More musings

So now, Carney is musing about putting troops in Ukraine.  Musing-and-talking-and-musing-and-talking seem to be his strong suits because he has done nothing concrete (except reduce the PEI fare by $30) in the more than 160 days he has been prime minister.

And he is doing all this nothingness without any Parliamentary oversight whatsoever!  

Here's what needs to be said:  Canada is full of Ukrainians who have fled their own country, rather than fight for it.  Why then should Canadians be sent in to die to defend it for them?  That's the basic question I have.  If Ukrainians can't fight for their sacred homeland, why the hell should we?

Remember Afghanistan, where 158 young Canadians lost their lives for nothing?  Afghanistan immediately reverted to its caves, medieval ways, burqas and full-on rape culture when we all left, so what was the point?  It was a crime.

Remember when Carney stood up and announced, "Muslim values are Canadian values."  Whoa!  What a dumb thing to say.  Muslims denigrate women (see above) and in extreme cases kill them, right here in Canada, in the name of "honour".  That was Mohammad Shafia, who killed his first wife and three daughters who "dishonoured" the family.

So no, Mark, Muslim values are not Canadian values and you need to pull your head out of that medieval cave and get with the program.

I just spent a beautiful two days at the venerable Palliser Hotel again, this time with my granddaughter, and noticed that the place was crawling with Ukrainian staff who had obviously fled the war they didn't want to fight or die in, so no, Canadians should not be sent there under any circumstances.

Read today that our inimitable PM is also in muse mode about reinstating our peace keeping role in conflict zones around the world.  Again, more musings, no action.

No, no no.

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Another puzzler to me is that Alberta is facing a $6.5 billion deficit because oil prices are dropping.  Once again, Alberta's sole reliance on oil revenues has dug itself a huge fiscal hole -- not helped by the thousands who are pouring into the province from places like B.C. and Ontario because of cheaper housing prices and no sales tax.

No matter how many mayors and premiers vow to diversify the economy, they never succeed.  I mean, why bother when black gold continues to be the currency of the day and has been since that miracle liquid was discovered here in 1914 in Turner Valley and again in 1947 in Leduc?  

It's oil, oil, oil and oil alone.  All I can say is, I'm glad I'm retired and have a modest pension to sustain me.  

  

Limos and nothing burgers

Watching coverage of world "leaders" gathering in the Oval Office to "solve" the Ukraine problem, I was struck by how meaningless the gathering of 'Trump and the Seven Dwarfs' was.  

There was Georgia Meloni, grooming her dyed blonde locks with a vacant expression on her face, while Starmer blathered on saying absolutely nothing.  Now Carney has snuck off to Ukraine to indulge in a few photo ops.  Why?  Canada is falling into tatters and he cuts and runs off to sign onto the "Coalition of the Willing".  What does that even mean?!

Of course, they all arrived in limos with about a dozen gas-guzzling security SUVs trailing behind to "guard" them.  It's ludicrous.  

I think the point of Carney's trip was to show the "force" and "might" of Canada (wink wink, nudge, nudge) after having been shut out of  Trump's latest Oval Office gaggle of the willing.  

The "Coalition of the Willing".  Carney has been replaced by a potted plant.

I said long ago that Carney would rub Trump the wrong way and the latter would simply dump him into the same category as Chrystia Freeland:  The personally detested.  That's how Trump operates, on a personal level.    

I don't know who is advising him?  Has he no clue about how he is perceived?  When first elected, instead of travelling across Canada to meet the great unwashed and the good burghers of the country's towns and hamlets, his first act was to jump on a plane and head to Europe.  Again.  Huh??!!

This latest boondoggle is his fourth since March!  Imagine how huge a carbon footprint he is leaving -- wrong look for a rabid greenie. 

As I keep repeating, Carney lacks a proper conceit of himself.  

Dear Diary

Whenever I want to write something naughty and private, Diary, I always turn to you.  So, just between us, I wanted to tell you about the ordeal B had trying to call his granddaughter on her birthday today in Houston.  She has her own phone number, but of course, when he called, The Warden just had to pick up.  

"Hello, may I please speak to Caitlin?", B said.  "Aren't you going to say hello to me," said The Warden indignantly.  "I just called to talk to Caitlin, please, to wish her Happy Birthday," B replied.

"Aren't you going to say hello to me!"  Really?!  This from a daughter who NEVER calls her father.  NEVER.  Diary, if she wants him to say hello, if she wants to know how he is, call him!  I don't understand a daughter who never calls her father, I really don't??!!  

If he dies before me, I will not be calling her.  As you know, Diary, I have not spoken to her in seven years, ever since she started bringing her mother up to our sacred cottage.  That did it for me, but I have always been nothing but supportive of his relationship with his grands.  You, Diary, know this better than anyone.

I mean, we had the two of them here at Christmas and what a lovely time we had.  For years, I supported B's annual visits to Houston to see his family but now, all we can hope for, Diary, is that they will want to come on their own -- without having to beg for parole from The Warden.

Well, I'm going to sign off for now, Diary, because I want to do a little research on what makes people become control freaks.  Frankly, I bet it will tell me she's a sociopath -- or even a psychopath.  Insecurity is obviously another big factor. 

Stepdaughter

More later. 

p.s.  Don't tell anyone about our little chat, please.  This is just between you and me.

    

We demand?!?!

"We demand immediate action and call for full regularization of all undocumented people and permanent resident status for all migrant workers!"

You demand??!!  Really??!!  This is what some guy named Syed Hussan, spokesman for the 'Migrants Rights Newtork' uttered the other day.  Who the hell does he think he is??!!  He represents illegal criminals, for Gawd's sake.  The very fact that they're here illegally makes them criminals, but this lunatic is demanding they be automatically given permanent status!

I'm getting very sick of "you people", as the great Don Cherry dubbed them and was fired for.  B waited for five years to be accepted to Canada with his family.  Five years, not five minutes.  That's how things used to be done.  Legally. 

It's estimated there are 500,000 undocumented illegals without valid immigration status working in Canada, but frankly, no one really knows how many there are.  The borders are sieves and need to be tightened up.  As I keep saying, countries have borders for a reason.  Sadly, no one seems to care.

The latest Liberal immigration minister is someone called Lena Diab, a first-generation Lebanese-Canadian who, although born in Halifax, moved back to Lebanon with her parents at age two.  The family then moved back to Canada to escape the Lebanese Civil War, which is what thousands of these Canadian citizens of convenience do regularly.

Gee, I wonder where Diab's loyalties lie?

I'm sick of it.  

   

Everyone's effed

I pulled this bombshell from the CBC off the internet. You just wait until lawyers representing Indigenous land claims all across Canada get ahold of this ruling!

Hitherto, all Indian lands were on Crown land, given over to them for their use. But the title was in the Crown's name. That's basically over and we're all effed. Now the Indigenous -- only four percent of the entire population -- will lay claim to every inch of land in the entire country. You just watch! Here's what's happened:

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"The British Columbia Supreme Court quietly issued its long-awaited decision in Cowichan Tribes v. Canada on Thursday.

"In a decision that is sure to ruffle feathers, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barbara Young declared the Cowichan Tribes have established Aboriginal title to roughly 800 acres in Richmond."

All now owned by the Cowichan.

This land includes very expensive real estate and a golf course (see above), but woe betide anyone who tries to sell any of it because title will automatically revert to the Cowichan, so no one will buy it! The Cowichan are on Vancouver Island, but they claimed that they used to hunt and fish on the mainland, so that's their land. Get a grip!

"A B.C. Supreme Court judge has recognized the Cowichan Nation’s Aboriginal title to parts of Lulu Island and the Fraser River’s south arm, concluding a five-year, 513-day trial — described as the longest in Canadian history.

" 'I agree that Aboriginal title is a prior and senior right to land,' Young writes in the ruling. 'The question of what remains of Aboriginal title after the granting of fee simple title to the same lands should be reversed. The proper question is: What remains of fee simple title after Aboriginal title is recognized in the same lands?'

"The 863-page judgment will have wide-reaching legal implications.

"The court confirmed the Cowichan Nation has legal ownership, known as Aboriginal title, over specific lands on Lulu Island and parts of the Fraser River’s south arm."

_______________________

So, in effect -- not that anyone (except me) has noticed yet -- our entire country is invalid. It's apparently owned by the Indigenous and we have aided and abetted this notion by encouraging anyone who stands up to speak in the public thoroughfare first acknowledge the gathering is on some unceded territory of Band X or Tribe Y.

So, thank you Justice Barbara Young. You have just thrown the baby out with the bath water and opened the door to giving away the entire country.

Let that settle in, folks. Let it. Four percent of the population of one province will now dictate to the rest of us. And we can't even vote in their elections! As I said, let that sink in.

Toodaloo, Muriel

In a brilliant decision, Trump has ordered the National Guard to take over policing in Washington.  So it's ta ta, Muriel Bowser, the Democratic mayor who has failed to control crime and ruination in the city.  

"This is unsettling and unprecedented," said Bowser.  "But we will continue to operate the city in a way that makes citizens proud."  Really?  From what I have seen, if she's making it a source of civic pride, then she and I have vastly different definitions of the word.

"The city's police officers still report to me," she continued.  Well, that's about to change, Your Worship, because you have done a "terrible job", as Trump is wont to say about so many things.  

Some of the city’s police officers appear to be breaking from Bowser in support of Trump’s order.  Gregg Pemberton, chair of the Washington police union, called the federal intervention into the city’s police “a critical stopgap.  We stand with the President in recognizing that Washington, DC, cannot continue on this trajectory. Crime is out of control and our officers are stretched beyond their limits,” Pemberton said in a statement.

Do you think Carney will do that in Ottawa, where once-banner streets like Rideau and Elgin are now cesspools of homelessness, crime, drug activity and public disorder?  It is to laugh.  We drove down Rideau two years ago while on a visit and I was shocked to see people lying about and defecting in broad daylight!

Ottawa these days.

When I was growing up there, shopping with my Mother was a great treat and Rideau Street was a beautiful, bustling venue.  What's Mayor Mark Sutcliffe doing?  Apparently, nothing.  Time's up for him and Carney should step in.  But, of course, he won't because he is weak and afraid of his own shadow.  

Rideau is just a few steps from Parliament Hill, for Gawd's sake.  Tourists flock there and what do they see when they venture down Rideau?  People relieving themselves on the sidewalk and shooting up drugs.

It's a scandal and a disgrace to our country's capital.  Queen Victoria, who chose it, would not be amused.   

World champ!

Got a couple of texts from my swim buddy, Chris, who is competing in the World Swimming Championships in Singapore.  He won his first race!  His time was 1:01:58 in the 100 metre freestyle, which is amazing.  With three more to go, I am trying to follow him on the internet.

I mean, I knew he was a great swimmer, with several national championships under his belt, but to win in world's is amazing!  His texts greet me with "Hey champ...", which is ludicrous, but much appreciated.  Here he is with one of his sons:

He races in the 65 to 69 age category.  Don't know when this was taken, but he still looks like that.  What an inspiration!

Going to keep an eye on his astonishing results.  Who knew we had a world champ in little, old Cochrane?!

Note:  He eventually won four gold medals and one silver!  He cleaned up in every race he entered!  

Here he is with all his medals!

 

More nonsense

What have I said many times?  That the Indigenous and Métis have one fall-back position when it comes to resource development:  No.

That's because their billions are not dependent on any resource development whatsoever.  They get their funding regardless.  

It's insane.  But to drive home this ingrained position, David Chartrand, Manitoba Métis Federation chief, has announced he's flatly refusing to even meet with Carney to discuss any proposed initiatives.  His reasons are both silly, juvenile and uninformed.

Chartrand digging in his unreasonable heels.

"We won't attend the meeting alongside another Métis group that has no reason to exist," Chartrand announces.  Apparently, the problem Chartrand has it that he doesn't recognize any Métis people outside of the Red River nation.  "Ontario and Western Métis have no claim to the heritage" and are infringing upon Chartrand's territory.  

Really?  Officially, the definition of a Métis is anyone of mixed European and Indigenous race, but Chartrand doesn't think so.  He calls everyone outside the Red River "fake".  That's his silly reason.

In his press conference, he said he expects Ottawa to respect "my government".  "To the prime minister, the door is open.  If you want to come and sit down with my cabinet in a government-to-government relationship, we will meet.  But if you want to insult us, they we'll see each other in a different political realms in the future."

The problem is, Chief Chartrand, you're not a government.  Like we do for the Indigenous, Canadians fund you.  You don't fund yourselves.  Federal funding for Métis communities is substantial and multifaceted, encompassing areas like infrastructure, housing, skills training and health. 

Budget 2024, for example, includes:

• More than $860 million for early learning and childcare; 
• $690 million for housing and more than $400 million for skills training and economic development; 
• A significant investment of $867 million for mental health and chronic disease management; and
• More than $360 million for the Métis Nation Post-Secondary Education Strategy. 

These figures represent a broad commitment to supporting Métis self-determination and well-being, says Wikipedia (colouring theirs; can't get rid of it.) 

Based on the financial facts, the above are his uniformed reasons.  It's always in the numbers.  That's the curtain you have to pull back, if you want the truth.

Speaking of money, Carney just announced a doubling of the loan guarantees for Indigenous bank projects.  The figure now is $10 billion.  That means that any project bankrolled by the Indigenous bank, funded with money Canadians give it, that fails will be covered by the federal government -- i.e., you and me.  Same people!

Huh??!!  I'm no economist, but then again, neither is Carney with his PhD in philosophy.

Projects don't even have to have a deadline.  So, an Indigenous group can go to the bank and lay out plans for this-project-or-that and then sit back and do nothing, while taking the money.  

I kid you not!  That doesn't work for any project you or I go the bank for funding for.  We have to have plans and deadlines and guarantees and on and on, or else the funding is not granted.  The banks are accountable to shareholders; the Indigenous bank has Canadians as guarantors -- no questions asked.

Why don't people wake up?! 

   

 

1,200 versus 60,000

That the ratio of Jews killed in the October 7th attack to the number of Palestinians killed to date in that horrific war.

That's obscene.

They call it the Israel Defence Force, but "defence" has long been abandoned.  It's just plain brutal attacks on women, children and anyone else who happens to live there.  The destruction is unconscionable.  Now even Jewish columnists like the usually one-sided Marsha Lederman are calling the massacres a genocide.  

Corpses piling up in morgues await burial.

"We Jews have a special obligation to speak out against what is happening," she wrote.  As Mark Kersten, professor of criminal justice at the University of the Fraser Valley wrote, "Genocide is a process, not an event.  It starts slowly and gradually spreads and widens while people don't seem to notice.

A man tragically holds his dead child.

"Under international law, there is no hierarchy of international crimes," Kersten writes.  "But genocide is generally accepted as the worst and it is being accomplished through starvation.  Israel is chipping away at life in Gaza.  What will states like Canada do to stop it?"

Nothing.  As for Trump, remember he has a Jewish son-in-law and Jewish grandchildren.  These realities factor into his policy on Israel, make no mistake, because ultimately everything is personal.  As I have said, look at Carney.  His green, lunatic wife greatly influences his poor decisions on all files.  The guy is weak.      

What is happening in Gaza is the deliberate extermination of an entire people. Canada, England and France's announcements that they will recognize a Palestinian state in September will only make Israel bolder in its desire to decimate Gaza.  It's a futile finger-wagging exercise, plain and simple.  

Carney predicated his announcement by saying recognition would only happen if President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to free elections.  As if that's going to happen.  Hamas -- a terrorist entity -- is Palestine.  The people elected Abbas and he has been president for 20 years, but refuses to hold an election, so why would he now?  He's effectively declared himself  'president for life', so that's done and dusted.  

We all know that a sitting prime minister cannot be removed in Israel while a war is waged.  That's why Netanyahu keeps it up because the minute it ends, he'll be back in the dock and convicted of corruption.  It'll be jail for him, so he has to continue the genocide to save his own skin.

Zelensky is also doing the same.  He was elected to fight corruption, but he's right in the thick of it and conveniently and secretly tried to take over the running of two independent anti-corruption bodies to save his own hide.  That didn't work, as thousands of Ukrainians found out and took to the streets in mass protests.  He backed down, but he too will be facing charges when his war is over.  

As I have blogged, google his personal wealth since he became president.  A ton of nest feathering has gone on there.  He's now worth millions.  That's where a lot of the money thrown at Ukraine has been skimmed --  into his own personal bank accounts.

Please, please, someone has to do something.