Talk about rude

When B was on a scholarship at the London School of Economics in 1964, he met another Commonwealth student, with whom he has kept in sporadic contact over the years.  Every now and then, this guy gets in touch and calls, or sends some piece of information or article, the wisdom of which he thinks B cannot live without.  This is when B will call this guy and chat. 

Of course, this acquaintance has B's reliance on the former's musings wrong, but B, being the gentleman he always is, takes the call or calls back and they have a throw-back chat about the glory days at London House back in the day and how Canada is, or is not, progressing.

Problem is, this guy comes with a wife with whom I have been forced to socialize over the years against my instincts.  A stereotypical snob, she has sorely tested my verbal restraint, but I have been unfailingly polite and have feigned interest in all her banal tales.  I am an adoptee, raised by marvelous genteel parents in upper-middle-class Ottawa, but genetically, I remain a relatively tough, Irish, Kingston townie, so this woman's mid-Atlantic accent and her snobism grates; so, by the way, does her incessant name-dropping.

Over the years, we have hosted this couple at The Royal Ottawa Golf Club, The Gatineau Fish and Game Club and The Ranchmen's Club -- at considerable cost, I might mention.  Were we ever feted in return?  Maybe once.  Inexpensively.  

Anyway, she used to include us in the mailing list for her hallowed "Christmas Letter" list -- that is, until I blogged about the pomposity of it.  (See 'The Dreaded Christmas Letter', Dec. 22, 2012, and 'The Hideous Christmas Letter', Dec. 21, 2015)   After these delights, she neither mentioned my blog -- nor ever spoke -- to us again.  But I am sure she still reads them.  Her husband, the old acquaintance of B, seems unaware of it all and continues to take advantage of B's brilliance in all things economic.  As a scholarship alumnus of 'The London School of Economics', he has a clue or two about the mess in which Canada finds itself under the fiscal and monetary blunderings of Trudeau, Freeland and Macklem.

The other day, during one of their conversations, his wife -- to assert her dominance -- broke into the call to tell her husband he had an appointment with a therapist.  Really?!  Who does that?!  "Michael, your therapist is coming on Friday," she yelled into the phone as they were debating the incompetent Macklem.  As I said, she does things like this to make sure everyone knows who runs the show, but to me such an interruption is just plain rude.

However, I am not surprised.      

Sickening

Here is the spectacle in Williams Lake, where Trudeau showed up to fake-cry and weep crocodile tears among the natives who claim there are dead children buried there -- oh, excuse me, they are now finally calling them "potential" graves of children.  Good thing, because it's all still an hysterical mystery.

As I have said, none has yet been found, but, hey, that didn't stop the theatre:

Were I a native, I would be insulted by this phony appearance by a guy who could not care less and has no clue where he is, or what he is doing.  But the natives -- always uselessly focused on the past -- are tragically mired in weeping, wailing and smudging, instead of getting on with it and moving forward.

I heard a native professor from some unheard-of university in the middle of nowhere going on about the hundreds of "heinous" crimes committed by clergy there.  Folks, this is a professor, but since he is native, he cannot possibly "handle the truth", as Jack said in 'A Few Good Men'.  He claimed no one could "move forward" without "healing".  What does that even mean?!  As usual, I suspect "healing" means more money.  

And speaking of those who can't "move forward", the ever-embittered, one trick pony 'Globe' columnist Tanya Talaga ended today's offering with a firm commitment to "continue the inter-generational fight".  Way to get on with it Tanya!

As for, Trudeau, a guy who studied acting, he sure is shitty at it.     

Party in Rome

Everyone seems to have forgotten (including the guy who said it) that back in 1990, Phil Fontaine, for many years a well-known leader and spokesman for natives who attended residential schools, told the late Barbara Frum that student-on-student sexual abuse was rampant, but he did not mention clergy abuse at the time.  I'm sure there was some abuse, but now it's an out-of-control, massive tidal wave.  Fontaine is in Rome, leading a delegation of "multi-generational victims" who are demanding an apology and...and...and from the pope for widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests in residential schools.  Here is Fontaine in Rome, looking somber and aggrieved:

Firstly, what is "multi-generational abuse"?  I mean, how can teens who have never attended a residential school claim they have suffered from sexual abuse?  Is it tales handed down by parents and grandparents?  Is is mob rule and group thinking?  Is it a thirst for media attention?  Is it because all their friends and families are urging them to go for it?  Is it grandparents whispering from the grave?  Frankly, who knows?  But one thing is certain:  Many of the fantasmagorical claims of murder and abuse are turning out to be false.  In Kamloops, where the whole fantastic story began, no bodies or remains have been found -- in spite of the $321 million given native communities to search for bodies that, frankly, aren't there!  Gee, wonder where that money went?

In his autobiography, Breaking Trail, Senator Len Marchand, the first status Indian to be appointed to the federal cabinet, recounted his experience at Kamloops Indian Residential School, which he attended by his own choice for a year.  Marchand praised the quality of teaching there and said he knew of no abuse: “The reader might be expecting me to tell a few horror stories about physical and sexual abuse at the residential school. But I know of no incidences at KIRS.”

The research I have been doing for this blog tells me that much of the hype and hysteria about mass killings, babies being thrown into incinerators, children forced to dig their own graves are just that:  Hype and hysteria.  As usual, all such venom is directed solely at the Catholic Church, which operated 130 schools, or three-quarters.  Of the 150,000 children who attended all such schools, an estimated 3,200 died -- or so it is claimed.  But it has now emerged that poor record keeping resulted in many deaths being counted more than once in different reports by different departments and agencies, so no one knows the actual number.

"We all heard horrible lies created by some individuals in order to receive as much money as they could," said former Dene Chief Cece Hodgson-McCauley in 2018.  Contrast this to the remarks by that disgraceful charlatan Perry Bellegarde, who keeps saying that the church "killed" children.  Jagmeet Singh, another stranger to the truth, goes even further, claiming that hundreds of children were "murdered".  

So, the Pope has met with native delegations and has said he was personally sorry for what happened, but, of course, he cannot apologize on behalf of the church because that would open a Pandora's box of lawsuits -- many of which would be as bogus as the tales, currently being circulated and re-told by people who weren't even there, about bodies that can't even be found.  It's also why the church can't release records because they are admittedly inaccurate -- a dangerous trifling in the minds of lawyers that would not inhibit any of them from charging ahead.  If only 10 percent of "victims" launched suits, that would be a whopping 13,000 cases that would wind their way through years of wildly expensive litigation. 

In the words of an "inter-generationally traumatized" teen delegate, who did not attend a residential school, I heard interviewed on the radio today, "We have a lot of 'asks' of the Pope," she said.  "Like what?" the interviewer asked.  "Well, for sure compensation," she replied -- giving her position away immediately.  As to what's going on in Rome, looks like there's a lot of fiddling, dancing and -- dare I say, partying -- going on.          

The Liberal government is only making the situation worse.  Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister and another of Trudeau's McGill party buddies, Marc Miller, recently announced that he believes all these claims -- no matter how preposterous -- and hinted that anyone disputing them could be charged with hate speech.  

I KID YOU NOT!!!!!

As a journalist who plied her trade in Toronto for a number of years, I am ashamed of those scribblers who refuse to report the truth in its entirety.  They call for truth, reconciliation and healing?  How about starting with truth and then let's see where that leads.

 

OK, wait a minute

So, athletes who identify as "trans", can compete in competitions as another gender.  Whaaaaaat!!??  Read a disturbing article in 'The Economist' about a swimmer named Lia Thomas, born a male but identifying as female, is competing against women in competition. 

This is very wrong.

There was a reason competition was divided between male and female athletes because, hello!, males have more testosterone -- a potent anabolic steroid -- which boosts performance.  That's why genders were separated in the first place.  Now, if Joe Blow says he's a woman, he can compete against actual biological females.  And, of course, win.  And we're not talking about males who cut their nuts off, take hormones, lose their facial hair and fashion vaginas.  We're talking about an actual guy who says he a girl.    

Canada, as wimpy as it gets, actually allows male prisoners to declare they are women to be housed in female prisons.  Whaaaaat??!!  Way to give male prisoners access to women!  

Apparently, this is all facilitated by "well-meaning" officials who want to be politically-correct and not offend anyone.  

I remember a disturbing few incidents at the Patro Swimming Pool in Ottawa, where an obviously male swimmer routinely used the women's locker room when our kids were very young.  He dressed as a woman, but we all knew he was a man.  It was offensive and wrong, but the pool allowed it.  I viewed it sick then and I view allowing trans men to compete with women as sick too.  And what about those creeps who use women's washrooms?  

The men who compete with women obviously could not win against men, but they win by wide margins and break records in the women's meets.  Can you imagine training for years in the pool as a young girl, only to be beaten by a fake woman in the next lane at a big competition?!  Wrong.       

A bum

So, Jerry Dias, the ex-president of Unifor, had a "lapse in judgement" when he pocketed $50,000 to promote COVID test kits for one supplier.  A "lapse in judgement", Dias called it.  Really??!!  Jerry, you're a bum.

He claimed all the pills and booze he was downing for back pain, wink-wink-nudge-nudge, were the reason.  Every time I listened to him mouth off on TV about how hard-done-by his poor (read extremely well-paid members) were I smelled a lot of rats because, hey, there were a lot of rats to be smelled.

I know how high-off-the-hog union executives live.  Saw that personally about 35 years ago, when I was travelling with an EXPO '86 colleague across Canada to promote the fair.  Believe it or not, we were both young(ish) and (semi)gorgeous, prompting a very well-known, now deceased, president of the Canadian Auto Workers, let's call him "BW", and his side-kick to approach us in a bar in some city or other, asking us to be their guests and join their table.  As this wasn't our first rodeo, we knew what that meant, wink-wink-nudge-nudge again -- so we declined.  They, however, continued to live it up at the table beside us.

So, I am sure Jerry didn't need a tag day for his members or himself, but he decided to grab the $50K anyway.  Sadly, for him, another union executive with integrity blew the whistle and turned him in.  Do you think Jerry would have resigned had this guy not done so?  That was a rhetorical question.  Thanks to Jerry, many of us have now had our opinions about union "leaders" confirmed.  

As for unions, we needed them back in the days of child labour, but frankly, we don't need them now because they cause problems.  Here in Alberta, for example, some medical workers' gang is demanding a huge wage increase to "keep up with inflation".  Hey, buddy, huge wage increases cause inflation -- that and the incompetent fiscal and monetary policies of governments -- such as the one "leading" us at the moment.

________________________________

And how about the Liberals and the NDP hopping into bed together?!  Wasn't that a doozy, as my late mother would have deemed it.  Of course, it's all so Singh doesn't have to face another election, which would see the NDP decimated and his own seat lost.  Pension anyone?  Of course, they were never going to topple the Liberals even without a formal agreement.  But the agreement flies and spits in the face of a Parliamentary democracy -- which is what Trudeau wanted in the first place.  But to have an actual date set is unconscionable.  The governor general should have stepped in and tried to counsel against this.  Oh wait, I forgot, she's another Liberal toadie.  

The poor Conservatives.  They'll have to cool their heels and jets for three years!  Wonder how Charest likes that one.  My guess is he'll drop out long before.  

Magnificent

Re-watching all seasons of 'Suits', an excellently-written series on Netflix.  I watch it for the writing, but I also watch for the fabulous clothes Jessica Pearson (a.k.a. Gina Torres) wears.  They are both elegant and spectacular, as is her jewelry.  In fact, all the women in the case wear beautiful clothes, but Torres' outfits are the most wonderful.  Here are but two examples:

Googling who did the clothes, I learned it was someone named Jolie Andreatta.  Hailing from Santa Barbara and Big Sur, she absolutely nails it every episode.  

"Gina and I are very close," she says, "So our conversation about the new show was filled with excitement.  We know the storyline called for toning things down a bit, but we still wanted all her best friends -- like Dior, Balenciaga, Tom Ford, Givenchy and Chanel -- to come with us onto the set."

Too bad when I was working, with a few exceptions, I seemed to be the only woman who gave a sh-t about what she wore.  Lots of times I went to meetings with other women in beach wear.  The shoes were the worst, but on 'Suits', the shoes are also magnificent.  

So, kudos to Ms. Andreatta.  Took this off the television.  Beige sheath with turquoise earrings.  What an outfit!

I know I go on about this file....

....but there is so much to go on about.  In the latest insane move, the Supreme Court of Canada, no less, has seen fit to rule that first nations can obtain subsidies to help pay their legal costs when they sue the federal government.  

So, let me get this straight.  Natives can use our money to sue us, even when the band suing has millions of dollars of its own -- given it by taxpayers, by the way.  Judges have now been given the right to define such a band as "needy" and thus deem the funding of its legal challenges a necessity.  

I kid you not!  Here's the article from today's 'Globe and Mail':

Read the part about natives having the right to determine their own spending priorities -- with your money, by the way -- in recognition of "mutual respect and reconciliation".  So, even though they're suing the federal government -- you and me -- they might have decided to build a skating rink or promote some other project with the money, meaning they don't have enough to pay their legal costs for an action they initiated.  So, we'll be paying it.  We'll be paying their costs to sue us.

Even with this ruling, of course the natives and their lawyers are not happy because -- here's the catch -- they will have to open their books and prove they need the money.  Naturally, they don't want to have to do this.  Gee, I wonder why?!

This particular case involves Beaver Lake, an Indigenous community in Alberta, who went after costs, even though at the time it had 19 active oil wells and $3.5 million in available funds.  Nevertheless, a lower-court judge deemed the band "needy" and ordered the Alberta and federal governments -- you and I, again -- to pay $300,000 each a year for legal costs.  

Chief Justice Richard Wagner -- another McGill buddy of Trudeau's -- and his colleagues should be ashamed of themselves.  Just to cap it off, Senwung Luk, the lawyer representing the chiefs of Ontario, was disappointed with the generous ruling.  "Right off the bat, there should be a presumption that First Nations need money to go ahead and pursue these pieces of litigation.  If there is a very well-resourced First Nation out there, it should be up to the Crown to prove that."

Well, of course Luk's happy, he'll get his fees covered.  And why should it be a "presumption" that First Nations need money?!  Does no one look at the financials?!  Anyone with a functioning brain in his/her head knows this is insane.

  

  

These are the hard facts

This is from Vancouver's Fraser Institute.  Should be required reading for every journalist who covers native affairs.  I have blogged about all the myths repeatedly and I challenge all Indigenous people who read this to share it widely, if they have the courage to face the wrath of their fellows:

_____________________________________

"The federal government spends far more money for every aboriginal Canadian than it does on non-aboriginal Canadians.  Given the problems faced by First Nations and First Peoples both on- and off-reserve, that fact is probably justifiable.  But the point is, it’s a fact.  Yet aboriginal activists still frequently claim their communities are troubled precisely because they receive substantially less funding per person than non-aboriginal communities.  That’s simply not true. Still, if that misconception is the starting point for debate the problems experienced by First Nations will never get solved.

"The federal department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) alone spends $8,578 per year on every First Nations adult and child in the country.  Over the past 60 years, INAC has given $215 billion to First Nations. Health Canada has given another $41 billion. And that’s just two departments.

"There are nearly 30 federal departments and agencies that give money to aboriginal Canadians. Together, all federal spending on First Nations and First Peoples is closer to $13,000 per capita.

"The entire federal budget for non-aboriginal persons is $7,295 each per year.  That means Ottawa spends about 75% more for every aboriginal citizen than it spends on non-aboriginals.  Again, that’s probably justifiable.  But it is also a fact that aboriginal communities and individuals are not underfunded.

"Since the mid-1990s, the provinces, too, have stepped up their spending on First Nations, and First Nations aren’t even provincial responsibility under the Constitution.  Since 1994, total provincial spending has risen 31% after adjusting for inflation and populations growth. However, over that same period, provincial spending on First Peoples has exploded by 1,235%.  Also, in 2014 alone, Canada’s 630 First Nations reserves averaged nearly $5 million in “own-source” revenues from oil and gas, mining rights, casinos and other aboriginal businesses.

"Money isn’t the problem.  Yet our current federal Liberal government seems intent on stoking the myth that more money will make First Nations’ problems magically disappear.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said on several occasions that his government will restore the Kelowna Accord (or something similar). That 2005 agreement, cancelled by the Harper Tories, promised more than an additional $1 billion annually to First Nations.

"The trouble with building solutions based on the myth of underfunding is that it feeds the notion that First Nations’ problems are someone else’s fault; that non-aboriginals’ greed, indifference or outright racism are what’s keeping First Peoples down.  So, solutions are someone else’s responsibility.  It’s similar to the myth that racially motivated neglect is behind the murder and disappearance of thousands of First Nations women over the past 35 years.  When this first became a political hot potato three years ago, the RCMP pointed out several facts:

"The murder rate among aboriginal women has been on a steady decline since the mid-1990s and was in 2013 at least a third lower than 20 years earlier. The solution rate for murder cases involving female aboriginal victims (82%) is nearly the same as for non-aboriginal females (83%). And, most importantly, at least 70% of aboriginal female victims are murdered by aboriginal men.

"If there is a particular problem with murdered or missing aboriginal women and girls, it isn’t mostly a problem with white men preying on them and white cops ignoring it or covering it up.  Yet, because so much of federal and provincial policy towards First Nations is driven by politically-correct myth, tens of millions of tax dollars were spent on an inquiry in murdered and mission indigenous women.

"And it will be every bit as useless in the end as raising spending on First Nations based on the presumption that they are currently underfunded."

I'm just making these up, but.....

...I figure there are probably 10,000 billionaires in the world and about 150,000 millionaires out of 7.8 billion people.  Reading 'Forbes' the other day, I realized how so many have to scramble to give away so much money to save their tax asses.  

At the top of the giver's list is, of course, Warren Buffet.  Out of his lifetime wealth of $116.6 billion, he has given away $46.1.  Next we have Bill and Melinda at $133.3 billion, with $33.4 donated to charity.  It goes on like this:

George Soros                $    8.6 and $18.1 (That's confusing, he's given away more than he's worth?) 

Michael Bloomberg      $  70 and $19.7

Jeff Bezos                     $184.8 and $2.1

Ted Turner                    $      2.3 and $1.4

Out of a list of 26 in 'Forbes', the only other name I knew was Nike's Phil Knight at $54.8 and $3.1 given away.  Whew!  That's a lot of sneakers for a kid who started out making them with a waffle iron!

As for entertainers, number one is Peter Jackson, director of 'Lord of the Rings' -- who knew that many people liked that sh-t?!  Happily, 'cause I love the guy, number two is Bruce Springsteen, who's worth $435 million.  Bob Dylan is a measly number 10, with a wealth of $130 million.  

A couple that surprise me are Reese Witherspoon, number 12 at $115 million, and Howard Stern, $85 million.  Howard's wealth shows us just how stupid we are.

Anyway, it strikes me that entertainers, sports figures and businessmen have all the money in the world, while the rest of us survive on leftover crumbs.  Anyway, I have no clue why I blogged this, but I did.  Guess it's a slow Sunday.   

   

28 years

That's how long Sylvie Hauth, police chief of Thunder Bay, has been in the job.  Maybe that's the problem in the face of scathing reports about the mismanagement of the force under her watch.  Twenty eight years is a long time in which to slump into complacency and comfort with the status quo.

As I always do to figure out an agenda, I looked her up and saw she has a masters in applied criminology from Ottawa U and the Rotman School of Management, with certification in municipal management and policing.  So, her education seems fine and in line with the job.  Nevertheless, as issues keep cropping up, she continues to insist that, "All of us at the service take our work very seriously and we put our best foot forward every day to ensure that our community is safe."

Well, it's not working very well, according to two reports.  One, entitled The Broken Trust, was suspiciously chaired by then-senator Murray Sinclair, who finds mistreatment of natives under every rock and in every corner.  Sinclair, I posit, is hardly an independent voice when it comes to native issues.  Blaming racism for everything that happens is his wont.  

Currently, the Ministry of the Attorney General is reviewing 25 cases where deficient police work has been flagged.  Yep, the natives are restless in Thunder Bay, although I don't think you can blame police for the death of a two-month-old baby found with cocaine in his system.  That's beyond tragic, but somehow it's still the police who are at fault for that one.  Huh!?

Thunder Bay Police Services Board member and former chair, Georjann Morriseau, a native member who currently has nine human rights complaints lodged against the board, said she absolutely believes there needs to be a change in leadership at the Thunder Bay Police Service and that her experiences of what she says has been harassment and discrimination by the board and senior leadership is not unique to her alone.

“My story today, is not just about me,” Morriseau said. “It’s to demonstrate and show the public that this is what the leadership did to me and I am on the board. My story reflects that of many others on the service and they can’t speak out.”

Morriseau and attorney Chantelle Bryson held a virtual news conference on Thursday to address the issues raised in Morriseau’s complaints to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario alleging harassment and discrimination on the part of senior leadership at the Police Service and board, as well as a letter she issued this week saying the Thunder Bay Police Service is on the brink of collapse. 

Thunder Bay Police Board Chair Kirsten Oliver begs to differ with Morriseau and claims the board is united -- except for Morriseau -- and far from "collapse".

So, there you have it.  Natives versus non-natives.  Business as usual.  

Complete bullsh-t

Apparently, the chief archivist of Canada has ordered a purge of any material that could be considered "offensive"!#%#@#!%^!!!!!  That's insane!  Here's what's happened, pulled from the internet:

Canada's chief archivist Leslie Weir personally ordered content and webpages she deemed “offensive” to be rewritten or removed from the national archives altogether. Weir was appointed in 2019 and makes close to $250,000 annually to preserve and protect the national archives.

“We need to discuss having a disclaimer on the website about having content that may offend people,” Weir wrote in a June 9, 2021 staff email. “I feel very strongly about that.”

Weir described the need to censor as an “urgent situation.”

“Much of the content on the Library and Archives Canada website reflects the time at which it was written,” said Weir. “We understand much of this outdated historical content no longer reflects today’s context and may be offensive to many.”

Access to Information documents obtained by independent news site Blacklock's Reporter showed confusion and objections to the purge coming from Library and Archives Canada staffers.

“This is an enormous undertaking with over 7,000 web pages,” wrote Weir.

The subjective nature of the memory-holing of historical data confounded employees, as shared by Blacklock's:

“Leslie has asked for us to remove all offensive content from the website. We are scrambling today to identify what that might be.”

“We are going to be doing a more thorough search of offensive content on all our platforms,” emailed one manager. “The only direction we received from Leslie was ‘offensive content,’” said another.

“Do we have a definition?” asked a manager. “This is not the way to do this.”

 

Some of the censored or altered content was in relation to First Nations and Indigenous material, including historical figures involved in residential schools.

Though it's not entirely clear why Weir went on the censorship tear, it was previously reported by Blacklock's that Weir took a Communist Party-sponsored junket to China right after being appointed to the national archives.

The September 2019 trip featured Weir as a guest of the National Library of China in a celebration of “socialist culture.”

The Beijing conference was held only weeks before Communist Party librarians admitted to book burning.

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Affirmative action at its best, folks!  And all this on International Women's Day.  The archives are supposed to preserve Canadian history, not re-make it.  Nazi book burning anyone!?  This is complete insanity and is the result of native lobbying, I learned.  Great work and congratulations to all involved! 

Now I get it

Yes, the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia is getting to me -- especially since Putin has his fingers on the start buttons of 6,000 nuclear weapons.  He has apparently become dangerously deranged and seems capable of anything.  

Ret'd General Rick Hillyer sees no other path than for Putin to be assassinated by someone within his circle inside the Kremlin.  Otherwise, all bets are off.  Andrew Coyne, the 'Globe's' esteemed columnist (and I used the word "esteemed" as one others would use, not I) also chimed in about this being the only option in today's edition -- although with Coyne, you can skip his entire column and jump to the last paragraph to find the elusive point; the rest is always a lot of justifying bumph.    

That's scary!

We have also now learned that a secret plot to assassinate President Zelensky was foiled and the perpetrators "eliminated".  But who else is in his crosshairs?!  It may be time for the "Harry Truman" solution, although the consequences of such a move would be dire.  Frankly, Canada is vulnerable because we have done nothing to protect our northern borders.  What have we got up there?  A couple of derelict row boats?  And as for our air "force", politics has stood in the way of replacing our aging fighter jets for decades, now held precariously together with duct tape and chewing gum.

Successive governments have sat back and done nothing to enhance the military, except investigate harassment claims.  That won't get the job done, boys.  We have also relied on assuming the US would save our asses, but that MO went out with Trump and still holds with Biden.  Nope, we better start arming ourselves because presuming Putin can be bundled off to The Hague War Crimes Tribunal, a la Slobodan Milosovic, is a foolish pipe dream.

(Note:  After I have pointed the above inadequacies in our defences, John Ibbitson's column in today's 'Globe' echoes what I wrote.  Maybe he reads my blog?  Hahahaha!):

But, as I said, all bets are off unless Putin is eliminated.