabley obsequious oped in the Globe today penned by a trio of young "entrepreneurs" who are pee-your-pants ecstatic about Carney's so-called AI strategy. The title of their article gives the game away; "This is our time: Canada's national AI strategy is an incredible step forward." Yup, not only is Canada a latent energy superpower and a latent quantum computing superpower, we are also an AI powerhouse, and indeed, a potential AI superpower. We invented that shit after all! All we have to do is capitalize on our imaginary advantages, and these clowns assert that Canada is destined to become one the the top three AI powers alongside China and USA, thanks to Carney's inspired vision and decisive actions. Really? How does the editorial staff at the Globe, assuming they still have any, let such utter tosh go out under their brand? Here's just one wee issue; Canada produces approx 18,000 STEM postgrads a year. China graduates about 750,000. Oh, and they're not dumbing down their curriculumn so lazy kids can feel better about themselves. But somehow we're gona rule the world of AI? Get the fuck outta here! The young entrepreneurs in question did mention in passing that their AI startup scored almost a quarter billion in government funding in fiscal year 2025. Hmm...

Miracles of the marsh

It's four in the morning and I was just out on the stoop for a breath of fresh air. I heard what sounded like an airplane overhead. It occurred to me to check it out on Flightradar24 when I got back inside. But before I got around to that, it struck me that the airplane noises kind of went on and on and on... the only way that could happen is if something was flying around in circles, which is not out of the question. We're a mere 30 miles or so (as the Blackhawk flies)from the Meaford tank range, so it's not unusual to see stuff in the air that doesn't show up on Flightradar24. As I was pondering all that I realized what I was actually hearing was the frog chorus in the marsh across the road. False alarm, folks... stand down!

How close is the cliff?

You know what I'm talking about. The cliff we're gonna be going over any day now. I've been predicting it since I fired up this blog 15 years ago. Sooner or later I'm gonna be proven right! In fact, at the present moment, there's a global energy cliff we're speeding towards in unseemly haste, and our legacy media has thus far managed to ignore it. We remain more concerned about climate change causing sea-level changes by the turn of the next century than we are about the havoc the Hormuz blockade will cause on the global food supply infrastructure in the next six months. Judging by what a lot of your expert pundits are saying, we could be heading for catastrophic global food shortages. Millions could starve to death... The good news for Canada is very few are expected to starve to death here. Shredded though it may be, our safety net does remain capable of preventing outright starvation! No, they'll be starving in all the usual starvation hot-spots which, aside from Haiti, are all in Africa, for some reason. Colonialism?... nah, not possible. Anyway, it's all smug and well-fed war-mongers pushing the more-war agenda here. When their war-mongering chickens flock home to roost we'll be treated to endless denunciations of Putin's perfidy in egging Iran on. America's humiliation is all Putin's fault.

Baglickers, gulpers, and my pal Randy

Let me stress off the top that my pal Randy was neither. Instead, we were both welders from Ontario who found ourselves working on the frigate program that kept the Irving shipyard in Saint John busy for the better part of twenty years. After getting the contract, Irving had to go on a massive hiring spree. Once they'd scooped up every unemployed shipyard worker and welder in the Maritimes, they started recruiting in Ontario. That's how me and Randy both ended up in New Brunswick. Randy was an interesting character. Unlike me, he had actual shipyard experience under his belt. In fact, he did his apprenticeship at the Collingwood shipyard, building the last thing of consequence that yard ever launched, the Chi-Cheemaun ferry that to this day delivers tourists from Tobermorey to Manitoulin Island. With his shipbuilding experience Randy was an obvious hire for Irving, whereas I was just a guy who could study a blueprint and make stuff look like the picture. Anyway, we soon learned some nuances about how the locals saw the guys from Ontario, and there were dozens of us; "baglickers from Upper Canada." I shit you not! Working class Maritimers talked like that. Once you got to know the nuances you realized "baglicker" was loosely applied to anyone who did anything to please our bosses. Sooner or later, if youre gonna keep your job, you're obviously gonna please the boss, so eventually everyone was to a greater or lesser extent a "baglicker." What you didn't want to be labelled as was a "gulper." Generously speaking, that was the kind of employee who, when shit upon, said "thanks" and asked for more. Neither Randy or I fit that profile, but I gotta say Randy came with a big dose of over-confidence that got him in hot water from time to time. When Randy was doing his apprenticeship his father was the manager of that yard. Randy himself told me his family had expected much more from him. In high school he was a track & field star, an A+ student, and an all-round man-about-town. And, from his own telling, a completely arrogant and spoiled young man. Collingwood is but a short hop from Wasaga Beach, where every spring your outlaw biker types like to make a pilgrimage. So one fine sunny spring day Randy finds himself in a bar in Wasaga, and there's several pretty gals at the bar, and they're all wearing T-shirts proclaiming "property of Hells Angels MC." Now, if it was me, I'd nod politely and move on. Not Randy. He fancied himself a "ladies man," and set about charming those gals in spite of the fact a half-dozen full-patch Angels were sitting at a table on the other side of the room. Long story short, when Randy emerged from his coma a couple weeks later, he left behind twenty or thirty IQ points. What he carried with him, however, was his over-weening arrogance. I should mention that my time at Irvings yard totalled a little under two years. Those two years can be neatly cut in half. After the first year, my wife absconded with our children back to Ontario. In that first year I had never set foot in a Saint John bar. In the second year, I got kicked out of every bar in Saint John, and Randy was my trusty sidekick in every one of those adventures. But getting back to Randy's arrogance; we were on the same crew of about a dozen or so, and we all sat together for breaks. One of the young guys was a black belt in some sort of eastern martial combat stuff. This kid was early 20s, if that, whereas Randy had a good 15 years on him. Nevertheless, Randy was convinced he could lay a whuppin' on the young whipper-snapper. They had a couple of jousts right there, which were indecisive. It was decided they would square off after work one day. So they did. After our shift, around midnight, two dozen guys head down the railway tracks that lead from the yard into town. I gotta say I'm feeling like a bit of a dorkshit just being there. I mean... two adults having a rassle on the train tracks at midnight? What the fuck am I doing here? Anyway, as any betting man would have wagered, the kid won and the old guy lost. It wasn't long after that I reluctantly left that shipyard job so I could be closer to my children. That eventually led to teacher's college and, in the fullness of time, the pension that now pays my bills. As for Randy, his dad was by then the boss of the yard in Welland. Randy always promised me he'd get me a job there. Never heard from him again, but hey dude, if you're still out there, I salute you, Randy!

Please allow Master Tailor Mark Carney to fit you a bespoke AI straightjacket

I see where PM Carney has decreed that all Canadians "should" become devotees of artificial intelligence. In fact, he proposes to offer "free" AI literacy courses to all Canadians, using their own tax dollars. Sounds like a great deal to me! This looks to me like a continuation of the "get aboard or get left behind" mantra that the AI grift machine has been promoting. It's pretty pathetic when the PM of your country is writing Scam Altman talking points into his policies... SHAME!!!

A brief history of the twenty dollar pizza

First time in my life I tasted pizza was when I went to summer camp at the Guelph Bible Chapel. I'd won a free week at camp thanks to having memorized the most bible verses! I was maybe 12 or 13 years old and the camp was pretty cool... they had go-carts and everything! Then one day in the lunch hall it was "Pizza day." I'd never heard of pizza. It was gross. Fast forward a mere five years or so, and pizza had become a staple of every up-and-coming stoner's diet. By then I was spending a lot of time in the North-East corner of Guelph, where I had some pals within a block or two of Marco's Pizza at the corner of Woodlawn and Victoria. I remember this happening a thousand times over; a bunch of potheads got the munchies and would throw coin in the pot to get a large with the works. That typically ran twenty bucks or so. That was fifty years ago. The other day I'm driving through downtown and I see PizzaPizza has a sign in the window; Large Pizza $20. OK... we're definitely in the get-the-fuck-outta-here zone with this shit! We're no longer eating pizza... we're eating lab-generated crap designed to resemble pizza. And we buy it...

Amish cover band rocks ZZ Top's greatest hits like there's no tomorrow...

I gotta admit I fell into one of those grooves that await retirees who didn't do proper prep for their golden years. I sat around watching Youtube instead. I watched it enough I got one of those automatic play lists that the algorthims make for you. So tonight I got treated to this Amish cover band doing pretty darn good covers of various ZZ tunes, not to mention some AC/DC shit as well! At least I think they were Amish. Coulda been orthodox Jews I guess... funny how the way-out-there guys in all the major religious cults resemble one another! Anyway, I personally am still coming to grips with the fact that I can't tell the difference between ZZ and a cover band... they were twenty minutes in before I said, hey... hold on a minute!

Inflation out of control!.. even the bullshit is inflating...

PM Carney dazzled the rubes with another spectacular announcement the other day. Yessiree, he had signed a "milestone agreement" to ship LNG to Germany, several gazillion dollars worth over the next several decades. Whoopee!!! Let the corks fly! What a great moment! Another spectacular announcement from PM Mark Carney! Unfortunately, as is the case with pretty much every announcement in this year of announcements, it's a nothingburger. The big bucks will start to roll in once we build that gas pipeline through a dozen Indigenous nations that don't want it. I'm guessing the court challenges to that Ottawa over-reach will delay things by at least fifty years. This entire story is wishful thinking on the part of people who really should know better by now.

For a guy who is allegedly not-too-bright and has never read a book, Trump shows more savvy than anybody ever expected

For one thing, the Trump Family grift machine has by far eclipsed anything ever achieved by the Biden crime family. After the Burisma scam fell apart, Hunter was reduced to selling his paintings, modernist masterpieces nobody would have paid ten bucks for in normal circumstances. Is that bush league or what? Contrast Hunter's pathetic attempts to cash in on Sleepy Joe's presidency to what the Trump boys are up to... they're not peddling their paintings at a half million a pop... NO! The Trump boys are manipulating markets in crypto, futures, derivatives of every stripe, and reaping billions for their insider trading.

Embracing small joys in troubled times

Songbirds. I've read one scary story after another about the songbird population being in danger. That may be true further south, but it's certainly not true around here. Here they wake you in the morning and serenade you in the evening... I don't know much about birds. While we keep feeders, my expertise is limited. A blue bird with a comb is a bluejay. A blue bird without a comb is probably a bluebird. The yellow birds will be American goldfinch. Some birds are more enjoyable than others. The red-winged blackbird is pretty enough but quite obnoxious, and its call more a warning to any other birds; "stand down, I'm coming in!" Starlings are worse - just as obnoxious, but tend to travel in large packs. Having them descend on the feeders is like a biker gang terrorizing a small town. And they're really smart too. There's not room for the entire gang to roost on the feeders, so the half dozen on the feeders deliberately dump everything out for their buddies on the ground. Yup, twenty bucks of sunflower seeds and cracked corn gone in five minutes. I picked up an air-pistol at Canadian Tire to guard the feeders. By the second day, all I had to do was wave it in the air and the starlings got their tail-feathers the heck outta there, that's how quick they learn. About five or six years ago a bird built a nest in the roof over the stoop. It's come back every year since to nest in the same place. It's occurred to me that this can't possibly be the same bird who built the first nest six years ago. How do the children or grandchildren of the original nest-buildrs know where to go? I guess it's the same internal mechanisms that tell them how to get to Florida or Mexico every winter. This year the nest building began while there was still snow on the ground. Early last week I heard the faint peeps of fledglings. By now it's a cacaphony every time Mama comes in with a fresh worm, which is, on average, every two minutes. Life goes on...

How likely is it that Canadian troops are launching drones and cruise missiles into Russia?

Andrew Korybko, an American based in Moscow, published an article today with the provocative title; "How likely is it that Russia's next Special Operation will be against Latvia?" He makes reference to a recent claim by Russia's foreign intel agency, the SVR, that Ukrainian drone operators have been moved to bases in Latvia, the same bases that house the approximately 2,500 Canadian Forces troops. By coincidence Simplicius, whose blog I highly recommend, posted a story about the same SVR report, which included a link to a Defence News interview with commander of the Canadians, Col. Kris Reeves. The Colonel makes some noteworthy comments. "RIGA, Latvia — The Canada-led NATO brigade in Latvia has moved beyond its original “tripwire” deterrence posture and is now focused on mounting a credible defense of the Baltic country bordering Russia, according to its commander, Col. Kris Reeves. "Reeves said the shift towards what he described as “tactical credibility” has meant establishing forward locations and stationing troops near Latvia’s eastern border, in the terrain where they would actually fight in the event of a conflict, the Canadian commander told Defense News." Looks pretty much open-and-shut to me - our Canadians are over there no longer to show solidarity, but to fight Russia! And how do you lke this display of confidence: "Right now I have a brigade, there is nothing on the other side of the border that can take out this brigade,” Reeves said in an interview at the Sēlija training range in central Latvia this week. In a further quote that was since deleted he referred to NATO's goal of "triggering" a Russian response. Sounds like they're tasked to provoke a war. This strikes me as delusional. Nothing on the other side of that border? There's a reason you're in Latvia, and not Ukraine, and frankly, the continuuing use of Baltic airspace to attack Russia will end badly for the Baltics and their hubris-drenched enablers. I haven't heard such aspirational over-reach since General Rick Hillier promised he'd put the run to murdering scumbags the Taliban right smartly. We know how that ended.

America still greatest military power ever in history!

Of course it is! Just listen to Trump and Hegseth. When you hear these clowns tell the tale, you'd think Western Civ has cut Putin down to size, and has completely annihilated the ruling elite in Iran. Well... I don't see any sign that Putin is impressed. While it's not explicitly expressed in our media, it's plenty obvious that Russia is not only "demilitarizing" Ukraine, it has also succeeded in effectively demilitarizing all of NATO. That's what's behind all the stories about US ammo shortages as they're ramping up another round of attacks on Iran, aka "the Towelheads 'o Terror." For their part, the Persians seem to think they've got Uncle Sam by the balls. They do, and they're pulling down his trousers while bending him over an oil barrel... oh-oh...

The Crad Kilodney of the internet era?

Crad Kilodney was the 'pen name' for a dude who peddled self-published books in downtown Toronto back in the day. I may have bought one once, just as a gesture of solidarity. Couple of guys I know, with way bigger audiences than I enjoy, have accused me of being an internet version of Crad. All I can say in response is they're giving me way too much credit. Crad wrote actual book-length books, whereas I've pretty much mostly run out of gas after 600 words or so. Nevertheless, this blogsite reminds you every post is under a warning due to community standards, which presumably is also why you can't like, subscribe, or comment. Be that as it may, The View From Falling Downs/Neumann's Blog passed 4 million views today. Thanks!

The much ballyhooed Defence Security and Resilience Bank is a boondogle designed to move taxpayer dollars to war profiteers

This obvious fraud is getting a lot of positive press coverage. To no-one's surprise, the big banks are all aboard for this boondogle. You see, this travesty of flawed governance will solve a critical problem for JPM et al, that being the problem of extending credit to arms dealers. If you're contemplating a $300 million loan to a broker shipping missiles to Ukraine, well, given that the collateral is destined to blow up, the profit motive would obviously prevent you from making that loan. That's where the Defence Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) comes in. This is a classic 3P scam, the "public private partnership" ruse that guarantees the profits of the private side of the partnership while the public side, ie the taxpayer, covers the losses. This is being promoted by the Carney regime as a great opportunity for Canada. Right now we're supposed to get excited that no less than four Canadian cities are vying to be the DSRB HQ! That's gonna bring 3500 jobs, dontcha know! And dontcha know it ain't gonna be the big banks paying the salaries of those new bureaucrats, it's gonna be the taxpayer!

Now that cruise ships are news again, check this out

No matter the horror stories that come out on a regular basis, cruise tourism remains a multi-billion$ business. Today it's an exotic virus from wherever. At least the shit isn't running down the walls yet. From a few years ago.***************************** neumann's blog Tuesday, July 14, 2020 Pot-addled hillbilly spots cruise-ship dangers years before pandemic Why anyone in their right mind would want to go on a cruise, even in the best of times, is something I don't get. Nevertheless lots of folks do it. I hear bookings are up for the winter season, even after the Diamond Princess fiasco and numerous others. That particular disaster even led to some scientific research. I guess if you're taking a cruise to further science, that's a good thing.... Otherwise, you deserve what you get. Carnival of Fecal Matter There's a few thousand folks out on a Caribbean cruise having second thoughts tonight. But it's too late. They're on the cruise from hell. The Carnival Triumph set sail from Texas a few days ago. Then the onboard generators quit. No lights, no running water, no air-conditioning, and the toilets don't flush. There's urine and fecal matter all over the floors and running down the walls. That's piss and shit in layman's terms. From time to time well-meaning friends and relations give me the pep-talk about what a great thing it is to go on a cruise. At the best of times this strikes me as being trapped in a really big Super 8 for a week with three thousand strangers, except the rooms are way smaller and you can't hop in your car and get away from those three thousand strangers. People talk about cruises being a "good deal," but I swear if I ever won a cruise I'd pay someone to take it off my hands. And that's before the generators quit and the shit starts running down the walls. No thanks!

Happy Mother's Day, Liebe Mutti!

Got in the car this morning for the two+ hour drive to visit my dear mother. The older she gets, the more important it becomes in my mind not to miss it. The old gal is 91, still lives independently in her own place, and just bought herself a new car. I stopped at the Korean's for a fifty-dollar hanging basket on the way out of town. I'm sure they'll be on for half that tomorrow! So I get down there, and Mom has just got home from church. She attends an outfit that is overtly protestant and vaguely related to the Quaker-Hutterite tradition, and as such, are the antithesis of the anti-Christian "Christian Zionist" faction exemplified by US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. She tells me today's lesson came from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. That Old Testament reference is usually a red flag. That's where Bibi goes to justify genocide; Jehova has commanded us to slay the Amaleks and that sort of thing. But no, the prophet Habakkuk was off on another tangent altogether. He was warning the Chosen People that if they didn't mend their ways the Lord would cover them in filth, "for the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee." That was predicted almost 3,000 years ago. Anyway, I thank God I'm still able to enjoy my dear mother, and am doubly grateful she's a partisan for a Christianity of Peace instead of the brand promoted by Huckabee and Pompeo. Happy Mother's Day, Liebe Mutti!

Shitlandistan

That's quite a spectacle the DC clown show is putting on in front of the entire world. How do these imbeciles imagine they retain any credibility anywhere? If the China visit goes off at all, the only thing Trump should expect is a sound spanking. All the big talk, the over-the-top bluster, will be demolished in short order once talks turn to the nitty-gritty of who needs what and who produces what, critical resources wise. The greatest dealmaker in human history is being exposed as an utter charlatan. Don't expect Xi to help Donny J out of his Iran conundrum. An unprovoked attack on Iran, in the midst of fake peace negotiations, instigated entirely by Israel, is gonna be a tough one to sweep under the rug. Polls are showing popular support for Israel is collapsing across all demographics in the US. Apparently Americans aren't quite as committed to the mass murder of children as our allies in the Holy Land. Eventually this revulsion will translate into action... hello BDS!

Remember when drugs were illegal and homosexuality was a vice?

The good old days! I got turned on to the weed 'o wisdom in my mid teens by Bernie Marquardt and Brian Vollet, when we were all pumping gas at John's Supertest, out on Waterloo Ave in Guelph. For most of the half century and then some that has passed us by since, I've been on the side of drug legalization. In principle, I'm still there, but in reality, what I'm seeing on the streets today is so far beyond hopeless that we gotta snap back to some sort of common sense right smartly, and fast, or we are seriously fucked! The other learning experience that sprouted outta my John's Supertest years was my introduction to gay culture. We were a gas station in Guelph, circa 1970, and we were selling gay porn! Turned out Brian's older brother was a locally famous poofer, and he offered his personal collection of hard-core gay porn for resale right there alongside the 10w40 and the windshield-washer fluid in our front room at John's Supertest. The drugs thing has gone totally out of control. I was happy enough that they stopped weed possession being a criminal offence, but I was very dissappointed that Justin gave the entire game over to his, or more accurately, his advisors' Bay Street pals. As for the so-called revolution in gay rights, I'm not sure if the rights gained compensate for what's lost. There was a time homosexuality was considered at least mildly subversive. Gay rights crusaders worked tirelessly to normalize homosexuality. And they largely succeeded. Nobody bats an eye at gay marriage anymore, and why should they?... On the other hand, nobody bats an eye when alleged homophobe DJT surrounds himself with Zionist billionaire advisors living in same-sex relationships... and why should they...

The John Goobie Boogie Woogie

As an old guy with nothing much to do other than wander the various overgrown pathways of memory... not so much overgrown as forgotten, I just came off a bit of a blues bender. Yup, I got Smokestack Lightening coming through the headphones right now! You know how it goes... a toke or two and a coupla shots with beer chasers, and before you know it, you're... having a fucking nap! Be that as it may, I had a very pleasant afternoon with Clarence Gatemouth Brown and ZZ Top. No, they weren't in the same music video, but they shoulda been. I was looking for some live footage of a ZZ track from the '70s, and while I never found that exact tune, I got a shitload of related stuff that set aflame the memory banks. For about five or six years of my childhood I was forced to take piano lessons. I had zero desire, interest, or aptitude, but my mother, having come of age in a refugee camp in Denmark post WW2 where she was denied the opportunity for piano lessons, was determined to provide me with the opportunities she had missed. My piano teacher was a dude originally from Newfoundland (I think) who had a bronze bust of Ludwig v Beethoven in his studio along with two pianos, one for him and one for his unsuspecting victims. My half-hour a week piano lesson was an exercise in utter boredom. The highlight was reading the Punch magazines he had in the anteroom. I mean, John mighta hailed from Newfoundland, but Punch was high-brow Brit Lit. Anyway, as I worked my way through the various lesson books, we eventually came to one titled "Jigs, Reels, and Boogie Woogie." I'd been practicing my first boogie lesson for a couple of weeks, and my teacher was getting a little pissy. He was shaking his head and muttering no, no... finally he cuts me off. Then he tears into a boogie tirade that woulda had ZZ struggling to keep up. Holy Jumpin' Jehosaphat, as we used to say... John pretty much set the piano on fire! That John Goobie boogie woogie rocked out like nothing I've heard before or since! Too bad he limited himself to giving piano lessons to no-talent dorkshits like me... he coulda been a somebody!

Happy May Day!

Traditionally, May Day was a day widely presumed to celebrate the working class. In North America May Day was seen as a little too sympathetic to European-style democratic socialism, which is why the powers that were soon cancelled May Day and gave us Labour Day instead. This May Day I scrolled through a few of my usual daily news sites, including CBC, CNN, and Fox, and found not so much as a passing reference to May Day. Even more shocking, most of my usual alt-news sites didn't have anything either! Pretty much had to wait till I got to the WSWS before I found out that millions had taken over the streets and capitalism was on its last legs for sure... Ya, I don't know what's become of the working class. It ain't what it used to be, that's for sure. When my father's generation got off the boat they knew who they were; the working class. They say your personality is fixed in the first five years of life by what you saw your parents doing. My father had one of the best jobs in the factory when I was a kid. All I ever aspired to, as a working class kid, is the best job in the factory! Of course, that all went for a shit when Dad ditched his own working class roots and embraced the manifold opportunities afforded by this great country we'd landed in. Suddenly, the "best job in the factory" wasn't good enough anymore... and for good reason. Between when we disembarked at Pier 21 in the 1950s and what the working class looks like today, things aren't looking great... but they've been worse! Happy May Day!

Canada's new "sovereign wealth fund" lacks key ingredient - wealth!

In theory, a sovereign wealth fund husbands a country's financial surplus for a future rainy day. The problem with the Canada Strong fund Carney just announced is that, lacking any financial surplus whatsoever, the entirety of the $25 billions in seed money has to be borrowed. Poilievre is correct when he says it would more appropriately be called a "sovereign debt fund." This continues Carney's string of headline-grabbing announcements which don't withstand a second glance, let alone close scrutiny. Carney gifted us the Major Projects Office, the mandate of which is to announce major projects, not to build them. He's gifted us a new Defence Investment Agency, stacked atop the existing bureaucracy, because everybody knows the Canadian Forces procurement challenges are due to a lack of management personnel. And don't forget Build Canada Homes. That new bureaucracy was intended to build new housing at scale, but actual housing starts are either stagnant or in decline since the inititive made big headlines almost a year ago. Maybe Mark can't find the necessary trades... oh-oh... here comes the next wave of TFWs!

Lithuania can teach us how to stand up to bullies

That's according to Murray Brewster, the CBC's military affairs expert. According to Murray, the speed at which the Baltic statelet ditched cheap Russian pipeline gas for far more expensive American LNG was an inspiration to the whole of the Free World! I don't know about that. Anytime a government makes a political decision that will immiserate their people, is that really the sort of "courage" we should emmulate? Beyond that, the comparison of our countries seems a little forced. Since independence, Lithuania has lost 40% of its population,which wasn't even the population of Toronto to begin with. Canada has gained 50% in the same time. GDP per capita is almost double in Canada. Lithuania is clearly a nation in decline, sputtering listlessly towards extinction. Canada's birthrate, one of the lowest in the world, makes us an "ultra-low fertility" country. Lithuania's birthrate is even lower! The other bully Lithuania has put in their place is China. While it's true China got a liitle huffy back in 2021 after the Lithuanians allowed a Taiwan "embassy" to open in Vilnius, that tiff seems to have passed. Here's a quote from Google AI; "while trade plunged dramatically in 2022, recent 2026 data shows Chinese exports to Lithuania surging by 98%." While Brewster doesn't spell it out explicitly, the bully we're concerned about today is the country both Lithuania and Canada looked to for protection and leadership until Trump unleashed his tariff rampage a year ago. Here's a thought; instead of joining forces with pipsqueak non-entities like the Vilnius regime, how about both our counries join up with Xi and Putin to put an end to Washington's global terror campaign.

American Empire facing multiple vortices of doom

You have to give credit to Bibi and Trump; they've succeeded in leading two nuke-equipped nations to defeat by a non-nuke nation! It's hilarious to watch Pistol Pete Hegseth, aka "Greasy Pete," standing in front of TV cameras claiming one victory after another. Every victory so glorious the entirety of human history has never seen anything like it... Ya... or maybe not. I gotta say, from my perspective, looks to me like the towelheads have got Uncle Sam over the proverbial barrel- the barrel of oil, that is. Not only are they giving Team Trump the finger re: his various ever-changing demands, they're still shipping boat-loads of oil out the allegedly-blockaded Persian Gulf. And when they let foreign ships through, it's only after they've paid a juicy toll in something other than USD. There goes the petrodollar! American cred in the military sphere has already gone for a shit. In the first place, US tech is distinctly over-priced and underwhelming. Billion-dollar AD systems taken out by a drone swarm that doesn't amount to $100k. I'm no expert, but that doesn't strike me as a formula to win a war. And our "Israeli Allies" have truly become the albatross around America's neck. They obviously can't get anything serious done on their own. They've been waging total war against Hamas for the better part of three years and everybody knows Hamas is nowhere near defeated. Even their genocide requires non-stop American support. Americans are turning away from Israel's war crimes like never before.

Premier Ford buys private jet to get closer to common folks

Here's a true fact; 90% of Ontario's voters live within a 3 hour SUV ride of Queen's Park. But Doug Ford needs a private jet, presumably to hit the population centres beyond the reach of a government Cadillac Escalade and the inevitable escort of several dozen black Tahoes and Suburbans, not to mention the OPP air fleet that keeps watch over Doug from above. Like Thunder Bay for example. That's a fourteen hour drive from Queen's Park on a good day. Give the man a private jet already! The voters in Thunder Bay will be thrilled to see him. The biggest problems in that city over recent history revolve around the toxic drug crisis, homelessness, police corruption, and, obviously related, the rapidly emerging crisis of Indigenous alienation. Everybody gonna be thrilled to see Dougie flying in on his new airplane! A huge part of the rationale offered by Team Ford revolved around his need to travel to the USA. After all, he just did a round trip to Texas on a leased private jet... Seems to me you can boil this controversy down to the age-old question of leasing vs. buying. I must say, the 30m price tag looks like a goodly discount on the 120 or so for a brand new one. And it was only lightly used in its previous life in South America, where it was owned by a little old lady who only used it for regular runs from Bogota to a small church near an obsure airstrip in Arizona every Sunday.

Is this the right time for a Republican Christian and a Hindu Democrat to join forces and launch a third party in US politics?

I'm talking about Ro and MTG of course. It's seemed for some time, and especially during Trump's spas-fest over Easter weekend, that multitudes of once-reliable Trumpies would vote against Trump at their next opportunity, and that, failing a viable 3rd party, that protest vote would, by default, go to the Dems. What a terrible waste of a historic moment that would be. As much as I like Jill Stein, the Greens lack the national profile to upset the two-party apple-cart. That's why I did a double-take when I read reports that former Trumpie Marjorie Taylor-Greene and lefty-Dem Ro Khanna were cooking up some sort of populist-oriented collaboration. MTG went ballistic against Trump when he did his 180 on the Epstein files. Ro has displeased the DNC establishment for daring to question its slavish adherence to Israeli policy positions. So I don't know if this is the right time, but it just might be the last best time we'll ever get! Go Ro! Go Marj!

Has the Stable Genius gone insane?

I saw a podcast today wherein Jeffrey Sachs made a strong case that 47 has slipped his moorings. I have maximum respect for Sachs. He spent his entire career in the service of Empire, in the highest reaches of academia and the bureaucracy. It's gotta take a lot of courage to turn your back on that Empire and begin proselytizing against it. It's not so much that I think Sachs is mistaken, but I think he's too quick to skip over a possibly more plausible explanation. I too have more than once pondered the "fucked in the head" narrative, and while it's compelling enough, what about this theory; that all the crazy talk is first and foremost intended to move markets. Trump has unprecedented power to move markets, he knows it, and everything we know about Donnie J, Mafia Don, or The Donald tells us he's not the kinda guy to let such an opportunity slip by. My theory, purely speculative of course, is there are Trump operatives planted in select tax havens all over the world, feeding billions of dollars through derivative trades buried under many layers of anonymity. Donny can literally pull a complete whopper out his ass and every bourse and exchange around the world groans under the stress of all the wild swings in trading he just triggered. Since those Trump insiders in Guernsey or the Cayman Islands know what's coming, they must be making utterly eye-watering profits! The point is, maybe Trump is just a stupid old man heading down the Alzheimer Highway. Maybe. Or maybe he's the most spectacularly successful grifter of all time?

Just when you thought things couldn't get any more nutso-kookoo...

...Mafia Don pulls yet another surprise from his ample arse! How about a blockade on your blockade, you dastardly Towelheads! Oh ya! We gonna teach 'em a lesson... USA USA USA!!! In case you have yet to notice, we're all living in Crazytown now. That dude in the White House is absolutely just begging for the 25th solution. I mean, how much more demented, deranged, and flat-out fucked-in-the-head would you have to be before that kicks in? As near as I can tell, the USA-Israel war on Iran ain't going all that great. Nor is Israel's war on Lebanon. Nor is Israel's war on Hamas. Remember that? After two and a half years of total war on Hamas, trapped as they are in a sealed-off enclave barely the size of Brampton, the vaunted IDF has yet to come anywhere near defeating them. Bear in mind that Israel could not carry out any of its seven front wars without 100% support from Uncle Sam. It's looking more and more likely that Israel could lose every one of those fronts. Then what?

Vultures circle as American Empire implodes

In hindsight, it's clear that this long-overdue reckoning could have been avoided had Mafia Don not succumbed to the entreaties of the Prime Minister of Israel and its top spy boss that Iran was ripe fruit, low-hanging enough that DJT himself could get his grubby thieving fingers on it. Oh ya! And go down in history! Oh ya! USA USA USA!!! Well, as all the world can see, Donny J is up a bit of a stump now. Any hopes for November are fading fast. Before The Greatest Leader Since Moses conned the greatest dupe to ever sit in the Oval Office into going to war for Israel, there was a chance Mafia Don might bullshit his way through this. That's all over now. Not only did he go to war for Israel... he lost!

Taco Tuesday

Again! Who coulda seen that coming? Trump really got an unholy ruckus going over Easter Weekend. It started off on a happy enough narrative trail. Mafia Don and Pistol Pete revealed the most complex downed-pilot extraction ever known in all of military history. The world has never seen anything like it, etc. etc... Our dear Lord in heaven gave us an Easter Miracle! Within 24 hours there was ample alt-media spotlight highlighting the fact that the Easter Miracle narrative was in actuality a massive coverup of a critical mission failure. The war that Donald allowed his Zionist minders to talk him into is starting to hurt. Half a billion worth of the best US war toys was scattered across the Iranian desert in this great triumph. The realization that his rep as a military tactician had just gone for a shit caused the Commander in Chief to pen an extra-pissy post on his Truth Social. That only got Tucker Carlson and his gazillions of followers pulling their hair out over Trump dropping f-bombs on Easter Sunday! You can see where things are only going from bad to worse to badder and worser for Trump. That must be around the time he decided to threaten to erase Persian civilization. Yup, yet another Trump ultimatum! He gave Iran 48 hours to capitulate, and then, OH MY GOD AMERICA WOULD UNLEASH HELL LIKE THE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE!!! Ya right... as if this five thousand year old civilization is impressed by a real estate hustler from NYC. But it did convince a large percentage of the undecided that Dear Donald is seriously fucked in the head. But who knows. Well before his deadline, he announced a two-week ceasefire. Taco time again! Persian civilization gets a two-week reprieve! So far I'm not seeing any evidence Iran agreed to that two-week ceasefire. My guess is Trump is keen on this ceasefire because both US and IDF are running out of ammo, and apparently the totally obliterated (at least three or four times over by now) Iranians are not.

$100 billion here and a hundred billion there, pretty soon we're looking at serious money

And not too long after that, we'll be looking at bankruptcy. I gotta say I'm not impressed by Carney. For a supposed financial savant, he's committing Canada to long term spending at levels totally beyond our capacity to pay. This is happening with little or no consultation with the public. All the while, mainstream media do their best to limit discussion. We can debate whether Korean or German subs might best suit our needs, but there's no discussion at all about whether these legacy manned combat systems have any role to play in 21st century warfare. Same goes for warships and fighter jets. What the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are proving right now is that war ain't what it used to be. Big warships make big targets. The Ukrainian navy has pretty much kept Russia's Black Sea Fleet in drydock for the past four years using cheap unmanned drones. In Israel, and in USA's Gulf bases, Iran has destroyed the most sophisticated air defence systems in the world using cheap unmanned drones. Mark Carney is loading us up with at least $500 billions in obsolete technology that wouldn't survive a one month war with Iran, let alone Russia or China. On the other hand, even while our new armoury becomes a smoking ruin, we'll (or our children and theirs) continue to pay for all this foolishness for at least the next fifty years. That will require massive tax hikes, equally massive spending cuts, or some combination of both. It is high time we had a public debate on what kind of a society we want, and prioritize our spending accordingly.