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 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 send me mail. 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.

Trump so far up Bibi's butt we've lost sight of his shoes!

I just watched Trump's speech, which was a mash-up of Likud talking points. The President of the USA proclaimed in public that American forces were prepared to lay down their lives for... Israel? That ain't gonna fly with the America First wing of the Maga crowd. In fact, I don't see it flying even amongst most Dems. This Iran disaster that has consumed America is entirely the work of AIPAC and their minions in DC. It was Team Bibi that convinced their patsy Donny J that the Iran caper was a slam-dunk! And here we are.

Jesus is spinning in His grave

Metaphorically speaking, of course. We all know that in real life JC arose from the grave after a mere three days, and skedaddled back to Heaven to sit at Daddy's side. The reason I am entertaining this line of thought is some recent public appearances of the US Defense Sec Hegseth. This guy is a far-gone religious nutter. He belongs in a hillside outpost on the West Bank, not in the White House. I saw him today offering up some Old Testament prayer beseeching Jehova to smite the enemies of Israel! WHAT? THE? FUCK? This guy is the Sec Def, or Sec War if you prefer, in what for the moment remains the most lethal military in the history of war crimes. I'd previously thought perpetual war-monger and Bible-thumping CIA boss Pompeo was the worst possible ambassador for the Christian faith. Enter Pistol Pete. The Devil himself could not have imagined an American leader proclaiming himself Christian even as he shits all over the teachings Jesus of Nazareth gifted history in His brief adult life. America is long overdue for a course correction.

Whack Jobs and Crazy Stuff

To be sure, there's no shortage of whack jobs in the present moment. Anybody writing about the glorious triumph of "Western Values" is an obvious whack job. Right next to "Western Values" we've got the ever-present denial of what's been going on for the past two and a half years in Gaza. What's whacked and crazy is there's still major media platforms wanting to convince you starving Palestinian children to death is a legitimate exercise of Israel's right to defend itself. How is such a thing even remotely possible, given the commitment of the Nations of Virtue to human rights and all that happy talk?

Kyiv Bentley dealership honoured for outstanding bravery during wartime

Just kidding! It wasn't for outstanding bravery; it was for outstanding sales and marketing! Yup, at the recent get-together of the European Bentley Dealers Association, held in Marbella, the Kyiv Bentley store was showered with honours. Not only has it survived four years of brutal non-stop Russian aggression, it is now number 3 in sales across all 61 European Bentley dealerships! Such a thing could never have been imagined before the Russian invasion! What a testament to the resilience of the Ukrainian people!

A few words out of Trump can move global markets by $100s of billions

We saw that this morning. The markets had baked in the moderate risk that Mafia Don might make good on his threat to destroy the Tehran electrical grid. Brent was bid up to 118 this morning... until Trump declared a five day waiver on his previous ultimatum. Benchmark Brent crude dropped hard. In the derivative markets, fortunes were made or lost in moments. Watching that unfold in real time got me thinking. Trump has become famous for making completely unexpected decisions. Time after time you hear, who coulda seen that coming? Time after time, these way-out-there Trump edicts result in serious jolts to the financial markets. Here's the thing. The astute and/or lucky player can profit equally from an uptick or a collapse. Trump's words have caused huge swings in global markets on a regular basis. Anybody with any insights into what Trump's next words might be is well placed to trouser a few billions as a result of insider derivatives trading. Thank God everybody in Donald's orbit has the moral fibre to resist such temptation!... Ya, I know... who do we think we're foolin' here?

We live in interesting times, and they're moving fast...

It was just a couple days ago a CBC story informed me that we (ie Canada) had signed on to a letter from six NATO allies plus Japan vowing support for "appropriate" actions Uncle Sam might take to open the Hormuz Strait. Make of that what you will, but bear in mind this is largely the same crew that promised Ukraine "whatever it takes for as long as it takes." Between the lot of them, that "support" won't go much beyond a strongly worded letter, or maybe two. Before the ink was dry on that letter, Japan had already signed a side deal with Iran to ensure its ships got through, just in case. Which leaves us on the cusp of economic catastrophe. I had no idea how much vital shit comes out of a barrel of crude or a cubic metre of natural gas. Gasoline and diesel, of course. Home heating gas. Jet fuel. Propane. Cooking gas. Helium. The MRI machine in your local hospital requires helium. Sulphur. Apparently you can't etch high-end computer chips without it. And one third of the world's fertilizer comes out of the Gulf. I had no idea. And "no idea" pretty much sums up Mafia Don's strategy when it comes to this war of choice his blackmailers pushed him into. To be clear, it was Bibi's choice, not Donald's. The Israel connection isn't helpful. As American lives begin to fall in this war, more than a few voices are asking why American soldiers are dying for Israel. That's a question that's ultimately going to cost 47 his career and his legacy. America First does NOT include dying for Israel.

Towelheads o' Terror turn tables on Western Civ

That's quite a shit-show unfolding over there since American Exceptionalism and Jewish Supremacy joined forces to spring a surprise attack on Iran. In the middle of what the Iranians thought were peace negotiations! That worked last time, but apparently the towellers weren't having any this time round. Within the hour of the Boss Mullah's demise, Iranian drones and missiles were on their way to every US base in the Middle East and to Israel. That was three weeks ago. They haven't stopped coming since! And they won't stop anytime soon. Damage to the world economy is already into the trillions. Every US base in the ME has been put out of business. Ben Gurion is closed. Seven million Israelis spent all of last night in bomb shelters. Iron Dome is long broken. And the missiles and drones keep coming and coming and coming... Meanwhile, it's harder by the minute to keep alive the fiction that our marvelous Patriots and David's Sling and Arrow are doing anything at all. The clown show in DC wants us to believe there's a plan... as we reindustrialize and home-shore our manufacturing capacity, we'll eventually be able match the drone and missile production capability of Iran. Eventually! In the meanwhile, sit tight dear citizens... glorious victory, the final glorious victory of the Greatest Leader Since Moses, is about to leave its garland at your door.

Trump crime syndicate's Arab Gulf States empire going up in smoke

If you follow this sort of thing, you know there's multiple NYC billionaires with substantial investments in the Arab Gulf countries. Jarrod Kushner spearheaded a lot of this action. Moving the embassy, floating the Abraham Accords, and the Gaza "Board of Peace" were all manifestations of Kushner's efforts to cash in on Mideast Mayhem. Hardly a month ago, Arab Gulf states were promising billions to join the Board of Peace. Might as well be a hundred years ago, just a few weeks later. That scam is over. American news platforms are thus far trying to maintain the fiction that the USA-Israel war criminal combine is obliterating, destroying, devastating, etc etc Iran. Iran, meanwhile, has the economy of the Western world, ie the Israel-USA-EU-NATO universe, totally and entirely by the balls. They haven't closed the Straight of Hormuz at all. Chinese, Russian, and Irainian ships are getting through just fine. There's absolutely nothing Israel, USA, or anyone else can do about it. The pundits all over Western media continue to spew fantasies of victory for American Empire and Greater Israel. The Iranian missiles streaming through Iron Dome day and night are telling a different story.

Western Civ trapped in Biggly Heap 'o Shit

I'm kinda an armchair doom-scroller, who follows international geopolitics because I've lost faith in professional sports. I mean, at some point you can't explain decades of Leaf failures without resorting to conspiracy theories. While I am not at all surprised that, as playoff season rolls around, the Leafs suck harder than ever, it does shock me to read that games are deliberately tossed in order to nab the top draft prospects. That's gotta be Russian propaganda for sure! I don't know about you, but for me personally I'm kinda coming round to the view that, all things considered, what we call "Russian propaganda," tends to be more accurate, more timely, more relevant than the usual same-old from ABC/BBC/CBC/CNN/Fox/etc. According to the Rooskie propaganda, they are winning the war in Ukraine. Ya! And if that's not foolishness enough, some of our adversaries are secretly supporting Iran in their futile defiance of God, America, and Israel, not necessarily in that order. Of course they are, but here's the scary part. I think many of America's traditional allies are secretly rooting for Iran too.

Iran's alleged nuclear program and Canada's support for the criminal Trump-Bibi war

Benyamin Netanyahu has been warning the world of Iran's imminent nuke since at least '92. For at least that long, plenty of well-placed experts have consistently called out that claim as bullshit. In December 2011 I published a post titled "Mossad boss dismisses Iranian nuclear threat." Tamir Pardo is long retired and still calling BS on Bibi's BS. Many other IDF, Mossad, and Shin Bet alum have joined him, but generally only after they retire. In 2007 a US intelligence report came to the same conclusion. Since then, the 18 US intel agencies have confirmed the same conclusion year after year.. Iran abandoned its nuke program in 2003. There has never been any evidence that it has been reconstituted. That conclusion has been reiterated as recently as June '25. In between, the Islamic Republic signed on to Obama's nuke deal which opened Iran to international inspectors. On March 3 the PM of Canada announced on his official website, his "regrettable" support for the absolutley illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran, in the midst of what Israel and the US pretended were negotiations. "Despite more than two decades of diplomatic efforts, Iran has not dismantled its nuclear program." No mention anywhere of the nuke deal negotiated under Obama. No mention of multiple reports from US intel debunking Netanyahu's serial lies. No mention it was Trump himself who kyboshed the nuke deal. Mark Carney prefers the lies of the warmongers to taking a stand. After all, when push comes to shove, keeping Trump happy far outweighs questions of principle.

Fuhrer Doug Ford shows true colours

I recall Doug Ford promoting himself as an everyman populist in his early political career. That was quite a long time ago. Alas, as he clawed his way up the greasy pole of power, his populism morphed into something else by the time he arrived at the top. We've had one dubious shenanigan after another where friends of Douggie, a crowd that includes every billionaire real estate developer Toronto has produced in the last 50 years, would make out like bandits at the expense of that quaint relic "the common good." Ontario Place, the Science Centre, that Greenbelt razzle-dazzle that would have added a few more billions to the accounts of a handful of real estate billionaires... oh Douggie, what have you become? I think the answer is clear. With his drive to exempt himself and his cabinet from Freedom of Information requests, he's become a full-fledged tyrant. If he can pull this off, democracy will be safe from prying pinkos who are forever trying to trip up good, or in the case of Fuhrer Ford, stupendously fabulous, responsible, and ethical governance.

Trump up Shit Creek, no paddle

There are decades when nothing happens; then there are days when decades happen. We're living through some of those days now. The American Empire is transitioning from gradual decline to chaotic freefall in front of our eyes. The biggest loser in this transition is Israel. Once the US is driven out of the Gulf, Israel as we know it, will cease to exist. It will, in the fullness of time, emerge as a single unified state wherein every citizen, Jew, Muslim, or Christian, has the same rights. Same rights to property. Same rights to a gun permit. The apartheid bastion of Jewish supremacy American largess has enabled for the last fifty years will be no more. It looks to me like the billionaires who bought the White House may be starting to have second thoughts. Apparently there was considerable White House lobbying among the hedgies to assure them the Iran war wouldn't disrupt markets for more than a few days, max. As Trump's three day war enters it's third week, Pentagon boss Pistol Pete Hegseth, the cartoonish Secretary of War, is dispatching 5,000 marines to the area. To do what? My guess is they're going there to die. When you listen to the speechifying of Hegseth or Trump, the hubris oozing out of them is utterly nauseating. Off-the-charts misplaced pride... biggly fall soon. Greatest in history!

Iran aims to collapse the US economy

Frankly, I think they could well succeed. Right now they're doing a job on Gulf States oil/gas infrastructure. That means even after Hormuz is navigable once again, it would be months to restore processing capacity. Air defence throughout America's Gulf allies is either exhausted or has been transfered to Israel. Trump claims he can open Hormuz. Even if he could, it wouldn't be anytime soon. Americans don't know or care that their society rots from within, but watch what happens when pump gas hits 7 or 8 bucks a gallon. Revolution for sure! If the oil shipments don't resume within weeks, GOP loses both House and Senate in November. There is also the problem that this war is unsustainable for Israel, and Israel is the only reason America is in this war in the first place. There is no place in Israel safe from enemy missiles. The economy is severely stressed. They goaded, cajoled, manipulated and possibly blackmailed Trump into this war believing American support ensured a quick victory. It hasn't and it won't. The billionaires who own this government will soon enough face a reckoning. Here's a fact they should keep in mind. It is only in the Western sphere that governments operate at the pleasure of the billionaire class. While Russia, China, and Iran all have billionaires, they can find themselves in jail, exile, or the ground if they defy the government. That may seem harsh, but I have a hunch the vast majority of Americans would applaud the reining in of the oligarchs.

They've been bullshitting us about self-driving cars for over ten years. Where are they?

I see where Waymo (short for way more bullshit, apparently) is doing yet another trial of driverless vehicles. These trials, and there have been dozens by various entities over the years, inevitably end the same way. Everything goes great 80 or 90 or 99% of the time, but just before regulatory approval, there's a front-page story about how 12 children on their way to Sunday-school were trapped in their driverless taxi for six hours when the door-locks malfunctioned, and are permanently traumatized. So the magic of driverless cars remains but a dream. Here's what I had to say about the matter more than ten years ago. ************* Saturday, May 31, 2014 Google's driverless car is the public transit of the future. Think about it. A car that doesn't require you to drive it can come to your house empty and pick you up. When it drops you off it can pick up somebody else somewhere else. You'll never have to worry about parking! With efficiencies of scale kicking in, one of these transportation pods will be makeable for a few thousand dollars. Goodbye multi-billion dollar street-car and subway infrastructure projects. The Google-mobile uses surface roads that are already there. Real-time GPS monitoring will make sure you get where you're going, and a vast network of hardware and software will ensure these "cars" are used as efficiently as possible. I think they're on to something! ********** Yup, we're still waiting! Meanwhile, the safety record of "self-driving" vehicles plummets, which doesn't boost confidence in fully autonomous tech. One thing I know for sure is if I'm getting in a car, I want a steering wheel and a brake pedal.

The war Israel and USA started ten days ago now threatens the future of both

I caught a brief CBC News segment where they had somebody on the ground in Israel showing damage from an Iranian missile. It's only in the last few days that Israel's information management system (otherwise know as censorship) has allowed foreign media limited access into the country. The segment still promoted the fiction that a missile landing in Tel Aviv is a novelty, as the vaunted Iron Dome + David's Sling + Arrow systems + Patriots and every other US Air Defense system take down at least 90% of incoming. In reality, ten days into the war on Iran, it has become obvious that AD has collapsed. Things have got so desperate the Israelis have concluded there's no longer any point in pretending. The reality in Israel right now is that both Iran and Hezbolla are raining down missiles and drones at will. The Iron Dome is shooting down next to nothing. Trump called Putin today, and the Russian transcript of the call looks to me like Donald is angling for Putin's help in finding an off-ramp. Meanwhile, we still see Rubio and Hegseth bragging up American greatness. My understanding is that every US base in the Gulf is at this point out of commission. US casualties, officially pegged at 7, are closer to 700. America can survive this. Being humiliated in Ukraine and the ME still leaves it with its usual vassals in the EU and the Western Hemisphere to slap around. But Israel? At least 200,000 Israeli's have left since Oct 7. The ones leaving tend to be from the highly-educated Ashkenazi elite. The ones clamoring for more death, more war, more genocide, are exemplified by the "hilltop youth." When they're not terrorizing the Palestinians, they're studying the Torah. I don't see much of a future for Israel.

Let's take a moment to consider our values

We are constantly reminded that Canada and our allies represent superior values than those held by our adversaries. We've had to struggle over that since the President of the US, the leader of the free and democratic world, has gone a bit nutso-kookoo in his second term. Some of his policies, for example the deportation of undocumented migrants, are an affront to Canadian values, which has motivated our PM to search for more agreeable allies amongst the remaining Nations of Virtue, as "Western Civilization" imagines itself. Not only have we been disappointed in our former Ally Number One, many Canadians have been shocked by the actions of one of our other bestest allies over the past two and a half years; to wit, Israel's holocaust in Gaza and the West Bank. For thirty months Israel has bombed, strafed, rocketed, and starved the captive population of Gaza. Most of the world correctly calls this genocide. On 28 February our two rogue allies joined forces to mount an entirely illegal attack on Iran. Our PM gave his qualified approval, but hinted that Canada would not join in with our allies. But wait a minute - seems a lot of our other allies with whom Carney was hoping to establish an anti-Trump coalition are signing up to support the Bibi-Trump war on Iran. Yesterday a German frigate arrived in Cyprus. Today Italy announced it would stand with the Free World's assault on Iran. France is sending it's aircraft carrier. Starmer planned to send the UK's carrier too, but alas, had to settle for a lesser contribution. Looks to me like all those toadies who were aggressively denouncing Trump mere weeks ago are now busying themselves sucking up to a pair of war criminals. I'm guessing it's just a matter of time before Carney caves and commits Canada to this war on Iran too. So much for "values." Empty talk won't butter our bread, but kissing up to billionaire war criminals just might.

The Peace President has started WW III

I was listening to DefSec... I mean WarSec "Pistol Pete" Hegseth's update on the Iran war. Apparently the good guys are kicking the shit out of the bad guys, unleashing hell, punching them while they're down, devastating them without mercy - as things should be when you're waging a REAL war in the name of God, as opposed to the faggy woke wars America used to conduct under communists like Obama and Biden. Ya, the exceptionalist rhetoric is utterly mind-boggling. I can't imagine God being on the side of warmongering retarded arseholes like Hegseth. But I've been wrong before. Like when I advised my readers to dump their appl back in 2012, and maybe a couple of other times. I've probably got two dozen posts out there over the last 15 years predicting the demise of the wily Erdogan. To my chagrin, not only has the Sultan defied my predictions, he is wilier and more influential than ever. Trump is taking us into uncharted territory. America's loss of every war they've instigated in the past half century hasn't deterred the Orange Ogre from instigating one with Iran, a country far more capable than any of the failed states America has been driven out of over the past 50 years. The American Empire has never looked more precarious.

Fifteen years in, pot-addled hillbilly's blog passes three million views

That's kinda amazing, considering it's only got, according to my dashboard, a grand total of three (3) followers. I figure that's because of the warning that comes up every time I post, to the effect that my musings somehow violate "community standards." That started shortly after I posted my World Trade Center building seven story, way back in year one. For many years Google wouldn't even find me, even though they own the platform. Anyway, here we are fifteen years later, fifteen years older, and firmly into life's final quarter. Barring a few extra seasons for penalty time, I'm thinking the 25 year warranty on my roof shingles (installed how many years ago?) should pretty much take me as far as I'll need a roof. I've also noticed, fifteen years on, that a lot of stuff I always took for granted, like good health, for example, is a gift from God rather than something you earn or "deserve." Fifteen years ago I took great pride in my hiking adventures on the various trails in our area. My hikes these days are much shorter and show a definite preference for flat terrain. My main challenge now is calibrating the correct balance between my pee pills and my sleeping pills. Last time I visited with my GP he upped the dosage for both. Ponder that for a moment and you'll realize why that calibration process is so important. From time to time I think maybe I should look into those community standards and see what I could do to go legit. Then the "Like" button might come back and folks could subscribe, and I'd be able to monetize the blog. Then again, 3 mil views over fifteen years ain't gonna monetize into much more than a case of beer now and again. Three million a day... now you're looking at something... I could upgrade my Toyota! Fuck that. I write because I like writing, and spending time managing a website isn't on the agenda in any way. Those hours are better spent playing with Bruno or visiting with my grand-daughter. Anyway, I'll keep writing as long as there's anything in the tank. Seeing how the greedbags who run things are more out of control than ever, there'll be plenty to talk about going forward.

Canada hated Trump till he attacked Iran; now we love Trump!

Canada's newspaper of record, the Globe & Mail, has relentlessly been anti-Trump since before his first kick at the can. And their American Exceptionalist choir has worked non-stop to alert Canada to the potentially deadly impact of a Trump 2.0. So imagine my shock when I picked up the G&M the other day, only to find an editorial board op-ed celebrating Donald Trump's bold attack on Iran! The ed board at the Globe are 100% American Empire Loyalists. They utterly hated Trump back when he unleashed ICE on Minnesota.But now that Donnie J has unleashed the entirety of USA military might on Iran, the editorial board is all aboard! Canadian airwaves have been saturated, for six days now, with Iranian expats thanking Trump for bombing their country. We closed our Iran embassy in 2012 because our gay twat of a Foreign Minister at the time was hell bent on getting the blessing of his personal rabbi. They coulda been gay lovers for all I know. And of course it didn't help that our Defence Minister at the time was married to an Iranian beauty queen. What's remarkable is that a political elite that took serious umbrage re: Trump's 51st state fantasies, is totally hunky-dory with Trump's utterly unprovoked attack on Iran.

Trump puts Israel first

Exhibit A; America, the country Trump was democratically elected to lead, has gone full in on Israel's war on Iran. Trump puffed himself as the peace candidate to get elected. Now he has embraced the ultra-nationalist factions in Israel who celebrate genocide. I have yet to see any remotely plausible rationale for America's war on Iran. There is no evidence anywhere of any "imminent threat" whatsoever. What we're doing with this fakery is running interference for the genocidal maniacs who, having destroyed Israel, are keen to bring down the rest of the Middle East too. There must be some prime juicy Trump footage on those Epstein tapes to make Mafia Don do a 180 on his entire election platform, just to please his blackmailer.

US missile stockpiles running low on second day of Iran war

That's according to a story on view at the Daily Mail website at the moment. Per traditional DM habits, there's maybe about a 50-50 chance there's at least an element of plausability to the story. So it's probably bullshit. At the same time, it makes you wonder how Trump's team calculated for an operation that might last longer than the 24-hour decapitation attack on Maduro. Missile inventory has been in the news for at least the last three years of Project Ukraine. There has been nothing concrete done to address the missile deficit. Nevertheless, Team Trump has decided this is the right time to take on Iran. If Iran can survive the first week of this war, hypothetical shortages will have become reality. Meanwhile, Iron Dome proved yet again to be a sieve. The entirety of Israeli strategy is predicated on America's military backstop. That stops when the Americans run out of missiles, which they'll have done in a week. Then what?

Most expensive warship in history of warships listing hard due to toilet malfunctions

Yup, true fact! At 13 billions USD the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford is by a considerable margin the most expensive warship in history. It was the core of the mighty armada that vanquished Maduro. At that point the good ship hadn't topped up its black tanks, which must be utterly massive, considering there's like 5,000 people living on this ship and each of them gotta shit at least once a day. At least. So as the good ship is steaming towards the Med, to backstop Israeli defenses in the pending war, all of a sudden, I guess the black tanks were over-full and sewage began spewing out of the toilets and all over the decks. It can therefore be truthfully reported that the USS Ford is only in the area for a mopping-up operation! That's as good as any mental image to roll over in your mind as we await an even more emberassing eruption from tonight's State of the Union.

We'll know within 36 hours if 47 is run by Bibi

Donny J is scheduled to deliver the State of the Union address Tuesday, after the markets close, naturally. While we'll undoubtedly get an hour of self-congratulatory bullshit, eventually Mafia Don is gonna deliver one of two speeches. Option A, prepared by Bibi's team of genocidal maniacs with help from the usual Israel-firsters in US politics, will see a US attack on Iran sooner, not later. Time is of the essence, more than ever! We gotta nuke 'em now! Then there's Option B. This would be the America first option. Since Iran poses utterly zero threat to any "American Interests" anywhere, this option opens the door to disengagement from Bibi's war agenda. In effect, it would signal that American policy still puts America first. We'll know which way Trump's gonna jump by tommorrow night. ---------- OK, it took a little longer, but now we know 100% for sure that Donald Trump's number one priority is serving his Israeli donors.

War Fever at the Globe and Mail

It's $9.45 now for a Globe on Saturday. I alway's make the same lame joke to the Korean; "for that kinda money there better be some good news in there!" The Korean never fails to laugh. I gotta say though, the good news is mighty thin. If you didn't have bad news you'd have hardly any at all. The consensus in the boardroom at the Globe seems to be that job one at this moment in time is to prep the public for an inevitable hot war with Russia. Nobody knows better than Ukraine what it's like to stand up to a fascist bully of a neighbour, so today we were treated to not one, not two, but three reports from Ukraine itself. Mark Mackinnon says hanging out in Kyiv has been a drag, but it's really brought folks together. Jason Stanley says there's nothing like war to create unity. And the head of PEN Canada penned a two-pager focused on how we might convince young Canadians to want to die for their country. PEN Canada is an affiliate of PEN International, which used to be a NGO that lobbied for freedom of speech. It's now given big column inches in Canada's newspaper of record to lobby for war. Apparently there's nothing like bombs and bullets to show what you're made of... if you even deserve such a great country as Canada! Frankly, none of that comes close to the real lesson to be learned from Ukraine, which is this; If you're gonna stand up against a fascist bully neighbour, you'll need more than NATO behind you.

Munich Clown Show: Rubio promises to make EU and NATO great again

Marco Rubio spent half an hour trying to convince the Euro-elites that 500 years of Western domination, so rudely interupted by the post-WW2 anti-colonialism movements, need not be over! Nosirree! Europe and America, united by our commmon Christian heritage, can prevail over the dark forces of communism and Islamofascism. Together, we can ride the glory train of Empire for another 500 years! The Europeans greeted Lil Marco's insights with a standing ovation! This does not bode well for Mark Carney's quest to find "like-minded Liberal democracies" with whom we can form an alliance independent of the US. Looks to me like Stormer, Micron, and Schmertz would like nothing more than to turn back the clock to a time when they found safety huddled under Uncle Sam's nuclear umbrella. Who needs a defence budget when America does 99% of the heavy lifting? Trump's demand that the vassals bump defence spending to 5% of GDP is seen, now, as a small price to pay to keep NATO alive. Whatever "like-minded democracies" Carney thought he saw in Europe are revealing themselves to be nothing more than abject boot-lickers. The leaders of the E3, each of them struggling with single-digit approval ratings, would happily enough trade all their tomorrows for just a little more yesterday, to paraphrase an old Janis Joplin tune. Speaking of Janis, did you know she's in the Epstein files? Yup, Jeffrey was all of nine years old when Janis was born! Also in those files is the bitter old hag who was once expected, at least by the cool kids, to smash the glass ceiling and be the first woman elected president of the world's greatest democracy. Lesser nations have had female PMs and presidents and chancellors for decades, but it remains a bridge too far in America... maybe in the next 500 years! Unlike Janis, Hillary's cadaver was actually on stage in Munich to reveal her plan to force Putin's capitulation by saturating Russian airspace with Tomahawk cruise missiles. That's the kind of fresh new thinking that's guaranteed to get the next 500 years of Western Exceptionalism off to a rip-roaring start!

Queen Ursula promises to turn EU into military super-power!

If you happened to catch her speech at the Munich gabfest you know what I'm talking about. The President of the European Commission isn't content to lead an army of desk jockeys... she wants to command a real fighting force wielding real weapons! And because Ursula's army will be a pan-european force, it will naturally confine procurement of weapons large and larger strictly to EU member countries. While Canada isn't in the EU, we did just join a new procurement plan. The plan is to out-produce Russia in war supplies. To do that we just have to rebuild our manufacturing capacity that we spent the last fifty years off-shoring. This could be a good plan for Canada, because unlike every EU country, we don't rely on American LNG to power our manufacturing sector. Heavy industry is that part of the economy that builds machines of all sorts, including war machines like tanks and war-ships and so forth. The Europeans used to do that stuff back when they had access to low-cost energy, because heavy manufacturing is extremely energy-intensive. Now that they're dependent on American LNG, at 4x the price of pipeline gas, Europe's heavy industries will never be competitive again.

When God needs guns to get His work done, that's when I become an atheist

That's the last line in a post I put up 15 years ago. The title was "only democracy in middle east slides into fascism." The stench of our hypocrisy is exponentially worse fifteen years on. The God of Israel is mightily displeased that after tens of thousands of USA bunker-busters, Amalek remains. The God of Donald Trump and his Christian Zionist pals is pissed too. I thought the reason it's called "Christianity" was because it was named after the Jesus of Nazareth, the guy who delivered the Sermon on the Mount and a whole lot of other hippy-dippy love and peace stuff during his brief time on earth. Never once did he express any interest in slaughtering the Amaleks, or anyone else. Fifteen years on, it looks to me fascism is much closer, and God is a lot farther away.

How did USA amass 6,000,000 files around one dude?

You know the dude we're talking about here. He must have generated thousands of files every day of his life to get totals like that! And in spite of what must have been decades of close surveillance, no sign of the hundreds, if not thousands of innocent teens sex-trafficked amongst the Western World's rich, famous, and powerful. Nor is there any record of his death, the death of America's most surveilled bad guy who died in America's most heavily surveilled prison! Tell me that ain't a little suspicious! Let's not forget another aspect of this unfolding mystery that promises to keep unfolding for decades to come. Epstein was famous for recording the guests in his various homes, even when they were getting a massage from the hat-check girl. At the time, we were told the FBI seized all that stuff. Seven years after his death, Kash Patel's FBI doesn't know a darned thing about any of that! Anyway, rather than one long-shot coincidence after another, it's just as likely that the greatest Israeli spy of all time faked his own demise and is enjoying a quiet retirement in a high security beachfront Mossad retirement home somewhere... surrounded by nubile young girls, of course!

Alcohol and testosterone and a 500 horsepower car... what could go wrong?

Out of the blue I got a call from my old pal Barney (not his real name) last night. Gotta say this took me by surprise, as I think I've only talked to the fucker once in the last forty years, which was on the occassion of his 50th birthday. But way back when we were troubled youths, as all youths inevitably are, we were pretty tight. Barney shared my appreciation for a dram of the good stuff now and then, and he was also an early afficianado of the weed 'o wisdom. Unlike me, however, he had true leadership skills, and was forever leading not only me, but the rest of the crew, into one regrettable shit-show after another. I'm not talking about serious crime here. I'm talking about juvenile hooliganism that only gets massively amplified after you've had a few drams. And it takes its toll on the pocketbook. If defending yourself in a Barney-instigated bar-room brawl got you an assault charge, your lawyer fees fucked your beer and weed budget for months! But I have to tip my cap to Barney in the 500 hp department. Anybody who knows anything about the muscle car era remembers the 375 hp Nova SS 396. That was the solid lifter version rumoured to make 500 hp in factory trim. That was a big deal at the time. Barney owned two of them! One was a burgrundy automatic that his wife drove to work every day. That was probably a low-twelve second quarter-miler back in the day. The other was a pure-black four-speed (with a Mr. Gasket back-and-forth shifter) and 4:56 gears in the differential. Given the right tires, that unit could easily dip into the mid elevens in the quarter mile. Today every Tesla on the road can beat them in a drag race. Alas, adolescence doesn't last forever, and we managed to skip the dying young option on life's journey. And here we are, at an age it never occurred to us that we'd ever get to! That's gotta be worth a celebratory dram or two!

Oopsie! My bad! Turns out Epstein was working for Russia, not Israel!

Ya, I obviously got it wrong. Seems all that stuff I read over the years, claiming Jeffrey was Mossad, was Russian disinfo all along! I should have known! Silly me! My face is... not just red, but bright cherry red, or maybe even fire-engine red!... or, God forbid, "red" like Red China! The New York Post spilled the truth today. In hindsight, it's so obvious. All those billionaires and famous people flocking to Jeffrey's island were closet commies hoping to support Putin's rebuild of the Soviet Empire! I noticed traffic to the previous post stopped a couple of hours after posting. Hopefully this confession will fix that.

Epstein; most brilliantly successful Israeli operative in Mossad history

Think about this; anybody who hears the name Epstein today immediately equates it with the sex-trafficking narrative. That's because 99% of mainstream news focuses exclusively on that story. The far more important story is deliberately squashed. The by-far more important story is that the guy who came outta nowhere to rub elbows and whatever else with the global elite for the last fifty years was a star spy for Israel the whole time. There was a Canadian journo based in NYC in the '90s who was writing about Epstein running a massive blackmail operation. Even the most valuable intelligence assets inevitably pass their best-before dates. Robert Maxwell fell off his yacht. Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. The archive of Davos-crowd porn in Epstein's possession obviously went somewhere. No wonder so many A-listers are acting weird, starting with Mafia Don himself.

RCMP busts white supremacist terror cell in Quebec

Last July Canadians were stunned to learn that an armed militia with links to Canadian Armed Forces had been discovered in Quebec. We were told the group of four dudes planned to capture some territory near Quebec City. Using that as their base, a mere 450 km from Ottawa, they then planned to overthrow the Canadian government and install themselves. For better or worse, a media ban was put on the story, perhaps to hide the true depravity of this devious plan, or perhaps to hide the fact that this is just the latest crock-o-shit in a line of terror hoaxes managed by CSIS, the RCMP, and their political masters. (Check out my various Korody-Nuttall "Tards 'o Terror" missives.) A number of media challenged the news blackout and this past week it was lifted. Well, these were a bad bunch of hombres, to be sure. Once CSIS tipped off the Mounties, surveilance teams tracked the scoundrels throughout Quebec and New Brunswick for over two years. During that time the terrorists would sometimes get together for camping trips that involved plenty of guns and booze. They could have followed them for a few more, but fate intervened. The terror mastermind, one Marcc Chabot, the veritable Bin Laden of this would-be terror cell, was apparently suffering from depression, and fearing he was becoming suicidal, his wife made a 911 call. Those calls always include the cops, and rather than risk their star perp offing himself and blowing their case, they decided to pounce. Turns out the land these terrorists were planning to seize was in the Zec Batiscan Neilsen, a "controlled harvest zone," also known as a hunting preserve. The almost 900 sqare km park is the go-to spot for moose and black bear hunting in the province. That's how sneaky these misfits were, knowing the sound of the sniper rifles they were training on would be hidden in the general cacaphony one might expect in such an environment. No terror team is complete without informants, and those employed in this case have come up with some truly damning evidence. For example, one of the suspects is on video making "a hand gesture associated with white supremacists." If that's not bad enough, here's what CBC news revealed today; "... the informant allegedly told police there were derogatory jokes and comments aimed toward Jewish people and that Chabot reportedly mentioned that he didn’t believe in equality between the sexes and used degrading language when talking about women." I'm guessing it was the Jew jokes that got Ottawa's attention. For what it's worth, here's the alleged motivation of the terror mastermind, as reported by the Globe & Mail. "...he expected an impending crisis would unravel the world, either because of economic troubles, an attack by a foreign power, or a zombie invasion." Sounds to me like a few yobs who enjoy the outdoors, hunting, drinking, and hanging with the like-minded. Not only that, it seems they were our first line of defence against zombie invasion! I'll be following the court case with interest.