Saudi sisters' suspicious "suicide"

Amidst all the fuss about pipe bombs and the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, the lamestream meeja seem to have pretty much ignored the strange case of Tala Farea and Rotana Farea, two sisters whose fully-clothed bodies were found on the bank of the Hudson River in New York on October 24th.

The girls, aged 16 and 22 respectively, had been bound together, face-to-face, with the handyman's secret weapon -- duct tape. The medical examiner's office is investigating the cause of death. The absence of any obvious signs of physical trauma cast doubt on the coppers' original theory that they jumped into the river from the George Washington Bridge in a suicide pact.

The Farea sisters moved to the USA from Saudi Arabia with their mother in 2015, settling in Fairfax VA, about 225 miles from where their bodies were found. Rotana was enrolled at George Mason University, but left in the spring. Police said the sisters left the family home and were placed in a shelter after an earlier disappearance, in December of 2017. They were reported missing again on August 24th.

New York police said their mother told detectives the day before the bodies were discovered, she received a call from an official at the Saudi Arabian Embassy, ordering the family to leave the USA because her daughters had applied for political asylum. The Saudi Consul General said embassy officials in Washington had contacted the family and "extended its support and aid in this trying time." It said the sisters were students "accompanying their brother in Washington."

The cops sent a detective to Virginia to learn more about the sisters. Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said they were particularly interested in finding out what happened since they were reported missing and what led them to New York City. "We are looking at all clues in their past life," Shea said.

Walt suggests that the police consider the girls' ethnicity and religion, and the sad fate of other Muslim girls who have come to western countries with their parents, and then been killed for wanting to adopt western customs, like wearing western clothes and (horrors!) dating. Three cases, reported here on WWW, come to mind.

In 2009 there was the murder, in Ontario, Canada, of Aqsa Parvez, aged 16, whose father and brother killed her because she dared to change out of Islamic garments into western clothes when she went to school. See "Honour killings, family values and 'accommodation'", WWW 23/7/09.

There was an echo from Britain in 2012, when a jury found the Pakistani parents of 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed guilty of her murder. According her sister, her mother and father suffocated the girl with a plastic bag for "being too western". See "Parents kill rebellious teen to preserve family honour", WWW 3/8/12.

That same year saw the horrific Shafia case, in which three sisters and their mother were locked in a car which was pushed into a canal near Kingston ON by the girls' father, his second wife and their brother, all of whom were convicted of murder and are (suprisingly) still guests of Her Majesty in Canadian prisons. See "GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY in Shafia honour killings", WWW 29/1/12.

There's also [That's enough Islamic honour killings. We're running out of space! Ed.] OK then, let's just leave it at my suggestion that the police have a word with the Farea sisters' brother. Perhaps he can explain how it's possible for two people to duct-tape themselves together, face-to-face, while allowing sufficient freedom of movement to jump in a river. Stay tuned...

What is a "hate crime"?

Federal prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against Robert Bowers, the Pennsylvania man they say stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue and opened fire, killing 11 people. Because the people were Jews, and because Mr Bowers allegedly made anti-Semitic statements during the shooting and even in the hospital where he was being treated, and allegedly targeted Jews on social media, he has been charged with committing "hate crimes", for which he may be sentenced to death.

Walt would like to know if the same charges would have been laid had Mr Bowers shot up a Catholic church full of worshippers (like you'd ever find that, nowadays) or a non-denominational public (read: secular) school.

Would the same charges have been laid had the attacker been a Muslim fanatic, or would the murders then be called acts of terrorism? What's the difference between a terrorist crime and a hate crime?

And what if Mr Bowers had been black, and had shot up a meeting of the Aryan nation...or a station full of white cops? That would certainly be a hate-filled act, but if a black man did it, would he not be justified, in the eyes of the NPCs, because of... well, you know....

I believe that there is no excuse, other than self-defence, for killing another human being. That goes double for the killing of the innocent -- infants and unborn children! See "True story of Philadelphia baby-killer now a movie", WWW 24/10/18.

But the "minority status" or the victims or of the killer should make no difference to the "justice" applied or received. That is why slogans like "Justice for Trayvon Martin" make no sense unless the NPCs who shout them also demand justice for the victims of ISIS, justice for the innocent bystanders shot by gangstas, and, yes, justice for the millions of babies whose lives were "terminated" by the likes of Kermit Gosnell, paid by Planned Parenthood with the support of your tax dollars.

I believe also that justice does not include retribution. I am not so naïve as to think that nutbars and recidivists can be rehabilitated and made useful members of society if we just "love" them enough. Hug-a-hoodie just doesn't work because hate cannot always (or ever?) be overcome by love. But an eye for an eye is not the solution.

I am opposed to the death penalty because I am opposed to murder. People like Mr Bowers need to be removed from society, for the protection of society, but in a civilized society, permanent incarceration or perhaps banishment to a Siberia is as far as we ought to go. State-sanctioned murder is no different from "murder by crazy freelancer".

As for "hate crime", I call that a redundancy, since all murder involves hate of some kind. As used by the NPCs today, "hate crime" is just another expression intended to make straight white people -- especially men and Christians -- feel guilty, guilty, guilty! If I were Emperor of the World, I would banish "hate crime" from the statute books and even from the dictionaries. Sadly, hate is part of human nature. You can't overcome hate by mandating "love"... or political correctness.

Footnote: If you're not sure what "NPC" means, click here to see "Why The NPC Meme Triggers NPCs", from The Truth Factory.

What to say when you're caught humping a pumpkin

While police work can often be dangerous, it can occasionally be entertaining. 

In Georgia recently, a female sheriff's deputy arrested Patrick Lawrence, a 22-year-old white male, who was fornicating with a pumpkin in the middle of a field at night. The next day, at the Gwinnett County courthouse, Mr Lawrence was charged with lewd and lascivious behaviour, public indecency and public intoxication.

In his defence, the suspect explained that he was passing a pumpkin patch on his way home from a drinking session when he decided to stop. "You know how a pumpkin is soft and squishy inside," he said, "and there was no one around for miles, or at least I thought there was no one around."

He went on to say that he pulled over to the side of the road, picked out a pumpkin that he felt was appropriate to his purpose, cut a hole in it and proceeded to satisfy his pressing need. "Guess I was really into it, y'know," he commented with evident embarrassment.

In the process of doing the deed, Mr Lawrence failed to notice an approaching sheriff's car and was unaware of his audience, until Deputy Brenda Taylor approached him. "It was an unusual situation, that's for sure," said Deputy Taylor. "I walked up to Lawrence and he's just humping away at this pumpkin."

Deputy Taylor went on to describe what happened when she approached the defendant. "I said excuse me sir, but do you realize that you're having sex with a pumpkin? He froze and was clearly very surprised that I was there, and then he looked me straight in the face and said, 'A pumpkin? Shit, is it midnight already?!'"

The court (including the judge) could not contain their laughter. Mr Lawrence was found guilty only of public intoxication, fined ten bucks and sent on his way.

Thanks to Agent 6 for this perfect pre-Hallowe'en story.

Another gain for AfD forces Merkel to plan retirement

Cazart! Another defeat for "democratic socialism"[or "social democracy"? Ed.] in Germany! Results just in from Sunday's vote in the state of Hesse prove that the German people want change. They are sick of the self-centeredness and self-flagellation of Angela Merkel's liberal coalition, and sent them a strong message.

Frau Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democrats lost significant ground, while there were gains for both the Greens and the right-wing Alternativ für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany). Merkel's party barely managed to retain power, narrowly salvaging a majority by means of a coalition with the Greens.

The governing coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), Christian Democrats (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) is the classic example of all the "mainstream" parties banding together to prevent the rightist party from taking power. Within this decade, the same thing happened in France, Austria and the Netherlands. So for the last six months or so, Germans have been lumbered with a government that is so busy navel-gazing -- figuring out how to survive -- that it hasn't led, but rather paralyzed the Fatherland.

After 13 years in office, the German volk have learned to dislike and distrust Angela Merkel. Her abject failure to lead, particularly on the issue of mass migration, has led to the rise of the AfD and other right-wing parties, not just in Germany but in Europe as a hole. [Ed., I have checked the spelling. Quod scripsi scripsi.] Instead of tackling urgent issues like what to do with the criminal Muslim "refugees", the Merkel coalition is preoccupied with in-house squabbling over "the process of renewal". The German people have had enough!

Frau Merkel, 64, recently indicated she planned to seek another two-year term as leader of her Christian Democratic Union at a party congress to be held in December, but in light of the result in Hesse (and another debacle in Bavaria two weeks ago) appears to have changed her mind. At a news conference in Berlin today, she said it was her intention to remain as Chancellor, but this would be her final parliamentary term. "I will not run as candidate for chancellor in the 2021 election," she told the meeja, "and will not seek re-election to the German parliament. And, just for the record, I will not aim for any other political office," likely referring to European Commission elections to be held next year.

Throughout the Fatherland, cries are heard, not of "Angela, we hardly knew ye," but of "We knew ye all too well. Auf Wiedersehen, gute Riddance!"

Right on the rise in South America, as Bolsonaro wins in Brazil

They call him a hater. They call him a racist, a misogynist, an anti-Semite, a homophobe and a neo-Nazi. And now they call him Mr President!

No, it's not Donald Trump of whom we speak, but Jair Bolsonaro, the 63-year-old congressman, who's also been called "Brazil's Donald Trump" or "Tropical Trump". Mr Bolsonaro has been criticized by the lamestream media and liberal pols at home and abroad for sexist comments about women [What's the Portuguese word for "pussy"? Ed.], refusing to recognize "gay rightsw", racist remarks about Brazil's black population, as well as his praise for the country's 1964-85 military dictatorship. But on Sunday he easily won the fun-off presidential election, riding a wave of frustration over corruption and crime that brought a dramatic swing to the right in the world's fourth-largest democracy.

In his acceptance sppech, Mr Bolsonaro said "We cannot continue flirting with communism.... We are going to change the destiny of Brazil!" His winning campaign was fuelled in large part by popular rejection of the leftist party (similar to America's "socialist Democrats") that ran Brazil for 13 of the last 15 years, and was booted out two years ago in the midst of a deep recession and a scandal over political graft. Mr Bolsonaro also vowed to crack down on crime in Brazil's cities and farm belt by granting police more autonomy to shoot at criminals. He also wants to let more Brazilians buy weapons to fight crime.

Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters cheered and set off fireworks outside his home in Rio de Janeiro's Barra de Tijuca beachfront neighbourhood as his victory was announced. In Brazil's commercial capital of Sao Paulo, Bolsonaro's win was greeted with fireworks and the honking of car horns. Said the local president of Mr Bolsonaro's Partido Social Liberal (PSL) party, "Brazil is partying. Brazil's good people are celebrating!"

Footnote: "Partido Social Liberal" = Social Liberal Party. Just shows that the name of party doesn't matter. What matters is what they say and, even more, what they do!

VIDEO: Why you should vote Democrat in the mid-terms!

Earlier this month Walt posted a campaign ad for the new People's Party of Canada. Although it was a spoof, produced by the lovely and talented Jill Colton, a source in Mad Max Bernier's office tells me they got a lot of new members. I hope this little piece of satire, by Allie Beth Stuckey, will have the opposite effect.



Further viewing: "The faces of the unhinged mob that is the 'Democratic' left", WWW 12/10/18.

Footnote: Ed., who is a stickler for proper English usage, has drawn my attention to the name of M Bernier's new party -- the "People's Party of Canada", not "Peoples' Party of Canada". There's only one Canadian people, eh! Diversity, BAH!

Who pulled Cesar Sayoc's strings?

A churlish reader has suggested that the arrest of Cesar Sayoc, a self-identified Republican now facing five federal charges in connection with more than a dozen -- I've lost count -- intercepted suspicious packages, disproves my theory that the "pipe bomb" affair is a hoax concocted for to give the Democrats a much-needed boost in the run-up to the mid-term elections. See "More on the moronic pipe bombs", WWW 25/10/18.

I call BS on those calling BS on my theory! If anything, what we've learned in the last 24 hours about Mr Sayoc reinforces my skepticism.

Mr Sayoc was born in New York. Eventually he drifted to Florida, which (along with California) is a magnet for America's loners, losers and nutbars. [Didn't you live there at one time? Ed.] Court records show that his conviction in the 1990s in Broward County on charges of grand theft and stolen property. In 2004, he was convicted on a felony charge of fraud and a misdemeanour of tampering with physical evidence.

In between, he was sentenced in Dade County in August 2002 for threatening to "throw, place, project or discharge any destructive device" during a conversation with a representative of a Florida utility. He served a year's probation after a judge signed a discharge certificate in November 2002. In 2015, he reported to police that his van was broken into outside of a gym in Oakland Park FL. He claimed that more than $40,000 worth of items were stolen, including $7150 worth of Donald Trump-brand suits.

Cesar Sayoc is a registered Republican. He has worked, off and on, as a stripper, promoter of "entertainment events" and, most recently, a pizza delivery man. Event promoter Tony Valentine said he hired Mr Sayoc in the 90s to strip on multiple occasions in Ohio, and that he (Sayoc) travelled the country for similar appearances. "He really couldn't find his niche in life, and I guess he found it now," Mr Valentine told the Washington Examiner. "Back in the 90s, he was running around from Minnesota to the Carolinas to Florida. He was like a gypsy."

His cousin, Lenny Altieri, was less charitable in his characterization. "He has been a loner," Mr Altieri told AP. "I know the guy is a lunatic."

We pause now for a brief lesson from the pages of history. For those who didn't catch my reference to the Reichstag Fire (in "Who's behind the pipe bombs?", WWW 24/10/18), the fire that destroyed the German parliament building in Berlin on 27 February 1933, was blamed by Hitler's government on Martinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist. The "intellectually challenged" Dutchman was found near the building and attributed the fire to communist agitators in general, although he claimed he acted alone.

Historians disagree as to whether Mr van der Lubbe acted alone, as he said, to protest the condition of the German working class. The Nazis accused the Comintern of the act. The Communists claimed that the arson was planned and ordered by the Nazis as a false flag operation. The court which tried Mr van der Lubbe ruled that indeed he acted alone. No-one else was involved. Of course.

Now back to my theory... Suppose you were a strategist for the Democratic Party, faced with the task of preventing the Trump Republicans from prevailing in next month's mid-term elections. You've got the lamestream media and (((Barbra Streisand))) and all of Hollywood on your side, and plenty of money to spend, thanks to (((George Soros))). But the migrant caravan approaching the southern border has heightened Americans' fears of the impending invasion, which the Democrats seem inclined to encourage rather than stop. What do you do?

What is needed (you say to yourself) is some kind of physical attack on the leaders of our party. Not an actual assassination of course, and nothing so lame as a burglary at Democratic headquarters. How about something dangerous sent through the mail? Poison, perhaps... or how about a bomb?! Great idea!! But who (you are still talking to yourself) could we get to build a bomb (or twelve bombs) and put them in the mail? Hey, how about someone who lives (yes, lives!) in a van like this?

We return now to Cesar Sayoc's conviction in 2002. Ron Lowy, the attorney who represented Mr Sayoc in the past and now represents his family, told the Clinton News Network's Anderson Cooper that he recalls someone with a "lesser IQ" and "substantial" emotional problems. Lowy said Sayoc has refused medical help for years, despite urging from his family. "He's become indignant, angry, someone who doesn't want to look at his problems."

Mr Lowy said that his former client "never seemed sophisticated enough" to put together a complicated mail bomb scheme and he wouldn't be surprised if Sayoc had someone who "helped prod or encourage him to do this."

But who? Here are a few innocent questions:
* From whom would Mr Sayoc have obtained the addresses -- home addresses -- of people like (((George Soros))) and the Prez? You can't just search the phone book to find them.
* How long would it have taken a semi-skilled person like Mr Sayoc to build not one, not two, but 12 or 14 (and counting) "bombs", and package them together with sachets of milk powder (or whatever it was) and pack them neatly in padded envelopes? A one-man job? Don't think so!
* Did Mr Sayoc actually take not one, not two, but 12 or 14 (and counting) packages to the post office, buy enough stamps to put six on each one and then hand them over the counter without anyone asking him what he was mailing?
* Suspending disbelief, if that's what happened at the post office, how come there are no postmarks on any of the packages... at least not the ones of which photos have been published?
* How did "the authorities" know where and when to look to intercept the suspicious packages before they could be delivered?
[That's enough innocent questions! Ed.]

OK, OK! But you get my point. IMHO, the whole thing reeks of publicity stunt, engineered to get Democrats out to vote in sympathy and anger! I am waiting with bated breath to hear what Mr Sayoc has to say about whether or not he acted alone. Let's just hope that he is brought to trial quickly. Wouldn't want any evil to befall him before he has a chance to speak. Of course that would never happen in America. Oh... Wait... Lee Harvey Oswald... ... ...

More on the moronic pipe bombs

Apparently Walt is not the only one who thinks the allegedly explosive devices supposedly sent to ten leading anti-Trumpers may well be parts of a gigantic hoax. See "Who's behind the pipe bombs?", WWW 24/10/18 and "UPDATE on the pipe bombs hoax (???)", WWW 25/10/18.

Got this a few minutes ago from Blazing Cat Fur, a blog I recommend highly. What burns my ring is that there's no time, between now and the mid-terms, to prove that this is a colossal fraud (or not) and name and shame those responsible for it. As I wrote earlier this morning, the perps' timing is impeccable!

Further reading: "The Pipe-Bombs Story: Another Example of Why No One Trusts the Media", by Andrew J. McCarthy on the National Review website, 24/10/18. Keep in mind that NR is the last refuge of the Never Trumpers in the Republican Party. Even they have their doubts.

UPDATE on the pipe bombs hoax (???)

Waking up to the ayem news -- all the truth the lamestream media cares to share -- I hear that the FBI has revealed the identities of three more intended victims of the same type of pipe bombs sent to (((George Soros))), the Clintons and others earlier this week. See "Who's behind the pipe bombs?", WWW 24/10/18. They are: ex-Veep Joe Biden, Representative "Mad Maxine" Waters, and washed-up actor (and "Fuck Trump!" cheerleader) Bobby DeNiro.

One report ringing in my ears right now says that the feds are "searching a Delaware mail facility" for a suspicious package believed to have been sent to Mr Biden. To me, that means the package has not been found, but that somehow the G-men know it exists and know it's similar to the ones "discovered" yesterday. They are said to look like this.

Notice anything unusual about this package, which was allegedly mailed via the USPS? There's no postmark! Ed. has checked the Net for images of other packages, and has yet to find one with any postmark or other indication of where it was posted. My innocent question: Is it possible that none of the packages was actually entered in the mail stream? Could it be that some or all of them were packaged as we see them and hand-delivered, not to the addressees but to the FBI or other "authorities"?

Why would someone take the time and trouble to build and pack up allegedly explosive devices and then hand them over to the people charged with protecting the Clintons and their friends? Can you say "fake news", boys and girls? How about "hoax"? I knew you could...

VIDEO: True story of Philadelphia baby-killer now a movie

I don't go to the movies any more. Hollywood is churning out so much trash. And it's not even so-bad-it's-funny trash, like Plan 9 From Outer Space. It's just remakes, sequels and prequels like the latest excrescence in the Star Wars series -- franchises well past their sell-by dates being warmed over in hopes of a few quick bucks. And of course it's mostly fiction. Very few documentaries or even dramatized true stories will be found on the silver screen, at least not in my corner of the forest.

But there's always an exception -- a movie worth seeing and perhaps even worth recommending. One such, which made its debut on October 12th in cinemas across America (although not many of them) is Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer, which I'm going to recommend even though the subject matter -- the crimes of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell -- is such as to provoke anger, outrage, perhaps even despair. This movie won't rake in piles of money, but may well be the most important film to be released this year. Here's the trailer.



I first wrote about Kermit Gosnell's many murders, committed under the guise of "reproductive health services", in "How to kill unwanted babies (and make loadsa dough)", WWW 20/3/13. Two months later, after a trial revealed gruesome details which it is no exaggereation to call "horrific", "Kermit the Baby Killer" was found guilty as charged (WWW 13/5/13), and is now serving three consecutive life sentences.

Mr Gosnell (he wasn't really a doctor) may be in prison, but the evil of abortion persists, paid for in large part by public funds -- your tax dollars -- paid to organizations such as Planned Parenthood. These groups say they are promoting women's health and "a woman's right to choose", but are actually funding the medical murder of 1000s of babies -- some of them born alive, as in the Gosnell case -- every day of every month of every year, right across the USA.

This movie, like Mr Gosnell's crimes, won't get much notice in the lamestream media. While the trial was going on, Conor Friedersdorf, writing in The Atlantic, asked why it wasn't being covered more. "The news value is undeniable," he said. "This story has numerous elements any one of which would normally make it a major story. And setting aside conventions, which are flawed, this ought to be a big story on the merits."

What is behind the studied silence of the media is the same aggressive secularism and political correctness that keeps us from even discussing the evils and perversions of our post-Christian society. Nothing is "wrong" any more, because we -- or at least our "progressive thinkers" and opinion-makers -- have lost the ability to distinguish between wrong and right. Whatever your position on abortion, Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer is worth seeing and thinking about. That's why the baby-killers in the abortion industry don't want you to know about it. But now you know. Please share this post by passing on the URL to your neighbours, friends and family.

Further viewing: "Gosnell: The Powerful Story Liberal Media Hopes You Ignore - Katie Petrick & Dr. Duke Pesta"

Who's behind the pipe bombs?

OK, before the Democratic Socialists and Antifa types mob up to lynch folks wearing MAGA hats or waving Confederate flags, let them (and the rest of us) take a cold hard look at what happened today. IMHO there is a real risk of the gullible American public being duped by a false flag operation. If you're not sure what that means, think Reichstag Fire... or you could look it up.

Earlier today, authorities intercepted crude pipe bombs sent to Democratic VIPs and their sponsor and master, (((George Soros))). Besides Mr Soros, those targeted included former Presidents Barack Hussein Obama and Slick Willy Clinton, once and future presidential wannabe Hellery Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder and ex-CIA Director John Brennan. The device targeting Mr Brennan was sent to the New York offices of CNN (the Clinton News Network).

All of the packages were sent via the USPS, and bore the return address of the Washington office of one-time Clinton confidante, Congresswoman (((Debbie Wasserman Schultz))), who led the Democratic National Committee until she screwed up Ms Clinton's campaign so badly that she was dumped. Ms Wasserman-Schultz also received a suspicious package.

The FBI warned that the situation may not be over. "It is possible that additional packages were mailed to other locations," said a spokesthingy for the eminently trustworthy upholders of lawn order. The package sent to mr Soros was detonated in a wood near his Westchester Country mansion. The other packages were sent to an FBI laboratory for analysis. Some media described the explosives as potentially lethal pipe bombs. Some of the packages also contained bags with unidentified white powder.

So... who dunnit? Even though Ms Wasserman-Schultz would undoubtedly be delighted to see Mrs Bill Clinton blown into tiny bits of Hillaryburger, I can't see her as a bombmaker. Leading Democrats have stopped short of pointing the finger of blame at POTUS and/or Republicans and/or the so-called "Alt-Right" (aka "Nazis", "neo-Nazis" and/or "Fascists"). However, they were quick to accuse President Trump of fuelling politically-motivated violence, saying he "condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and actions."

In a joint statement, Senator (((Chuck Schumer))) and Representative Nancy Pelosi said Trump's support for "the neo-Nazis [Aha! There it is. Ed.] who killed a young woman in Charlottesville" and "referring to the free press as the enemy of the people" have created a toxic environment in the country. Stay tuned for the second part of the message (already being voiced by La Clinton on the TV news as I write) which is: "We -- and I mean "I" -- must unite America again, so vote Democrat in next month's elections!"

Forgive me for being cyncial, but I think that's what this was all about. The shock and revulsion of Americans at the march of the Latino hordes through Mexico right up to the border has given the Republicans an enormous boost in the polls, threatening to make the lamestream media's prediction of a Big Blue Wave as wrong in November as it was two years ago. Democratic strategists must have chewed their nails down to the quick thinking of a way to put their gang of socialists and woolly-minded progressives back in the lead. And what did they come up with? "How about attacking ourselves, and reaping a rich harvest of outrage and sympathy?!" Worth a try...

You don't think so? Ask yourself cui bono? Who stands to benefit from an attack on the Clintons and Obamas and the power behind the throne? Not the Republicans! Mr and Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama are out of office now. They are still out there campaigning, but no-one is listening. Hellery's threat to run again in 2020 is not being taken seriously, even in Democratic circles. Mr Holder and Mr Brennan are likewise functus. [Ask a lawyer. Ed.] Ms Wasserman-Schultz was finished even before the 2016 election.

The real threat is (((George Soros))) but he will continue to exercise his influence no matter what, and the chances of actually hurting him are slim and none. Which brings us to the question of whether any serious attacker would actually thing that any of the targets are the sort of people who would receive and open their own mail. The whole thing looks to me like the veriest Gong Show, done with no purpose other than stirring up anti-Trump, anti-Republican sentiment to shore up faltering support for the Democrats in the mid-terms.

I'll give the masterminds behind this piece of theatre credit for one thing, though -- great timing! Polling day for the mid-term elections is November 6th. less than two weeks from today. The chances of the sherlocks at the FBI being able to catch anyone or prove anything between now and then are, like the chances of putting Mr Soros out of action, slim and none. If the Democrats can suppress the growing skepticism and fool most of the undecided voters long enough for them to pull the lever for the Donkey candidates, they might yet pull their nuts out of the electoral fire.

My eyes glazed over

I apologize to loyal readers of WWW for my absence. I have been busy cleaning up the house and garden for the coming winter... cleaning the Clintons out of the gutters and that sort of thing... as well as preoccupied with the vicissitudes of the stock market. [How long have you been waiting to use that word? Ed.] When I get my excrement collated, I will return.

VIDEO: "Pope Paul VI: Patron Saint of Apostates" - so funny but so sad

The Catholic (?) Church is churning out so many new saints these days that keeping track of them is like counting baby spiders. The reasons for the canonization of some of them are as obscure as everything else that comes out of Pope Francis's mouth, but one goal seems to be to legitimize the disastrous Second Vatican Council by making every pope since them (except for John Paul I) a saint. The latest, raised to sainthood last week in spite of the lack of evidence of two miracles or anything else of great note, was Pope Paul VI, the one who let "the smoke of Satan" -- his own words -- into the Church.

Father Celatus, who writes the new "Last Word" column in The Remnant newspaper, composed a delightfully devilish comment, in rhyme and music (the tune is that of "Good King Wenceslas"), which Walt is pleased to share. God save His Holy Church!



Comment from Ed.: The only reason Benedict XVI and Francis haven't been canonized is that they're not dead yet!

VIDEO: "O Cannabis" (new Canadian anthem)

It wasn't headline news in the rest of the world, but the recreational use of marijuana became legal across Canada yesterday. Numerous tickets for DUI and other offences have already been handed out by Inspector Knacker of the Mounties. 71% of Canucks told a pollster they couldn't care less. But it's another feather in the rainbow cap of Prime Minister Just In Trudeau, who made this the centrepiece of his 2015 election campaign. Maybe next year he'll promise to legalize opioids or crystal meth?

Thanks to Agent 6, we have this delightful video of Canada's new national anthem, "O Cannabis".

Book review: "How De Body?", by Teun Voeten

The poke in the ribs to write "War is Africa's natural condition. Can we change that?" (WWW 16/10/18) came from How De Body? (St. Martin's Press, New York, 2002), Dutch journalist Teun Voeten's account of his terrifying journey through the very uncivil "civil" war in Sierra Leone (west Africa) in the late 1990s.

"How de body?" is a customary greeting -- like "How's it going?" -- in Krio, the pidjin widely spoken in Sierra Leone. Mr Voeten apparently chose it as the title of his book because the bodies he saw and photographed -- and they were many -- were in pretty bad shape. His powerful photographs speak volumes about the sad state of Sierra Leone  at the turn of the century, and of the nature of Africa itself. As I said yesterday, war is Africa's natural condition.

The purpose of the author's first trip to west Africa, in 1998, was to photograph and write about the child soldiers who were fighting on both sides of the conflict that had raged in Sierra Leone for nearly a decade. Mere boys (and girls too) like this one.

A scrawny kid like this, when carrying a Kalashnikov, can make a pretty big hole in you, and as the clash between the military junta and ECOMOG -- the West African peacekeepers -- raged around him, Mr Voeten was forced to hide in the bush, fearful of being robbed, tortured and/or killed by drug-crazed, gun-toting "soldiers" of either side.

ECOMOG -- the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group -- was a west African multilateral armed force established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The idea was that separate armies of Africans would work together to make and keep the peace in an African state. ("Nation" is the wrong word to use here. The concept of the nation state doesn't really exist in Africa, divided as it is by tribalism, language and religion.) To no-one's surprise, it didn't work very well, which is why the United Nations eventually felt compelled to involve itself in the conflict.

That didn't work very well either. Mr Voeten tells us that by 2000, "the situation in Sierra Leone...again deteriorated. The 25,000 UN peacekeepers that were stationed in the country...proved to be largely ineffective. Civil war flared up; cease-fires and treaties were broken, and...the fighting has spilled over the border to Guinea and Liberia."

But UN intervention, the globalists and progressives think to this day is better than leaving the Africans to exterminate one another. Hence the UN mission in Mali, which was the subject of yesterday's post.

What's wrong with Africa that bloody conflicts of the kind Teun Voeten saw up close and personal keep recurring? They seem to be unavoidable natural phenomena -- the work of evil "big men", full of ambition and greed, with no moral compass or concept of civilization to guide them. Mr Voeten quotes English cultural anthropologist Paul Richards: "What we are seeing in Sierra Leone is the total collapse of the nation-state. Criminal netyworks rush in to fill the power vacuum, which is an oasis of lawlessness and institutionalized corruption. Those networks have every reason to make sure the state of chaos continues. And vice versa."

Teun Voeten concludes How De Body? by saying that he won't give up on Sierra Leone. "Despite the difficulties," he writes, "I believe there is hope.... Eventually peace will come. ...'We just have to be patient.'"

I understand his feelings. Having lived there for years in the 1990s, I can attest to the saying that Africa gets in your blood ...sometimes literally, but forget about that. It's easy to love the land and the ordinary people, when they are left alone by foreign interventionists and by their own corrupt and cruel leaders.

Where I disagree with Mr Voeten is in thinking that the "big men" will give way to leaders like Nelson Mandela -- he was an exception -- or that the UN and the legions of western do-gooders will ever leave Africans to develop (or not) at their own pace and in their own way. I believe there is no hope for Africa, and that we westerners do Africa and ourselves a disservice by trying to change human nature.

Footnote: The Deutsche Welle website has a report from the World Bank, which sez (headline news!) "Poverty rates remain high in Africa". "Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where the overall number of extremely poor people is increasing rather than decreasing, according to the World Bank's latest Poverty and Shared Prosperity report." No kidding! But don't worry. The white folks at the World Bank believe things can be turned around, with their help of course. Just like Teun Voeten.

War is Africa's natural condition. Can we change that?

Since the end of the colonial era, there has always been war in Africa. With one or two exceptions, such as Botswana, you can't point to a map of sub-Saharan Africa without finding a country that has at some point been wracked by riot, revolution, war or even genocide. It's the nature of the people -- emotional, excitable, easily led and predisposed to mindless and horrendous violence. I know it's politically incorrect to say that, but read the histories of Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Moçambique, both Congos, South Africa -- the list goes on -- and see if that's not right. Check out How De Body by Dutch journalist Teun Voeten (St. Martin's Press, New York, 2002) for a graphic description of how things were in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. We'll come back to that book in another post.

Right now there's a "civil" war going on in the Congo which was formerly known as Zaïre and has its capital at Kinshasa. The government's writ runs only in the capital region. The rest of the country is divided amongst a number of cruel and evil warlords, fighting for control of the immense mineral wealth that includes "blood diamonds". In spite of the efforts of United Nations "peacekeepers", the Congo has never, repeat never known peace since it was "liberated" from the Belgians.

In west Africa, most of which was (and in some ways still is) run by the French, another "civil" war rages in Mali. What? Never heard of it? If you've ever been told to go to Timbuktu, well, that's in Mali. You could look it up. That war has racial and religious overtones (surprised?) with the Muslim Arab(ish) north pitted against the Christian/animist African (read: black) south. The UN stepped in to referee that vicious conflict a couple of years ago, and so far hasn't had much luck keeping the combatants from each other's throats.

In June of this year, Canada's loopy prime minister Trudeau, in yet another act of virtue-signalling at the expense of his people, sent a couple of hundred Canadian troops to Mali, where Canada has no dog in the fight but is going to jump in anyway. The Canadian contingent consists of a few helicopters and support crews, whose task is to medevac other UN soldiers who get caught in the crossfire. So far they've flown exactly two (2) missions, both on 9/11.

Yesterday Maj-Gen. Dave Fraser (Retd), who led Canada's troops in the ill-fated Afghanistan mission, admitted on CTV's Power Play that the Canuck peacekeeping mission in Mali has "no prospect of immediate success." He told host Don Martin, "The political overtones and what's going on in this country and this mission are ugly. This is not going to be short mission." No kidding!

Although Mr Socks promised that Canadian soldiers and airmen (not many female troops could be persuaded to go) would not be placed in harm's way, since they would only be flying medical evacuation missions and providing support from the skies, the likelihood of some poor non-com coming home in a body bag is increasing, as the security situation in the shithole has deteriorated sharply in recent months. Says the retired general, "It’s as bad, if not worse, than what we experienced in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria."

Continuing in mililtary-speak, Maj-Gen. Fraser said, "It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this mission isn’t going in the right direction from a trajectory point of view." He explained that the key issue is a lack of leadership. Despite no-worse-than-usual elections this summer, he said the insurgents are winning the fight on the ground. That's because "Peacekeeping can't be effective without a strong civilian government leadership that’s running the government, that's actually providing oversight for the military and the police forces and that’s not happening fast enough." For "fast enough", read "at all" and that's all ye need to know.

At the end of the day, the general warned, this hurts some people more than others. In a brilliant statement of the obvious, he said, "The local people are the ones who are going to be adversely affected." Can the problem be solved? Yes, says Maj-Gen. Fraser, if the United Nations changes its approach. "The UN's not getting the locals to get the leadership or the women engaged fast enough, and they're going to lose this race." If nothing changes, he said, the situation can only continue to deteriorate. So the answer to Walt's headline question is, errr, probably not. Which begs the question of what we're doing there!

Further reading: "Mal y soit qui Mali pense", 15/1/13. Kudos to Ed. for that brilliant headline, which only a monarchist would get!

Queen of the Franco-phonies loses job but keeps her head

Whatever happened to Michaëllel Jean? That's the question more than one Canadian [How many more? Ed.] has asked about the former Governess-General of Canuckistan, whose term in office expired in 2010, to the relief of Canadians generally and the Liberal government of the day in particular.

As Walt explained in "A Haïtienne who won't be feeling too much pain" (13/1/10), the lovely and fragrant Ms Jean was (supposedly) a "refugee" from Haïti -- this was before the big earthquake -- who came to Canada as a teen and immediately attracted the attention of an older white guy (surprise!) who married her and got her a job at Radio Canada (the French arm of the CBC). Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin named her as the representative of Her Britannic Majesty because she (Ms Jean) was: a black, female "refugee", who was bilingual and a certified member of Canada's chattering classes. Too bad she wasn't disabled, but 5 out of 6 ain't bad.

The big question in 2010 was what to do with Ms Jean after her term as G-G expired? She had acquired a taste for the perqs of the vice-regal style -- the mansion, the limousine, the servants, and her very own regiment of soldiers. Hard to go back to living like a peasant. So favours were called in and, following the disastrous earthquake of 12 January 2010, Madame Jean (as she became) was appointed the United Nations "Special Ambassador for Haïti", to help raise money for the people of that wretched country.

Mme Jean immediately went to, errr, Paris, to establish an office and a residence suitable to her new position and regal lifestyle. After that she appeared on TV a few times -- notably on the CBC, of course -- but if she ever set her dainty feet in the dust of her native land, her visit went unrecorded. Ed. has asked Dr Google who has come up with nothing.

But every cloud has a silver lining. Since she was already comfortably ensconced in Paris, Mme Jean immediately began campaigning for a better job. With the support of both Canada and Québec, she was elected in 2014 as Secretary-General of la Francophonie, an international talking shop which likes to think of itself as the French equivalent of the British Commonwealth. Since the Franco-phony's mission is to talk and talk (in French) and do nothing (in any language), Mme Jean was the perfect fit.

Just as the British Commonwealth has its queen, so la Francophonie now had its queen, or empress... whatever... Mme Jean immediately moved into more palatial digs, racking up queen-sized expenses befitting her status. After all, the surrender-monkeys surely wouldn't want the head of their "organization" to lack anything that the British monarch had, would they?

After four years of wretched excess, Mme Jean's term came to an end this month. To no-one's surprise, Mme Jean refused to go gracefully, and campaigned hard for a second term, even though she was considered a long shot. She appealed to Canada and Québec for their support, and thought she had Canada's ultra-liberal Prime Minister Just In Trudeau -- an ardent feminist and admirer of non-white persons -- on her side.

Sadly for Mme Jean, she was wrong. Last Friday the member nations of la Francophonie, meeting in the well-known French-speaking nation of Armenia [Eh? Ed.], chose a Rwandan, Louise Mushikiwabo, as their new queen/empress/secretary-general. The Rwandan politician said she did not intend to make major changes to the direction of the organization, but she promised more transparency in its spending. Errr, yes....

Some observers have said Canada made a geopolitical calculation in abandoning Jean in favour of the African candidate, hoping it would help its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2020. Mr Socks, however, denied that Canada abandoned Jean in exchange for African or French support for the Security Council bid, saying the government had wanted a second term for Jean.
"But at the same time we recognized — and it’s a question of simple math — that if there’s an African consensus around a particular candidate, we would respect that consensus," said the Canuck PM, who is himself likely to be turfed out in a year's time. "That is simply the way things unfolded." Errr, yes... yes indeed.

VIDEO: The faces of the unhinged mob that is the "Democratic" left

Aren'tcha getting tired of seeing the mob violence on TV -- supporters of a political ideology being attacked, not just verbally but physically, by their opponents for refusing to embrace correct policies and correct thought? Dear readers, we're not talking about fascists stomping communists and Jews. We're talking about the antifa nutjobs assaulting law-abiding citizens, including Congressmen, for such politically incorrect actions as showing supporter for Brett Kavanagh. The Democratic Party has been taken over by hysterical "social democrats", anti-trumpers and other "resisters" who have said, and now shown, that they will stop at nothing to oust the democratically elected President of the United States.

The future promises... or threatens... more of the same. That's the message of a 57-second spot released yesterday by the Republica National Committee. The video features such leading Democrats as Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and "Mad Maxine" Waters (D-CA), former Attorney General Eric Holder, and, of course, Hellery Clinton.



What you saw are scenes of an unhinged mob, incited to violence by the champions of democracy and free speech... as long as you agree with them. If you want to hand the reigns of power to those people, vote Democratic in next month's mid-term elections. If not, don't be intimidated! For sanity, law and order, vote Republican!

Disclaimer from Ed.: Walt has received no financial or other consideration from the Republicans or anyone else for posting this message.

Further reading:
"Rap Sheet: ***594** Acts of Media-Approved Violence and Harassment Against Trump Supporters", Breitbart News, 5/7/18
"A Crush Of New Polls Show Democrats In A Free Fall", by Rod Thomson on Dr Rich Swier's website, 10/10/18.

Why the Dow and S&P keep rising and Canadian markets suck

Canadian readers who play the stock markets are painfully aware that their portfolios of Canuck stocks are not keeping up with inflation, whereas investments in Donald Trump's America keep going up and up. Before the bell this morning, the Dow stood at 26,430.57 while the TSX languished at 15,854.05, in spite of the frenzy for cannabis stocks and the generally good economic numbers coming out of the Great No-longer-white North.

Why is this? George Athanassakos, a professor of finance and the Ben Graham Chair in Value Investing at the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business, has the answer. He calls it "the Trudeau effect". According to Prof. Athanassakos, statistics measuring employment, production and the like paint a picture of the economy as it is. Today's picture may be rosy enough, he says, but investors are thinking about tomorrow and the next day, trying to predict whether things will get better or worse. And when they look at the policies and actions of Just In Trudeau's Liberal government, they are not encouraged, so they don't pile into an "iffy" market.

The professor's thesis is nicely summed up in "The 'Trudeau Effect' dragging down Canada's stock markets just got much, much worse", published in Canada's Financial Post today. It's so good that I'm going to repost the whole thing, hoping that the Post and the prof won't mind. [We don't make any money from WWW -- not one red cent! Ed.] Here `tis. The emphasis is mine.

A few months ago I wrote in these pages about the “Trudeau effect,” my term for the serious underperformance of the Canadian stock market vis-à-vis the American markets since the election of the federal Liberal government under Justin Trudeau.

The differential market performance has become even more pronounced since I wrote that article, especially in the last three months. Over the last two years, as of the end of September 2018, State Street’s SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (ticker: SPY), which is designed to track the S&P 500, outperformed its Canadian equivalent, the iShares S&P TSX 60 Index ETF (ticker: XIU) by about 11.5 per cent on an annual basis. But from July to September 2018, we have seen the U.S. market index outperform the Canadian stock index by a whopping 28.8 per cent annualized.

One might ask: Why look at the stock market and not the performance of the economy? Indeed, Canada’s economic performance is one of the best in the G7 while the stock market has been a laggard. So what is a better gauge of successful management of the economy and the country? Should economic performance not be highly correlated with the stock market?”

In reality, the stock market discounts the future not the current economic performance. And Canada’s future looks less than clear under the stewardship of this Liberal government.

Trudeau and his ministers have made it clear they want corporations to become benevolent organizations that put workers before shareholders. They favour taxing corporations and the rich, and adding regulatory impediments and red tape to corporate activity. They are big supporters of income redistribution as opposed to making the pie bigger for everyone. They want to regulate the economy and nudge corporations to submit to the Liberal government’s social views and economic philosophy.

Their policies take away economic entrepreneurship and wealth creation and replace it with handouts to every significant lobby and activist group. The Liberal government increasingly seems not to understand how people get jobs and how they get by, and how heavily favouring environmental issues stirred up by activists over economic concerns takes jobs away.

There’s an old saying that if you’re not a communist at the age of 20 you haven’t got a heart and if you’re still a communist at the age of 40, you haven’t got a brain. Canada today seems to be run by politicians in their 40s behaving like they’re in their 20s. Focusing only on the environment or on social engineering at the expense of working families is elitist. And Canadians are getting the sense that they are governed by a bunch of idealistic and dogmatic college students convinced they will save the world.

The Liberals have crossed swords with powerful countries. They have antagonized the United States, Russia, China, India and Saudi Arabia, just to mention a few. But a small country like Canada has to co-operate with powerful countries, not sit and judge them disapprovingly from some moral high horse. And progress takes time. Improvements to society and the world happen incrementally, not instantaneously.

When a democratically elected majority government ends up following policies driven by activists, it is neglecting its larger mission and mandate and that will eventually hurt the economy. This is what the stock market is anticipating.

Footnote: The photo of Mr Socks making cow eyes at George Soros did not appear in the Post!

Soap opera review: "North of 60"

And now for something completely different... I've been meaning for some time to write about North of 60, a soap opera ["mystery drama series", please. Ed.] about the joys and trials of life in the fictional village of Lynx River, in Canada's Northwest Territories. Agent 3 spent "an eternity" (actually six months) working amongst the native people in that general area and recommended the show, on which I'm now hooked.

Please note that in this post I'll use the abbreviation "FN" to refer to the people Americans and Canadians used to call "Indians", before that term became politically incorrect. "FN" stands for "First Nations" which is what the indigenous people north of the border want to be called, in preference to "Native Canadians" or "aborigines" or anything else. Except of course for the Métis and Inuit, the people formerly known as "Eskimos". [That's enough political correctness. Ed.]

North of 60 originally aired on Canada's state-owned broadcaster, the CBC, from 1992 through 1997. Apart from props like a fax machine, it's still a pretty accurate depiction of an FN settlement in the sub-Arctic northern boreal forest -- north of 60° north latitude, hence the title. The settlement of Lynx River, in an FN reserve (= what Americans call a "reservation") is supposedly in the Dehcho Region of Canada's Northwest Territories. In fact the series was filmed in Bragg Creek AB, west of Calgary.

Lynx River is populated and managed mostly by FNs, with the help of a white manager, one or two white healthcare workers, and a white Mountie who has a FN partner, Michelle Kenidi (played by Tina Keeper), who is the star of the show.

Created by Wayne Grigsby and Barbara Samuels, North of 60 was originally positioned as a light-hearted show, the CBC's answer to Northern Exposure on CBS. Everyone knows Canucks can't do sitcoms [They're great at sketch comedy though. Ed.], so the show quickly became a drama (although it has its funny moments), exploring themes of poverty, alcoholism, cultural preservation, conflict over land settlements, and the exploitation of natural resources. Mixed in with all that are the greed, jealousy, anger, passion and other traits share by human beings of every colour.

In the picture above are some of the main characters -- six FNs, two whities:
Top row: Peter Bockstael as Corporal Brian Fletcher, the white Mountie; Tina Keeper; Tracey Cook as Sarah Birkett, a nurse in the first season, who marries the chief, Albert Golo, with disastrous consequences; Tom Jackson, as Peter Kenidi, Michelle's brother and later band chief.
Bottom row: Gordon Tootoosis, as Albert Golo, the villain of the piece, who makes J.R. Ewing look like a mischievous boy; Jimmy Hermon as Joe Gomba, a wise elder; Dakota House as Trevor 'Tee Vee' Tenia, the obnoxious smart-aleck who matures well; Wilma Pelly as Elsie Tsa Che, Tee Vee's wise and kind grandma.

Other characters included Lubomir Mykytiuk, a Ukrainian-Canadian, as Gerry Kisilenko (restaurant/general store/ motel owner), Simon R. Baker as Charlie Muskrat (young boy experiencing growing pains), and Michael Horse, as Andrew One Sky, an American Indian psychologist and counsellor who eventually gets into a relationship with Michelle Kenidi. Adam Beach and Tantoo Cardinal also appeared, and a large number of FNs round out the cast. Check IMDb for full lists of cast and credits.

Throughout its six-year run, the acting in North of 60 was well above average, and sometimes (Gordon Tootoosis, Tina Keeper and Dakota House) excellent. Almost all of the FNs are credible without playing to stereotypes. And why not? They don't have to act; they're just being themselves! Wilma Pelly quickly became a fan favourite because everyone, not just FNs, has a grandma like that.

The exception, IMHO, is Michael Horse. Perhaps being of mixed ancestry -- he's of Yaqui-Apache-Swedish-Hispanic descent -- explains it. He comes across as the "noble savage", not just smarter and better-educated than the others but better-looking too... and knows it. Really he just warmed up his character from The Legend of the Lone Ranger.

Other actors who fell short of the mark -- IMHO again -- Tracey Cook and Lubomir Mykytiuk. Like Mr Horse, Ms Cook is too good to be true. Or maybe I should say the role is improbable at best. What would a blonde, blue-eyed ice queen be doing up there in the back of beyond, in a place where she had to build her own house out of canvas, brush and logs? Just not believable. As for Mr Mykytiuk, his English is just too perfect. Not one "Yak she mash!" But that's just MHO... again.

In spite of a few flaws in the characterization and acting, it's possible for even a non-Northerner to relate to all the characters. Agent 3 says North of 60 looks, sounds and feels "pretty authentic". Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's a thriller, and sometimes it's a whodunnit. But always it shows real people with real problems and real emotions, struggling to get on with life in hard circumstances. I give it ***** (five stars).

North of 60 is still on TV, airing every day on Canada's APTN (Aboriginal People's Television Network). You can also find bits and pieces by searching YouTube, although watching isolated episodes is not as good as binge-watching a whole bunch, in order, because, hey, it's a soap opera! You might also try Showcase or other streaming services.

Footnotes:
Tina Keeper served one term as Member of Parliament for the riding of Churchill -- the land where the polar bears roam. She was elected in 2006 as the Liberal Party candidate, and served as the Official Opposition's Critic for Public Health and Canadian Heritage and as Special Advisor for Aboriginal Outreach. She was defeated in the 2008 general election.
Gordon Tootoosis was made a Member of the Order of Canada on 29 October 29 2004. His citation recognizes him as an inspirational role model for Aboriginal youth. It notes that as a veteran actor, he portrayed memorable characters in movie and television productions in Canada and the United States. He died on 5 July 2011.

VIDEO: Bernier's People's Party of Canada 2019 campaign ad

As reported here on September 14th, Canadian Member of Parliament and disaffected Conservative Maxime Bernier, has formed his own party, the Parti Populaire du Canada / People's Party of Canada, and hopes to field candidates for the federal election (due in a year) in all 338 ridings. Being a good Boy Scout [Do they still exist? Ed.], Mad Max has already commissioned a series of TV ads for the campaign. Here's the first of them.



Dear reader... what you just watched was a SATIRE, done by the inimitable Jill Colton. But like all good satire, it is based on the truth. At least two of Walt's agents have already joined the PPC. If you're a Canadian and you like Max's ideas (and reject the Trudeau's Liberals and Scheer's alt-Liberals), go and do ye likewise!

UPDATED: VIDEO: Government-sponsored refugees trash Toronto hotel

This is an update to "Ungrateful 'refugees' destroy Canadian hotels", posted here on August 3rd. The video included with that one was produced by The Rebel media, and revealed the shocking way in which Syrian "refugees", brought to Canada by the Liberal government, trashed hotels in which they were put up, at Canuck taxpayers' expense.

Trouble with that video was that it had evidence, in the form of letters from hotel managers, but not much by way of actual photos or videos. In September, a trio of residents of Scarborough ON (aka Scarberia, the easterly part of Toronto) decided to go and have a look for themselves, to see if the troubles with the third-worlders had perhaps been exaggerated. Here's what they saw at the Radisson Hotel in Scarborough.



Some of the "refugees" sent to Toronto had been put up in dorms at some of Toronto's universities and colleges, but had to move out by August 9th, so the premises could be cleaned up -- no small task -- so as to be ready for students arriving to begin the new term. So the progressive Muslim-lovers running the country (and the city of Toront) pressured more hotels into taking more of the wretched refuse who Prime Minister Trudeau promised to welcome in his "tweet heard round the third world" following the election of President Trump.

The hotels were told they would be stuck with the dirty migrants for only one month, or two months max, as "permanent accommodation" would surely be found by the end of September. ("Permanent accommodation" for people whose right to remain in Canada has yet to be determined. How strange is that?!) Well, the end of September came a week ago, and the hotels were told that, errr, the unwelcome guests would have to stay another month, or two months max, because... well, you get the idea.

But don't worry, the hoteliers were told, all expenses will be covered by the government. Whether that includes the expense of cleaning, disinfecting and fumigating remains to be seen. Also to be determined is the question of compensation for the millions of dollars in business being lost when people check TripAdvisor and heed the warning to avoid the hotels which have been turned into hostels, with all that term implies.

UPDATED 12/10/18: CBC News reports that the Radisson Hotel at 55 Hallcrown Place, in the 401 and Victoria Park area of Scarberia (NE Toronto) was targeted in an arson attack on October 2nd. The hotel is "home" to 577 "refugees", none of whom was hurt or forced to leave by the small fire in a corridor, which was quickly put out. One "refugee" from Sudan said she believed the hotel was targeted because of the refugees staying there. "I know there are some small groups...," she said, "[who] are saying, 'They are taking our money, they are taking our taxes', just to give them a better life.'" Wonder if TripAdvisor or Trivago know about this.

Senate confirms Kavanaugh, another win for POTUS!

By a 50-48 margin, the United States Senate has voted to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.



Further comment will follow, but you know already know what I'm going to say... right?

Worth watching: "How the left lost the Kavanaugh fight", Tucker Carlson on Fox News, 5/10/18. "Activists no longer try to convince anyone of anything. They just scream and bully."

VIDEOS: Trump emphasizes weakness of Ford's testimony. FBI report to find "no corroboration". Walt predicts Kavanagh confirmation

Triple headline today because I want to tie everything together so the inevitability of the confirmation of Brett Kavanagh as the next Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States will be apparent.

Let's start with President Trump's speech Tuesday night at a rally in Southaven MS. In the style of a trial lawyer addressing a jury, Mr Trump summarized the key questions and answers in the sworn testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, line by line, to show the total inadequacy of her recollection of the alleged assault for which Judge Kavanagh is being pilloried by the anti-Trumpers (whose real agenda is protecting Roe v. Wade and "abortion rights"). In case you missed it, here's the clip they're all talking about.



For speaking plainly and forcefully about the gaping holes in Ms Ford's story, POTUS is being criticized for being insensitive, callous, misogynist, yada yada yada. A Republican senator called his remarks "just plain wrong", without specifying (because she couldn't) what was wrong with what he said. Here's the response from the President's Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.



This morning it appears that President Trump was not wrong to suggest that the whole Ford assault affair, the whole he-said-she-said circus is nothing more than a Democratic Party tactic to delay the confirmation of Judge Kavanagh, and, in spite of all the sturm und drang, a dog that won't hunt.

The New York Times claims to have spoken late last night with an unnamed official (surprised?) who was briefed on the FBI's investigation into the allegations of Ms Ford (and two others), who told them that the report, now in the hands of the White House, found no corroboration of the sexual assault allegations.

The unnamed official said the FBI contacted ten people but interviewed nine in total, and that the White House concluded that the interviews didn't support the allegations. The Wall Street Journal, citing people who it said were "familiar with the matter" also reported that the White House found no corroboration.

Seems to me that should be about the end of it, even for the Republican ladies and Senator Flakey. Ms Ford has had her 15 minutes of fame. The Democrats got their investigation, and it came up with nothing. Nada. Zip. It will be hard, now, for the doubters to vote against confirmation, which could come as soon as the day after tomorrow. Lifetime pct .988.

Further viewing: Down in The Remnant Underground, Michael Matt has a wholly different take on the Kavanaugh nomination hearings. What he calls the "witch hunt" is all about one thing: liberal America's commitment to human sacrifice and moral chaos. Watch and think!

Right-wing party ousts Liberals in Québec

Walt here, back home after five days touring (not tearing) through les Cantons de l'Est du Québec. It's good to be back in a place where I don't have to think before I speak [or write! Ed.]. How I envy people like my guide, Poor Len Canayen, who can switch effortlessly from French to English and back again.

Another person who can do that is Chantal Hébert, a columnist for the Toronto Red Star and regular guest on the "At Issue" segment of CBC's The National. Around the middle of September, in the middle of the Québec provincial election campaign, Mme Hébert told Agent 3 that immigration to la Belle Province and the resultant anti-immigrant backlash was a non-issue in this election. She called it "the dog that didn't bark."

The issue was raised by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) led by millionaire businessman François Legault, who promised that his party would cut the number of immigrants coming into the province from 50,000 to 40,000 per year. And it would force them to take an assessment of their knowledge of the French language and of Québec values within three years in order to obtain a Quebec Selection Certificate, which they need in order to get permanent residency from the federal government.

Those vows brought M Legault into conflict other provincial party leaders. The Liberals predictably accused him of not respecting diversity and stirring up divisions. The Parti Québécois accused him of not going far enough.

The lamestream media dismissed the idea of a values and language test as a warmed-up version of the proposed Charter of Québec Values which (they told us) cost the Parti Québécois the provincial election of 2014, won by the moderately progressive Liberals. There's no anti-immigrant sentiment in Québec, they told us. Québécois are just as tolerant as other Canadians, who, as is well known, love immigrants, espeically the bogus "refugees" and asylum-seekers who are crossing the border between Vermont and Québec illegally, at St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, at the rate of over 1000 per month, assisted by the Mounties who carry their bags and direct them to the welfare office. It was to that part of Québec -- the Eastern Townships -- that we went to gauge the sentiment of real habitants, not the chattering classes of Montréal.

In our travels through the ridings (electoral districts, for our American readers) of Brome-Mississquoi, Orford, Sherbrooke, Granby, Saint-François and Mégantic, we saw lots of signs and posters for the CAQ, some for the other parties (notably Québec Solidaire in Sherbrooke) and very few for the Liberals. The people we talked to -- no taxi drivers or media types! -- were surprisingly unemotional, but pretty sure that change was coming, in the form of a CAQ government.

Why? Not because of the economy, which several told us was doing well enough, under the Liberals, but because of "the values thing". No-one actually said "Québec aux Québécois!", but that was the underlying sentiment, as I read it. That part of Québec, sometimes called l'Estrie, went solidly Liberal in 2014. It contains the largest percentage of anglophones (English speakers) outside of Montréal's west island, but even they seemed in the mood for change, so much so that we couldn't even start an argument, let alone get some bets down!

So... it came as no surprise to Poor Len and yr obdt servant that the CAQ swept l'Estrie and virtually all of Québec, apart from the aforesaid west island. There are 125 seats in the Québec Assemblée Nationale. Final count (as of this writing, subject to a couple of recounts): CAQ 74 (a comfortable majority); Liberals 32; Québec Solidaire 10; Parti Québécois (the former separatists) 9. Turns out the dog that didn't bark chose to bite instead!

As with the American election of 2016 and the Ontario election of this past June, the pollsters and meeja pundits got it WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! They were so sure, right through mid-day yesterday, that the "divisive" CAQ, led by a millionaire businessman (cf. Donald Trump and Doug Ford) couldn't win, that their wildest prediction was that the Liberals might be reduced to a minority government.

The looks on the "experts"' faces reminded me of nothing so much as the long pusses displayed by Joy Behar and all the rest on American TV on The Night of the Trump. I hope someone is putting together a highlight reel showing the moment when the CBC realized the CAQ was going to win. It was at 8:19 PM EDT -- 19 minutes after the polls closed. Just In Trudeau and federal Liberals take note -- YOU'RE NEXT!

The case of the disappearing library books

Ed. here. Walt returned early this morning from a tear through les Cantons de l'Est du Québec in the company... dangerous company... of Poor Len Canayen. He dropped on my desk a sheaf of scribbled notes which is going to take me some time to decipher. While you wait, here's something to think about....

Have you visited your local public library lately? If so, did you find any new books to read? I know new books are being written, for I see reviews in any number of publications, excluding the New York Times Review of Books, which I never read. And one could, if one were rich, buy them online. (Finding a bricks-and-mortar book store would be more difficult.) But the selection of new books in our public libraries becomes smaller by the week. I asked a librarian last week, "Have you stopped buying books?" Her dismaying reply was "No. It just looks like it."

At the library to which I refer (not "reference"!), the space formerly given to displays of new books has been turned over to displays of low-brow fiction, e.g. the latest works of Danielle Steele, and of new CDs and DVDs. Books, particularly non-fiction, seem to be on the way out. Print isn't dead. It's just not being made as readily available to the public.

I thought at first this saddening phenomenon might be peculiar to out-of-the-way places like Fort Mudge, but complaints are emanating from other, larger burgs. A WWW reader from Idaho sent us the Letters page of the Wall Street Journal of 7/9/18, with a letter from Nicholas A. Vlisides, of Northville MI, highlighted. Mr Vlisides writes:

As a full-time lecturere at a local university in Michigan, I can confirm Danny Heitman's lament on the elimination of books in libraries ("Don't Close the Book on Books", op-ed, Aug. 30). Last year, to my surprise and dismay, I entered our library in search of texts on economics and found half the shelves empty. When I asked what had happened, the librarian told me that the facility was undertaking a program to eliminate all the books that had not been "checked out" in a long time. Books written by Galbraith, Friedman and Sanuelson were missing. Further, I was told that the same procedure was being undertaken for literature, music, science, philosophy and more. I was keenly saddened and voiced my opinion that books need not be sacrificed for technology, but it was too late.

The elimination of books for internet research is a Faustian bargein and I am sorry for those who may never know the pleasure in the discovery of a book not cited by an internet source. I'm reminded of a Mark Twain quote: "The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read." Internet literacy isn't a substitute for book knowledge, and our society is the poorer for it.

Well said, sir! I trust you have made your opinion known to your local library board, and encourage Walt's readers to do the same.

Footnote: I hope readers will appreciate my self-restraint in not making a pun involving a two-syllable word for a piece of furniture in which books are kept.