Very worrisome

A friend sent me this, however, the source is 'The Guardian'.   I am posting it because if any of it is true, it is very worrisome indeed:

_______________________________

► Trump was first compromised by the Russians back in the 80s. In 1984, the Russian Mafia began to use Trump real estate to launder money and it continued for decades. In 1987, the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Dubinin, arranged for Trump and his then-wife, Ivana, to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow to consider possible business prospects. Only seven weeks after his trip, Trump ran full-page ads in the Boston Globe, the NYT and WaPO calling for, in effect, the dismantling of the postwar Western foreign policy alliance. The whole Trump/Russian connection started out as laundering money for the Russian mob through Trump's real estate, but evolved into something far bigger.

► In 1984, David Bogatin — a Russian mobster, convicted gasoline bootlegger, and close ally of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mob boss — met with Trump in Trump Tower right after it opened. Bogatin bought five condos from Trump at that meeting. Those condos were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mob. (NY Times, Apr 30, 1992)

► Felix Sater is a Russian-born former mobster, and former managing director of real estate conglomerate Bayrock Group LLC located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. He is a convict who became a cooperator for the FBI and other agencies. He grew up with Michael Cohen, Trump's former "fixer" attorney. Cohen's family owned El Caribe, which was a mob hangout for the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. Cohen had ties to Ukrainian oligarchs through his in-laws and his brother's in-laws. Felix Sater's father had ties to the Russian mob. This goes back more than 30 years.

► Trump was $4 billion in debt after his Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt. No U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in through Bayrock. Bayrock was run by two investors: Tevfik Arif, a Kazakhstan-born former Soviet official who drew on bottomless sources of money from the former Soviet republic; and Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who had pleaded guilty in the 1990s to a huge stock-fraud scheme involving the Russian mafia. Bayrock partnered with Trump in 2005 and poured money into the Trump organization under the legal guise of licensing his name and property management.

► Semion Mogilevich was the brains behind the Russian Mafia. Mogilevich operatives have been using Trump real estate for decades to launder money. That means Russian Mafia operatives have been part of his fortune for years, that many of them have owned condos in Trump Towers and other properties, running their operations out of Trump's crown jewel.

► One of the most important things that is often overlooked is that the Russian Mafia is part and parcel of Russian intelligence. Russia is a mafia state. That is not a metaphor. Putin is head of the Mafia. So the fact that they operated out of the home of a president of the United States is deeply disturbing.

Beware

We should have been prepared

But we weren't.  Just like the COVID epidemic, into which Canada bumbled and lurched, thanks to the incompetent Theresa Tam and a boatload of sleep-walking health ministers, Trudeau has left us once again wide open to what Trump is unleashing.  

I have to laugh at all the weeping and wailing about how tariffs will destroy the Canadian economy.  Guess who destroyed the economy way before Trump arrived?  For the answer to that, Trudeau and Freeland can look directly in the mirror -- not to find out who is the fairest of them all -- but for answers on what happened to our economy?  The tax-spend-and-borrow Liberals tanked it thanks to their global, woke, insanity policies.

Answers are always in the mirror.

In a breathtaking act of pure spite, Trudeau is further destroying the economy so Carney will have an even bigger pile to deal with when he takes over.  Giving more billions to the natives, stacking the Senate -- you name it, he's pouring money all over it.  I mean, why does the McMichael Gallery need $22 million??!!

You don't want me, so I'll wreck everything on my way out the door, is his attitude.  What a petulant, spoiled brat.  Instead of uniting Canadians, as he vowed, he has left us more divided and angrier than ever.  "Canada is back" is now "Canada is destroyed".

But I have a hunch Trump will back down some because Republican governors in Red states reliant on trade with Canada will be forced to put pressure on him.  In the meantime, he has at least cancelled DEI and the hysterical woke hoards it engendered.

Canada's federal public service had its own DEI agenda back when I was working for the Public Service Commission.  They called it 'The merit principle'.  Except it wasn't.  That principle was actually suspended so visible minorities, the handicapped, women and francophones could be hired for positions they weren't necessarily the best qualified for.

The NHL is dropping all its "Pride" initiatives, which is a good thing.  Stick to playing hockey, fellas, and drop all the pink shirt bunk.  The Russian players are refusing to wear "pride" jerseys and so is Sharks goalie James Reimer.

_________________________________

On the Russia/Ukraine file, have you ever seen such a display of panicked "leaders" running to London over the weekend to huddle in dread over what to do about Trump's rapping of Zelensky's knuckles?  Of course, they fawned all over Zelensky and issued a meaningless statement claiming they were united as the "coalition of the willing" and would commit to "as long as it takes" to save Ukraine.  What does that mean?  Frankly, absolutely nothing.

That ship, however, has long since sailed.  Trump will have to do what they failed to accomplish in three years:  Get a peace deal signed.  My bet is he will -- especially since Zelensky has now agreed to the rare minerals deal.

Well, buckle up, as Bette Davis said in 'All About Eve', "It's going to be a bumpy ride." 

      

Finally

I know many people will disagree vehemently, but I was glad to see Zelensky put in his place by Trump and Vance.  He has been over his skis for years, but finally, he has been handed a dose of reality.  Frankly, Canada is in the same boat as Ukraine, when it comes to mooching militarily off the US.  We've been delinquent on that file for decades and Trump is making us pay too.  

Zelensky getting a scolding.

Zelensky himself admits he doesn't know where billions of dollars have gone.  Well, I'll tell you where a bunch of it has gone:  Into his own pockets.  Has anyone noticed how wealthy the man and his family have become since the war started and the world began to funnel billions into Ukraine's coffers?  The US alone has handed them $175 billion.  Canada has given them $19.7 billion out of our own meagre money chest.

Zelensky is worth $30 million.  Not bad for a standup comedian.  He has also bought luxury properties and villas in the Virgin Islands, Cyprus, Belize, Egypt and London, as well as a fleet of luxury cars and other goodies.

And isn't it a coincidence that his relatives and in-laws also started buying luxury properties and yachts right after the war began.  If you don't believe me, have a google of 'The Pandora Papers'.  It's all in there.

Flying around the world in his battle fatigue, dress up costume is getting a bit old.  To all the bed wetters calling Trump a dictator, I'd say the real dictator is Zelensky.  Who's running around he world demanding -- and getting -- money?  Who has everyone drinking his Koolaid?  Not Trump.

If Zelensky gives the US the right to Ukraine's minerals, which are on the border with Russia, Putin will never invade because to do so, he would declaring war on the US.  Not going to happen.  So, that's the key and for Zelensky to leave without that deal was just dumb because that was his ticket to peace and security.  

I read that just before his meeting with Trump, he met with anti-Trump Democrats, who urged him not to sign the deal he had already agreed to.  So, you can thank the Dem's for the mass killing that will continue without a peace agreement.

Frankly, I don't believe Zelensky wants peace.  I mean why would he?  His off-shore bank accounts are the beneficiaries of the world's largesse as long as the war continues.

As Trump said, there has been no success at getting Putin to the table to talk peace in the last three years with Zelensky in charge.  Without Trump's intervention, it still would not be happening.

Can you imagine Kamala Harris achieving this?  It's laughable.  I could never understand why so many people actually supported her -- including my apparently left-wing sisters.  Call me what you will, I am glad Trump put his foot down.  

My only fear is how long will he last until the deep state finally succeeds in killing him.     

You've got to pull back the curtain

Whenever I read about something dumb and un-Canadian some official or other is proposing, I look into the background of who is doing the proposing.

That's what I did when I read about the Toronto District School Board deciding to remove the name of Sir John A. Macdonald from one of its schools.

People, we are talking about the guy who created Canada!  The visionary who had the guts and determination to envision a huge country from sea to sea and then make it happen.  The guy who hailed from a teeny, tiny country, yet imagined a massive land of hundreds of thousands of acres and actually created it.

Canada's sacred public schools.

Ya, that guy.

Yes, we know that Macdonald did a lot of things that are now considered evil in some quarters, but let's remember that many native parents pushed for residential schools so their kids could be educated and fed.  That's another inconvenient fact no one ever mentions.  Children on reserves were starving to death and residential schools saved them.

And as to the sexual abuse, the majority of it was perpetrated on younger children by older.  Another reality always overlooked, but I always do my research and that's a fact.

But back to the school board.  Who is the head?  A guy called Neethan Shan.  The vice-chair is a guy called Zakir Patel and the director of education is a guy called Clayton La Touche.  None is of Canadian heritage, so none can really be expected to grasp the gravitas of Macdonald's accomplishments.  La Touche is also the guy who led a group of high school kids on a field trip to the Grassy Narrows First Nation to stage a noisy and violent protest, joined by pro-Palestinian disrupters.

Ya, that guy.

Neethan Shan is a Tamil from Sri Lanka; La Touche was a backup singer for Raffi.  Not exactly Canadian scholars, but nevertheless duly-elected.  Patel is of Gujarati descent, so as I say, these guys are steeped neither in Canadian history, nor heritage, so Macdonald's breathtaking accomplishments, I would wager, are by definition not top-of-mind.  Their cultural and historic heroes would obviously be Gandhi and Nehru.

This is NOT racism, so don't go there.  We are all one race, the human variety, so that's the end of that argument.  I am talking background, culture and core beliefs, which influence everything we all believe and do.  Why do you think they ran to get on the school board?  To change things because that's why anyone runs for any public office.  They want to change something.

Well, erasing Sir John is certainly one way to do it, but it's wrong.  Macdonald created Canada -- the country everyone clamors to get into.  So, settle down and leave the guy, his name and his statues in place.        

Whimsy

That's how Trump operates, on whimsy and personality.  As the Liberals prepare to pick a new leader, they'd better take heed.

Trump loathes Chrystia Freeland -- almost as much as he does Trudeau.  Freeland's problem is that she was in lock step with our hapless PM for 10 years.  She can't shrug that off.

As for Mark Carney, he probably doesn't like him either just because Carney is a snob and an elitist -- both no-no's for the Orange guy.  Since the next PM's main focus will be on dealing with Trump, neither candidates will fare too well, but his hatred of Freeland will be much more prevalent.

Freeland, you will remember, was the minister who negotiated the now-ignored Canada/Mexico/US free trade deal.  The American who had to deal with her, Robert Lighthizer, also loathed her.  The photos of her, four foot nothing, wagging her finger at the man were pathetic.  Way to bring people in, Chrystia!  She has a real knack for turning people off and I'm definitely one of them.

She made it seem negotiating the deal was such a huge task and only thanks to her brilliance was it possible!

Her she is, a wanna be prime minister, clipping her toenails in the House.  Charming!

I was on the team who negotiated the first Canada/US Free Trade agreement back in 1988, when I was with Customs and Excise.  You know what?  It wasn't that difficult because both sides negotiated from a spirit of cooperation, respect and give-and-take.  I can just picture Freeland striding into a meeting, guns blazing and pissing everyone off.  We didn't do that and it all worked out pretty well.

But what is is about Freeland that bugs people?  Is the hair flipping?  Is it the too-tight, too-short dresses she insists on wearing?  Is it those God forsaken pearls she wears with everything (probably a hand-me-down from some long-dead grandmother)?  Is it that smug look?  Is it the way she lectures and talks down to the ignorant, unwashed proletariat?  Frankly, it's all of the above.  A more annoying politician you couldn't find:

Can you seriously imagine this harridan as our prime minister?!

As for Carney, people forget that yes, he may have served as governor of the Bank of England, but only for two years.  They leave that part out.  His term was for five, but they dumped him after just two because his rabid green agenda was ruining the economy.  Brexit was being negotiated and Carney was in the way.  So, rather than having been a glittering governor, he was actually a total bust.  Too bad the lazy media never mentions this.  Don't be fooled, Carney is an hysterical greenie.

If you want to know what's really going on, watch John Mearsheimer and Victor Davis Hanson on YouTube.  That's where you will get the truth about what's happening in the world.  

You won't find it on mainstream media.    

Breathtaking hypocrisy!

Yesterday, we went to a lovely ceremony, where the Alberta Lieutenant Governor, Salma Lakhani, pinned medals onto the lapels of 40 worthy recipients of the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

B was one of them:

Brian Marley-Clarke with the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta.

First name called was Alison Redford's, former premier of Alberta.  Blank, silence.  She was a disgraceful no-show.  That just confirms to me how unfit she was to be premier in the first place.  A premier doesn't thumb her nose at our Head of State, but Redford did exactly that.  When you're too great to be honoured by a mere King, you bring shame on the office itself.  A very poor show, Alison.  

What made me almost burst out laughing was the presence of five or six Indigenous people who were also getting the medal.  Remind me, isn't it the Indigenous who rail against the Crown and the colonialism it "perpetrated", ruining their culture and destroying their people and way of life?  So why were they there to accept a medal in honour of the King they blame for all their ills?!  But there they were, dressed in all their regalia and feathered headdresses, enjoying the largesse of His Majesty and basking in his glory.

Shouldn't they have indignantly refused the honour?  Rhetorical.  But I did have a nice chat with one Indigenous woman who was wearing a traditional ribbon skirt.  She was shocked I knew the history of that skirt, but, I -- an ignorant white woman -- always do my research.  There she was, running up to get a picture of her Siksika husband while Her Honour pinned a King Charles gong on his lapel.

As I say, it's both hypocritical and bullsh-t.  

Most of the Indigenous recipients were leaders in the "recovery" industry.  More irony was when we were stopped at a red light as we left and were harassed by a drunk Indigenous man who banged on our car window for money.  What a bizarre juxtaposition  -- leaving an awards ceremony honouring the Indigenous and then encountering the main problem with that population in Canadian downtowns everywhere.

Particularly galling was that Her Honour announced she was awarding the medal to a slew of aides de camp who work in her office.  What?!?!  Why were they getting one?!  A healthy dose of blatant nepotism there because it cheapened the currency of the award a tad.

As for the reception, I have to say it was cheesy.  A few small tortilla wrap bites, a couple of danishes and tons of sweets (which I don't eat).  As for beverages, coffee and tea only.  That was a real slap in the face for the medal recipients who collectively have given thousands and thousands of volunteer hours for their various causes.

But Her Honour Salmabegum Lakhani, a self-proclaimed "proud Ismaili Muslim", was born in Kampala, Uganda, and doesn't imbibe.  So, the rest of us weren't permitted a drop of the grape either.  She evidently forgot that this is Alberta, Canada, where traditional toasting with a little alcohol is the expected norm.  We are not in Uganda any more, Salma.  Open the bar, please.  But it stayed closed.

She was appointed by Jason Kenny, who must have done so in a moment of extreme diversity-ism.  Poor Jason, so many misguided moments in his brief tenure.

As for Salma, time to let a little "Alberta" rub off on your shoulders.  Afterall, as Lieutenant Governor that's where your pride should be draped -- not in Kampala at the local mosque.  Take a page from B's grandfather's book, who told him when they immigrated, "Forget about India, forget about England, my boy.  This is Canada.  Just be a Canadian."  Wise words of advice B has heeded since.

One other bizarre moment was when the emcee announced that the words to 'God Save the King' were written on the back of the programme.  Huh?!  Are you telling me that Canadian medal recipients in Alberta, Canada, were not expected to know the words to the Royal Anthem when they received a medal from His Majesty?!  But there they were, written on the back so we could sing along;

Seared into the minds of most Canadians, one would have thought.

All in all, it was a lovely sight to see B up there getting his second Royal gong, but as I say, all a bit cheesy.

There we are, B and son, Gene, who drove us there and looked after everything.

 

He actually cried

After the strip J.D. Vance tore off the European Union the other day in Munich, Security Conference chairman Christoph Heusgen broke down in tears and had to be comforted and helped off the podium:

 Wailing over failing.

How ludicrous!  If you watch 'Plank of the Week' on YouTube, they actually awarded him the plank the other day for this pathetic display.  Watch it, it's hilarious because it's always accurate.

Vance, of course, was absolutely correct to upbraid Europe for doing absolutely nothing over three years to end the Russia/Ukraine war that has dragged on and killed millions on both sides.  Nero fiddles while Rome burns, comes to mind.  

Frankly, it's all thanks to Ukrainian president Zelensky -- that sawed off ego maniac who keeps flying around the world in his phony fatigues costume extracting money from all sorts of virtue-signaling countries who keep giving him billions for his personal fight with Putin.  Oh, and a lot of it goes to his yachts, dachas and luxury homes and condos all over the world.  (See "My theory", Sept. 6, 2023).  

Of the more than $100 billion the world has given him, he has skimmed off and pocketed about $100 million personally.  Canada has given $19 billion, which is ludicrous.

Trump is calling him a dictator and I agree.  He is.  He is complaining that he hasn't been given a seat at the table.  He's been at the table for three years and has accomplished nothing except the death of millions and the complete destruction of many cities.  He has cancelled elections and rules with neither oversight, nor rules -- just does what he wants.  Wrong.   

Thank God Trump is coming to the rescue.  And he has correctly cut Zelensky completely out of the peace process he will forge with Putin.  It had to be done and now all European leaders are exposed for what they are:  Posers whose self interest has rendered them moribund.

Starmer and Macron are the Eunuchs-in-Chief on this file.  All bluster, no action.  Just a lot of blah blah blah.

Zelensky saying Ukraine will never accept any settlement made without him at the table reminds me of Monty Python's 'Holy Grail', where the knight keeps railing against his opponents as all his legs and arms are being been cut off, rendering him immobile and impotent.

In my opinion, Zelensky is a war criminal who has committed the mass murder of millions of his own people -- as well as those of Russia -- in a vain and egomaniacal quest for the glory of Ukraine and himself.

Who does he think he is?  As I say, thank God for Trump and Vance.  It has to stop.  

    

Ten!

That's what one of the little girls I am now tutoring replied when I asked her if she had any brothers or sisters?  Ten!  In this day and age, even Catholics don't have that many, so I assume her family is Mormon.  It is.

I asked her what number she was and she rhymed off four older brothers' names, then her, but after that she kind'a couldn't remember the littlest ones' names.  "I forget," she finally said.  I had to stifle a laugh.

She is one of five or six eight-year-olds I am helping with their reading in my daughter's grade two class here in Cochrane.  Teachers are swamped, so I volunteered to help her with remedial reading.

Every Friday, I go to her class, where she has set me up at a little table in the hall outside her room.  Settling my a-- into a miniature chair at a miniature table is quite the sight!  Then we go through a series of exercises laid out by daughter.  So, there I am, remembering my own grade one and two classes at Crichton Street Public in Ottawa, when Dick, Jane, Sally and Spot were our reading companions:

Playmates from my youth.

"See Dick run.  See See Jane jump.  See Spot catch the ball."  All phrases I remember so well from when I was seven and eight.  It's so much fun for me because the kids are so sweet and try so hard.  "Sound it out," I say, as they struggle with the words on the page in front of them.  "Just read what's there, don't add other words.'

"Here's Mrs. M-C," daughter says when I walk in.  "Hi Mrs. M-C," they all chant enthusiastically.  Valentine's Day was especially sweet, with all the girls dressed up for the occasion.  As I was leaving, one of my little pupils spoke up.  "Mrs. M-C, wait," she hailed as she rushed over.  To my great surprise, she gave me a huge hug!  I was speechless.

So, this is my calling of late.  Venturing back to a simpler time with sweet children, their entire lives still ahead of them.

   

More that $3 trillion

That's how much money the natives have been handed by Canadians since since 1946.  Actually, it's $3.3 trillion, but hey, who's counting?!  Certainly not the Indigenous leaders, who keep demanding more.

The Canadian money tree, repeatedly shaken by so many.

Has this avalanche of money made any discernable difference?  Rhetorical.  And still they want more under the guise of "reconciliation".  A high school student I know, who was doing a class project, asked me what reconciliation meant?  "Money", I replied.  She immediately got it.

When you hear Patti Pettigrew, founder of the 'Thunder Bay Woman Lodge', say natives are being "nickel and dimed to death", you want to scream and hand her the bank statements of the 'Indian Trust Fund".  Today, that fund is holding $625 million.  And that's over and above the 2024-2025 allotment for Canada's 1.8 million natives, which is $32 billion.  $32 billion!!!

Why doesn't Ms. Pettigrew ask her own leadership for a few clams out of that fund?  Why doesn't she ask her leaders where the money has gone?  Oh, wait, she can't because the first thing Trudeau did when he took office 10 years ago was cancel the Accountability Act, which attempted to compel native leaders to account for the money they were given.

That I don't get.  When I was working and travelling, I had to account for every coffee in my expense claims.  But they don't have to account for billions?!  It's only going to get worse until Trudeau exits because he said the other day, "I'm going to do exactly what I want, now that I'm leaving."  Never mind that, he has done exactly what he wanted -- or what Katie Telford told him he wanted -- since he set foot in the PMO.

Is the Indigenous leadership so incompetent it can't run a bath, let alone a reserve?  Is that why no one knows where the money goes?  Or maybe it's because they simply don't want Canadians to find out.  Patti Hajdu should demand answers on behalf of all hard-working Canadians, some of whom have to decide between rent and food every month.

I wrote to Bob Fife about this and he replied that it was a foolish decision to cancel the Accountability Act.  Obviously, I agree.  But I am sure Trudeau is relieved Trump has distracted us from all this with his tariff threats because Trudeau can now focus on being 'Captain Canada' again.  Do you think he actually might stick around?  Do you think there's a chance the Liberals could sneak in again?

Gawd help us.

Dear Diary

Why did I ever start watching that ridiculous Paramount series 'The Affair'?!  I don't know, but now I regret it because it's interminable!  Problem is, Diary, I'm hooked.  Other problem is it never seems to end.

The unendurable stars of 'The Affair'. 

It's one of those annoying series that is all chunked up -- you know, one episode shown from one character's perspective, the same episode shown from another's completely different perspective., so you never know what's really going on.  Sooooo annoying!  

It's also one of those shows that features a lot of those maddening "Three years earlier" scenes, where you have to forget what you just watched and pretend you don't know what's going to happen next.  The whole thing begins with famous author Noah, played by Dominic West, having an affair with a mousy, cheap waitress nobody, Alison, played by Ruth Wilson, but it branches out into a million other side plots and affairs that are mostly irrelevant.

Firstly, Alison does not strike me as someone anyone would have an affair with -- let alone the three or four other characters who throw their entire lives in the toilet because of her "irresistibility".  She's boring and vapid, but happily she's now dead.  The coroner says it was suicide, but we know she was murdered by one of her many lovers.  At least she's gone.  For now.  But who knows?  She may reappear in some future episode -- God forbid!

B hates it because it's stupid, so to spare him, I watch it while he is busy or out.  However, Diary, we are also watching another series, 'Inspector George Gently', starring Martin Shaw as Inspector Gently.  Set in the sixties, I am really enjoying it because I came of age in that era and can relate to so much of it.  It also makes sense, unlike the ludicrous 'The Affair'.

___________________________

As an aside, Diary, I wanted to update you on the saga of my erstwhile ex-"friend", Diane, who dropped me 18 months ago because I blogged that I thought she could at least buy me a glass of wine when we went out for lunch, but she never would.  Remember her?  She's the one I drove around, picked up and dropped off because she had had a stroke and could no longer drive.  I guess I just wasn't worth a $10 glass of wine.  Oh well, her loss.   

We usually had a few laughs and shared our very irritated views on the Indians and how they were ripping off the Canadian public.  Other than with B, I can't really express my opinions on the natives and their "leadership" in polite company because everyone, except me, seems to have drunk the Kool Aid on that file.  But Diane shared them, so we'd rave on privately.

One thing that really riled us was their claim of nationhood.  To be a nation, a people has to raise its own capital and protect its own borders.  The Indigenous do neither, so they aren't nations.  All this nation-to-nation bunk is just that:  Bunk.

I guess you could say some of them do raise their own capital -- if you count the millions they get from the criminal smuggling of people, guns and drugs across the St. Lawrence between the US and Canada via the Akwesasne reserve, which straddles both countries.  It's all illegal money, but they claim it's their land, so they do what they want, give the police the finger and pocket the ill-gotten proceeds.

It's not their land, as we know.  I looked it up.  It's Crown Land given to the natives for their exclusive use.  But it's still Crown Land.  I once tried to point this out at a dinner party and was furiously and righteously set upon and attacked by all the bed wetters (as the 'Plank of the Week' gang hilariously calls the hoards of insufferable liberal lefties) at the table.  Never going to try that again, Diary!

 I also brought up the billions we give them -- along with all the illegal migrants -- and have now vowed to never, ever, bring up either topic again while in the company of the great uninformed mob.  

Well, Diary, that's about it for today.  I'll keep you posted on whether Alison rises from the grave to piss us all off once again.

Cheerio!     

Why would she do that?

Why would Margaret Thatcher send the Queen to Saudi Arabia, where she was forced to remove her shoes and wear a hijab?   

We're talking about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II!  She actually had to cover her head in that Muslim country.  It was an outrage.  Do you think for one minute a Muslim ruler -- or any Muslim -- would come to England and be forced to wear western dress?!  

Never!

But they force non-Muslims to adhere to their archaic dress code and kowtow to men.  Absolutely ridiculous.

The Queen in hijab dress.

The Monarch is the Head of the Church in Great Britain.  She is not a Muslim and should never be forced to wear Muslim attire.  But, she did it.  And she looked as regal as anyone could with her head covered.  Again, why did Thatcher send her?  Was it personal?  I know they didn't get on -- probably because Thatcher thought she was the queen and resented the fact that she wasn't.

Whatever the reason, the Queen should have stuck to western dress and Thatcher should have insisted on it before sending her.

____________________

Just to show you how insensitive I can be, I stupidly asked a WestJet pilot I regularly swim with what he thought of the recent collision between that military training helicopter and a passenger jet.  Can you imagine!  I might as well have asked him how he'd like to have died like that.

Just so dumb.

I'm confused?

Isn't it the job of US customs and border agents to screen who and what gets into the US?  Shouldn't they be the ones -- not Canada -- responsible for all the illegal migrants, guns and fentanyl apparently flowing freely into our neighbour to the south?

The answer is yes.  So why is Canada being blamed and incurring the wrath of President Trump?  He should be instructing his own, hand-picked border czar, Tom Homan, to stop it -- not penalizing Canada with ridiculous tariffs that will cripple both countries.

While experts and pundits are all over the airwaves, trying to analyze the "why's" of such ludicrous tariffs, Trump himself gave the answer:  "I love Canada, I dislike its leadership."  He actually said that the other day and that translates into: "I love Canada, but I can't stand that squat babushka Freeland and I loathe that vain, narcissistic spoiled leader Trudeau."

Funnily, no one has picked up on the fact that it's all personal for Trump.  There is no logic or economic thought here.  He just can't abide Freeland and Trudeau.  On that fact, most Canadians agree.  Freeland was bragging the other day about how she had pushed back and stood up to the US during the trade negotiations, not realizing that her abrasive style was anathema to reasonable people like Robert Lighthizer.

Trudeau and Freeland's unworkable stance.

As for the border, unless the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are on the take with the Chinese and turning thousands of blind eyes at their borders, they are the ones responsible for enforcing the laws of their country.

My next question is, why is no one but me calling this out?  No reporters, no columnists, no politicians -- nobody is mentioning this inconvenient truth.

As I said, I am confused -- but then I often am.

Another thing that confuses me is the decision of the Victoria school board to remove police liaison officers from its schools.  

The woke run amok in B.C.

Apparently, any police presence in the school intimidates Black and Indigenous students.  So Victoria, in its preeminent wokery, has removed them.  I guess what these students object to is the oversight of their gang activities by the police.  I mean, what else could it mean?  If everyone was law-abiding -- wink, wink, nudge, nudge -- why would they not want to keep it that way by having a few police officers hanging around the lockers and liaising?

Thankfully, Premier Eby has fired the entire board -- very surprising considering the rabidly woke NPD premier is drenched in do-goodery and tolerance.  It took two years, but he actually did it.  Guess he calculated the election math and figured there weren't enough Indigenous and Black votes in 'Tea Party City" to sway the results.

Another thing that confuses me is 'World Hijab Day'.  Apparently, in some quarters of our woke-to-the-back-teeth country, we actually have one and it's today.  Who knew?! 

World Hijab Day

Just to remind myself of how un-woke I am, I had to google it.  'World Hijab Day' was proclaimed by a Canadian resident, Yasmine Mohammed, in 2013 and "...celebrates the resilience of hijabs around the globe who courageously challenge stereotypes, while embracing their identities with pride and determination".

In Canada, a country about as tolerant as you can find, I would not think we'd need a special day to celebrate and protect hijabs.  Maybe in Quebec, where they have finally legalized the separation of Church and State in Bill 21, which bans religious symbols in secular institutions, and are about to enact another requiring immigrants to adhere to Quebec culture and mores, I can see where they might need a special day.  But nowhere else.

Maybe part of the issue in Quebec stems in part from the actions of that teenage girl in Montreal, who claimed she had had her hijab ripped off while she was walking down the street minding her own business.  After a big public kerfuffle and investigation, it turned out she had been lying all along.  Never happened.  She was trying to stir up an issue that wasn't there and her false accusations didn't help. 

I have also recounted the Muslim girls I taught at Algonquin College in Ottawa, who wore the hijab for "modesty", yet had faces plastered with makeup and wore very, high heels and nail polish -- both clearly sexually provocative gestures which flew in the face of the "modesty" they claimed to support.

As a Christian, I have never understood why women and girls have to cover themselves at all.  We are all equal and all children of a loving God, so why does the female gender in Muslim societies have to hide themselves.  That's wrong, but in Canada we live with it.

As I said, I am constantly confused and bewildered by what Canada has become.  We are a country with no identity whatsoever and I am only glad my Grandmother, Mother and Aunts aren't alive to see it.

  

That dog don't hunt

So, Marie-Josée Hogue has released her big "exposé" on foreign interference in Canadian elections.

Apparently, there isn't any.  She said exactly what Trudeau must have told her to say, which stinks to high heaven.  According to Hogue, we have bad communications, but no actual interference.  In fact, she didn't name any possible suspects because ludicrously, there is a 99 year embargo on releasing the names of MPs and candidates who did engage with foreign entities.  

Really?!  So, what was the point of the whole exercise if no one was identified, if voters will never know who was involved when they go to the polls?  It beggars belief!  This whole thing was not an "inquiry", it was a cover up.  Remember that the National Security and Intelligence Parliamentary Committee released its own report, which explicitly said some MPs were working with China and India to influence elections.  Hogue completely contradicts this.  

Keystone Cops anyone?  Left hand right hand?

Gee, I wonder if Hogue's ties to Justin Trudeau's father, Pierre, had anything to do with her appointment as commissioner?  Didn't they both work for Heenan Blaikie?  Isn't she close to the Trudeau family?  As I always say, pull back the curtain and you'll find the truth.

Her report, coloured as it is by her personal and professional background, is a complete whitewash.  My question is, what is the difference between lobbying and interfering?  There isn't any that I can see.  Lobbyists make their livings trying to interfere in the political process on behalf of their clients.  Those who interfere in the political process do essentially the same thing.

My other question is her claim that we have no actual traitors in the Parliament of Canada.  Huh?  She was not given a mandate to ferret out traitors.  She was given a mandate to determine if foreign interests "interfered" in the election.  Instead, she globed onto the traitor element to the exclusion of who did, or did not, meet the interference issue.

So, all's well in Parliament.  No one is interfering.  No one is a traitor.  Elections are all pristine and above-board.  Whew, great to know!  Except, the real story, as I said, lies in the fact that those involved will not be identified for 99 years.  99 years!!!  That screams serious interference and corruption, so if that doesn't tell you everything, nothing in the redacted report will.

Thank God everything's A-OK, according to Mme. Justice Hogue.

 

The Indigenous myth of colonial settlement

Contrary to what all Indigenous leaders, spokespersons and experts claim, the colonization of Canada, the United States and Australia did not involve the systemic and brutal annihilation of natives.  

It simply didn't. 

Dr. Stephen Chavura

This was the subject of a fascinating YouTube broadcast, hosted by former deputy prime minister of Australia John Anderson, during which he interviewed Dr. Nigel Biggar, below, regis professor at Oxford, and Dr. Stephen Chavura, above, European and Australian history professsor.  Biggar and Chavura outlined the brutality of Indigenous-to-Indigenous wars and violence that was occurring before the White man ever set foot in the new world.

Dr. Nigel Biggar

Entire tribes were regularly wiped out, with women and children brutally tortured, murdered, raped and enslaved.  They were not peaceful hunters and gatherers, as the fairy tale is regularly spun.  As nomadic people, the Indigenous also practiced infanticide because they simply could not move around as they needed to with a multitude of infants in tow.  So they suffocated them at birth.

The tribe-to-tribe violence did not shock me, but I had not read about the infanticide.  However, it makes sense and people like Tanya Talaga should be tied to a chair and forced to watch this broadcast.  She is one of the worst offenders when it comes to perpetrating the myth of the evils of colonization and cultural genocide on innocent, peaceful natives. 

Biggar and Chavura also pointed out that the laws which allowed the British to remove children from their homes applied equally to both Caucasians and Indigenous.  Children were removed because of neglect, violence or starvation -- not because settlers were practicing genocide.  In fact, the natives themselves were lobbying Ottawa to build residential schools so their children could have better lives, free of the diseases and starvation that were killing them on the reserve.

Biggar also talked about the lie of mass murders and burials of native children in Canada, where three years after the story was hatched, not a single grave has been uncovered.  Nevertheless, 85 churches have been burned to the ground by natives in protest.

Yep, all lies.

So, if you want to educate yourselves about the history of colonialism, watch this broadcast.  It should be required viewing for every Canadian minister of Indigenous affairs and every "expert" like Pam Palmeter, Doug Cuthand or Tanya Talaga before they dare put pen to paper, or teach another course.

 

          

True to form

One of my newly-found brothers-in-law just confirmed my opinion of the woke, adolescent, American left mob.  An upper New York State university professor, he is obviously out-of-touch with reality, as are so many cocooned, well-paid profs.  

To test my theory, I sent him a "friend" request on facebook.  What did I get in return?  A harangue about how he had to refuse on principle because of my offensive posts.  I guess he meant the ones about the woke left and the bed-wetters, of which he appears to be a rabid, card-carrying member.

He actually called me out as someone on the cusp of racism, which is wholly untrue.  As you know, my position is that we are all part of one race:  The Human Race; everything else is cultural.

Ah well, if anyone doubts the wise words of Victor Davis Hanson (he's on YouTube), American classicist, military historian, conservative political commentator and professor at California State, Fresno, my brother-in-law's rejection of my positions confirms those of Prof. Hanson.

I know he will keep reading my "offensive" blogs, so I hope he enjoys this one.  I bet he even condones the disgraceful lecture Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Budde (see previous blog)  had to gall to aim at President Trump during the inauguration prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington.  

Instead of sticking to her job of leading prayers and praising God, this egomaniacal lunatic hammered Trump and called on him to throw law-and-order out the window by showering compassion on illegal migrants and supporting them -- many of them criminals.  

I wonder how many illegals and refugees Budde has invited to live in her $6 million mansion?  Have a look at "America's Untold Stories" with Mark Groubert and Eric Hunley.  Groubert nails her.

The un-American Bishop Budde.

No, Trump was voted in because he vowed to uphold the rule of law.  I was impressed by his restraint.

   

 

William Donohue's take

Re-printed from 'The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.  How did this woman ever get to lead that service?!  She just insulted Trump to his face: 

Open Letter To DC Bishop Who Lectured Trump

Contact her at: mebudde@edow.org

January 22, 2025

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde

Episcopal Church House                                    

Mount St. Alban

Washington, D.C. 20016

Dear Bishop Budde:

At the January 21 prayer service at Washington National Cathedral that featured President Trump, you mentioned that “people in our country are scared now.” You singled out people who “may not be citizens or have the proper documentation,” as well as LGBTQ persons. These people “fear for their lives.” You then made a plea to “find compassion.”

Your commitment to compassion is noble, but it is misplaced.

I work in New York City, and I witness daily how many New Yorkers are “scared” and “fear for their lives.” They are afraid of being mugged, beaten, raped and killed, often by people who have crashed our borders, people you refer to as lacking “proper documentation.” They, and in some cases their surviving families, are deserving of compassion. More than that, they are deserving of justice, and that means that illegal alien criminals must be apprehended and deported.

You are right to call attention to violence against LGBTQ persons. They have every right to be “scared” and “fear for their lives.” What you don’t mention is that the people who are most likely to victimize them are people just like them. In other words, it is not heterosexual guys who are beating up on gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons—it is people in their own ranks. It is called “intimate partner violence,” and the studies show how prevalent it is among LGBTQ persons.

In 2022, 'Psycom Pro', a psychiatry resource for clinicians, concluded that “More than half of transgender individuals experience partner violence or gender identity abuse.”

In 2020, seven experts published a study in the 'American Journal of Public Health' on this subject and concluded that “Transgender individuals experience a dramatically higher prevalence of IPV [intimate partner violence] victimization compared with cisgender individuals [those who accept their sex identity], regardless of sex assigned at birth.”

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reviewed the literature on this subject and found that “43.8% of lesbian women and 61.1% of bisexual women have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime, as opposed to 35% of cisgender women.” It also found that transgender individuals experienced the highest rate of intimate partner violence.

The Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law, reviewed a number of studies on this subject. One of them found that “31.1% of transgender people and 20.4% of cisgender people had ever experienced IPV or dating violence.” It also said that three studies concluded that the lifetime intimate partner sexual violence prevalence among transgender people ranged from “25.0% to 47.0%.”

Even in sympathetic pop culture magazines, such as 'Portland Monthly', it is acknowledged that “statistically speaking, the most common perpetrators of violence against trans women are domestic partners.”

In short, misdirected compassion is not virtuous. You need to make a public statement addressing the fallacies of your remarks.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.

President

I have a dream!

Could someone not write a new script for all Black preachers?  Once again, the Black pastor speaking at Trump's inauguration trotted out the old, tired Martin Luther King, jr., trope from the Million Man March on Washington in 1963.

I have a dream!

Frankly, it's wearing a bit thin.  "I have a dream that one day, every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be laid low....." blah blah blah.  He also just had to include the "Let freedom reign" and "Free at Last!  God almighty we're free at last!" part.

As I said, it's getting very old  - 62 years, to be exact.  But King's words can always be counted on to raise a crowd -- especially if the speaker yells them loudly enough.  Has no progress been made in those years?  Has no one been able to pen a few different inspirational words?  Guess not.

I know it was Martin Luther King Day, but still.  Give it a rest.

Trump, however, was impressive.  He spoke extemporaneously and covered a lot of ground -- mostly excoriating the Democrats on every file.  He really let rip on illegal immigration and the ineffective wall that kept out no one on the Mexican border.  Harris squirmed and the Biden gang looked very uncomfortable while he raked all of them over the coals on mess after mess.

Michelle Obama made a bit spectacle of not attending, which only goes to show that Barack has always been a cuckhold.  What a spiteful, immature, self-centred, un-American, rude thing to do.  I mean, who does she think she is?!  She just proved that at her core, she remains a classless broad from the Chicago "hood".  Whatever happened to, "When they go low, we go high"???  Easy to say when you're in the White House; couldn't muster it when it mattered.  

And the fact that Keir Starmer wasn't even invited speaks volumes about the poor and incompetent job he is doing.  Can you imagine?!  The prime minister of Britain not being invited to the inauguration of an American president?!  

As for Biden, he made mess after mess in only four years; Trudeau has more than tripled messes here because he's been allowed to screw things up for nine! 

Trump also let it be known that the ludicrous and destructive "diversity, equity and inclusion" era is over!  Thank G-d for that!  That's what got Los Angeles Karen Bass, the woman who, along with Gavin Newsome, has destroyed that once magnificent city.  That's what got a deputy fire chief like Kristine Larson, who said that if she had to carry a man out of a burning building, he had "got himself in the wrong place".  You could not make that up!

Larson, a DEI hire if ever there were one.

"Woke", that ludicrous reign of terror, is also gone.  What a dumb philosophy.  A completely false approach to life which had nothing to do with reality or competence.  In fact, it was an insult to everyone -- including those it rewarded.    

But, true to form, Trudeau got into Woke and DEI big time when he formed his first cabinet, filled with a lot of incompetent misfits, "because it's 2015".  Canadians paid for those messes too.   

So it's official.  Trump is the new president.  Now, let's wait and see what he does to Canada.  Hold onto your hats because we deserve whatever he throws at us!

 

 

You can thank Trump

Trump's the guy who got the ceasefire done in Gaza.  In spite of all the back-slapping and self congratulating being done by Biden and Blinken, they accomplished nothing.  It was only thanks to Trump's threat of all hell breaking loose if there was no ceasefire by the time he took office.  That scared the livin' bejesus out of Hamas, so they got it done.

I wrote a letter to the editor of 'The Globe and Mail', which, being so aggressively anti-Trump, was not published.  Here's what I wrote:

"Dear Editor,

"If any credit for the deal to halt the fighting in Gaza is to be given, it has to be to Donald Trump.  Although President Biden claims it was thanks to months of U.S. effort, fruitless though they were, it was incoming President Trump's declaration that if a deal wasn't in the works and hostages released by the time he took office, all Hell would break loose.  

"Whatever one thinks of Mr. Trump, there's nothing like a mortal fear of the mighty U.S. military to get everyone rushing to the table looking for the nearest pen."
Frankly, I thought it deserved to get in, but it didn't.  God forbid anyone at 'The Globe' give one ounce of credit to Donald Trump!  Frankly, I think they google me and panic at my blogs.
_______________________________

If you have YouTube, do yourself a favour and watch 'Plank of the Week' -- a delightfully irreverent podcast featuring leading broadcasters and journalists discussing insane issues in Britain.  It's hilarious!  

At first, I thought they were Monty-Python spoofing, but they are actually covering real life political craziness!  Kier Starmer is a favourite and wins often, thanks to his tone-deaf, automaton "leadership" of Britain.  They have a great time and it's screamingly funny.

They also appear on another podcast entitled 'Clash of the Titans', where they again weekly tear apart politicians -- this time on a Saturday night enjoying a glass or two of grog:

Julia Hartley Brewer and Jeremy Kyle on 'Clash of the Titans'.

    

Julia, Jeremy, Michael Graham and Kevin O'Sullivan.

Why can't the MotherCorp do something like this?  All they offer is 'At Issue', with three boring talking heads, moderated by the odious, silly, giggling (and ever-fattening) Rosemarie Barton.  It's all so uninformative with absolutely no reality whatsoever!

There's turgid Andrew Coyne, banging on about...whatever....along with rabid Separatist Chantal Hébert, flanked by the always boringly, politically-correct and self-important Althea Raj. 

None has an original thought in their egomaniacal heads!

Bring on the Titans!