Examine the photo closely; what you see is what you get

@ElijahSchaffer, "Reporter. Podcaster. Film Producer. Fact Checker" [and hockey fan, apparently - a good thing. Ed.], tweeted this recently.

It's comical at this point how global leaders demand a new world order in front of a swastika.

But its Kanye West we are supposed to be worried about.

Walt scraped this from Blazing Cat Fur. Thanks, Arnie!

BCF also has a photo allegedly taken during an anti-Covid-lockdown demonstration in Shanghai, where young people, born after Tienanmen Square, are fighting back against the ChiComms. 

Why "Fuck Trudeau"? Because the Emperor of Canuckistan loves vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and police state measures to control the peasants. 

It may be, though, that the Chinese protesters heard about Mr Socks' support of freedom of expression and the right to protest, mentioned here on Wednesday.

Walt sez, good luck to the Chinese protesters. They'll need it!

Sign of the times in Canuckistan

Seen today on Blazing Cat Fur

VIDEOS: Fed-up Canuck truckers' protest rolls on to Ottawa

It usually takes a hockey-related controversy to get the Canadian sheeple off  their duffs and into the streets, especially in the dead of winter. That happens about once in a generation. But this past weekend, the phlegmatic Canucks apparently reached the boiling point -- fed up with rising gas prices, inflation, Wuhan flu lockdowns, and, above all, vaccine mandates.

Worldwide Freedom day normally passes unnoticed in Canuckistan, but this year was different. The sixth edition of the Worldwide Rally for Freedom saw 1000s of people gathered at Parc Lafontaine in Montréal, in -30 C weather to march for freedom. We have video.  

 

Walt hopes you noticed, at about 4:00, the flag being waved by some marchers. It is the flag of Le Vieux de `37, aka Le Patriote, whose image you will find elsewhere on WWW. That flag is to Canadians -- French-Canadians at least -- what the Gadsden flag is to patriotic Americans.

In Toronto the Good, other flags were being waved, notably the Maple Leaf Flag (sometimes held upside down, the universal signal of distress) and banners reading "Fuck Trudeau", at a similar rally which began at Queen's Park. Again, we have video.

No mainstream politicians were sufficiently in favour of freedom to turn out, but our old friend Maxime Bernier, leader of the People's Party of Canada, joined the demonstrators in Toronto. Heeeeeere's Max!

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more. Much more! Last weekend saw the beginning in Canada's west of an "On to Ottawa" motorcade of Canadian truck drivers, incensed by the Trudeau Liberals' latest control freakery -- a mandate that all truckers entering or re-entering Canada, regardless of citizenship, be tested for the Kung flu. Without exception. And this in spite of the dire economic implications of further restrictions on cross-border traffic.

The Freedom Convoy [Walt made that up! Ed.] gathered steam [diesel, surely. Ed.] as it rolled eastward through the prairie provinces, but really made the libtard pols (including those in the the Cuckservative Party) sit up and whine when it hit Ontario yesterday. 

With the main group passing through Thunder Bay and heading across northern Ontario to the nation's capital, another group geared up [Geddit? Ed.] in southern Ontario, like a snowball starting in Windsor and gaining more and more participants as it headed east through the Niagara Region into the so-called Golden Horseshoe. Here's more video.

At first the lickspittle media (which includes all the print and broadcast media with the possible exception of the Post newspapers) poo-pooed the truckers' demonstration, claiming that they represented only a small fraction of those employed in the industry. 

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface went in front of the cameras to say that the demonstrators and the 1000s of supporters now lining highways and overpasses to show their support, don't represent the way most Canadians feel, but are just a "fringe minority" who hold "unacceptable views". No kidding. Watch this.

  

The nerve of it! The sheer unmitigated gall! But the truth will out. So scared is Mr Socks of this "finge minority" that he annouonced today that he had "been in contact" with someone who might have the dreaded virus that -- even though he had not tested positive -- he thought it better to isolate himself in his little cottage in the shadow of Rideau Hall, for the next five days.

That means that His Excellency -- loathed by Canadians even more than was his father -- will not be on hand to meet or listen to the truckers when they arrive on Saturday. Imagine that. But Max will be there!

If you're a fed-up frostback -- vaccinated or unvaxxed -- and can get to Ennui-on-the-Rideau this weekend, you're welcome to join the fringe. Masks will not be required. Bring your own flag. 

UPDATED: Feds mull "civil rights" charges after Rittenhouse acquittal

A Wisconsin jury has acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges arising from the killing of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz during a "mostly peaceful protest" in Kenosha WI in August of 2020. 

The "protests" erupted after a white police officer shot a black man. The now-customary riots, vandalism and looting ensured, prompting an online call for armed patriots to come to the city to protect lives and property. 

Mr Rittenhouse, who answered the call, is white. The three people he shot were/are also white. Nevertheless, this being America, you can expect further rioting, vandalism, looting ["reparations shopping", shurely. Ed.] and general mayhem. not just in Kenosha but across the country, in the name of "justice" for those who were shot. Businesses are already boarding up their windows. 

I'm happy for Mr Rittenhouse, but caution him and his defence team to keep their guard up. The federal Department of Justice has yet to weigh in, so expect charges under the Civil Rights Act to be filed very shortly. Lifetime pct .991.

UPDATE ADDED 20/11/21: As Walt predicted (lifetime pct .992), Democrats are now calling  on the Brandon Department of Justice for Some to consider federal charges against Kyle Rittenhouse. Within hours of the announcement of the not guilty verdict, Rep. (((Jerry Nadler))) (D-NY), who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted his call for a federal review.

Many of the "progressive activists" (read: loonie Social Justice Whiners), who so nonchalantly and callously dismiss the damage done to people and property by BLM and Antifa, support Mr Nadler’s call for a federal investigation. 

Why? Because Democrats are so accustomed to things going their way that they can't handle it when they lose. Legal Insurrection warns Mr Nadler to step away from his emotions over the verdict, and think about the repercussions of pushing the narrative that Kyle Rittenhouse was a white supremacist who violated the civil rights of his attackers. 

The Democrats, from Sleepy Joe on down, and their propagandists in the controlled media failed to make that case. And a basic lesson of military strategy is that you shouldn't reinforce failure!

It's over!

I and about eleventy million other people witnessed yesterday's... errr... proceedings in and around the Capitol. As "mostly peaceful" protests go, this one lived up to its name. 

Although one woman was killed, supposed by "law enforcement", I didn't see a whole lot of violence. For the most part I saw protesters "engaging" with "law enforcement" -- shouting at them, haranguing them, reasoning with them. And I wondered how many of the assorted national guardsmen, cops and rent-a-cops had misgivings about confronting the protesters, all for the sake of making sure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got formally elected, not just anointed by the media.

This morning questions are being asked by the usual suspects -- SJWs, the lamestream media, the anti-police gang -- about how the protesters were able to mass on Capitol Hill, and gain entry into the Capitol itself, so easily. The suggesion is that it was some sort of conspiracy between President Trump,  his supporters and "law enforcement" to stage a paramilitary coup. As if!

Whether the demonstration was orchestrated or not, it proved to be counter-productive. I understand where the protesters were coming from. Oh boy, do I understand! But what, I wonder, did the protesters think would happen? Did they really think occupying the Capitol would keep the solons from meeting... forever? Did they think "taking it to the street" would convince some of the anti-Trump senators and congresspersons to vote in favour of the objections filed by Senator Cruz et al?  Fat chance!

If anything, the protest appears to have changed the mind of some Republicans. When the objection to the counting of the votes of the Arizona electors came to a vote around 2200 EST, there were only six (6) "ayes" and 93 nays. The objections and horseshit-laden speeches continued into the wee hours, but only for the sake of form, and the vote of the Electoral College was duly confirmed. 

For me, the day and the result were best summed up by Senator Lindsey Graham when he said, "It's over!" So it is.

I note that President-elect Biden -- for now we can actually call him that -- decided last week to skip the traditional Inauguration Day parade. I wonder if he and his handlers were truly afraid for his security, or is that they were afraid of the optics of taking a victory lap following a rigged election which half the American people believe they stole by fraud and deceit.

Of course there was fraud and cheating, said some "honorable senators" last night. But there was no evidence (they said) that it was "massive". Just a little bit, you understand. Not enough to make any real difference. So that's OK then... they said. I had the sense that some who said such things were really acknowledging that the Democrats were better at cheating than the Republicans... this time! 

As they say in Lake Wobegon: What now, do ya think? I'll tell ya what. With the run-off election for both of Georgia's Senate seats now decided in favour of the Dumbocrats (albeit by narrow margins), the US of A is in for four years of affirmative action (read: reverse racism), extreme environmentalism (read: green-scam), tax-and-spend budgets, Antifa riots, weakening of "law enforcement", and all the other liberal "progressive" policies that have made California what it is today. God save the United States of America! 

Further reading: "Pelosi Appoints AOC, Other 'Squad' Members to Powerful Oversight Committee; Leftists Promptly Reveal Radical Agenda", by Mike Miller, on RedState, 6/1/21.

White antifa anarchists have taken over the BLM "protests"

Ed. here. Poor Len thinks that Walt left the picture we posted yesterday where it could be seen easily as a way of putting us off his trail. In reality, Len thinks, Walt is not in the wilderness, but inside the bubble around the Scotiabank Centre in Toronto, where Canada's team (the Montréal Canadiens) are trying to get through the NHL "play-ins", to advance to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Only the hockey players, their support workers and a handful of media types are allowed inside, so if Walt has found a hiding place in the rafters -- "The Phantom of the Arena"? -- he's not about to tell us! Stay tuned...

Meanwhile, it falls to me [and Poor Len! Len.] to fill this space, and not with irrelevant funny stuff, as Walt made clear in a rather scathing message two days ago. Today I've chosen "How white radicals hijacked Portland's protests", by Michael Tracey, on the UnHerd blogsite, 4/8/20. As before, space doesn't allow us to repost the whole article, so I've selected a few trenchant excerpts. If you wish to read the whole thing, click on the link above.

The overwhelmingly white, anarchist activists who populate the ongoing protests in Portland...[have] discovered a work-around to arrogate moral cover for whatever insurrectionary upheaval they would have been ideologically committed to fomenting anyway. The Left/liberal political and media class is deeply invested in preserving the untouchable sanctity of "BLM". So by fusing themselves in the public mind with this ambiguously-defined protest movement, or even putting themselves at the vanguard, the anarchist whites insulate themselves from the type of scrutiny that might ordinarily be prompted by activists whose ultimate goal is the overthrow of the state....

To characterise what's gone on in Portland as a traditional "protest" is a misnomer, however. Pay a visit to the area around the Federal Courthouse in Downtown after midnight and you are greeted by brigades of black-clad "Antifa" foot soldiers — geared up in full body armour, complete with industrial-grade gas masks, shields and even customised radio systems. Being overwhelmingly white, they are strategic about public presentation: the speakers appointed to address the nightly "rallies" are almost exclusively black, as "amplifying black voices" to whom whites must dutifully "listen" is a central tenet of the Summer 2020 protest ethos.

If there is any foundational idea operative in Portland, it's to keep a frenetic confrontation with the state going for as long as possible, so as to maximise the chances that an incendiary incident might occur and catalyse a larger insurrectionary uproar — similar to the killing of George Floyd in May, which sparked nationwide riots. One fateful tear gas canister fired into the temple of a "protester" could reverberate rapidly across the country; "Portland solidarity" actions have already sprouted up as far away as Richmond, Virginia....

When protesters chant "NO GOOD COPS IN A RACIST SYSTEM", the "system" to which they are referring is the foundational system of governance of the United States — again, deemed inherently "fascist" and "white supremacist", and therefore impossible to reform. As one sign wielded by a protester declared: "The Revolution will not come by asking or voting"....

A strange feature of this protest movement is that one would barely know Barack Obama, a black man elected president in a majority white nation, ever existed. Not that Obama's mere election was supposed to have eradicated every last trace of racial inequities in the United States: of course it wasn't. But you'd think it would at least inform popular conceptions of the role of race within the nation's elite power structure. Instead, Obama seems to have been simply "erased" — the significance of his tenure not even worth mentioning. Are we to believe that a country so intractably defined by "white supremacy" — a totally uncontested truism among protesters and their media allies — nonetheless elected a black man not once, but twice? Apparently....

Further reading: "Riotous BLM Protesters Suddenly Realize They're All White People", Babylon Bee, 5/8/20. Don't forget, folks, that the BB is "Christian satire", to be taken cum grano salis... but not too large a grain. Truth is stranger than fiction!

Black Lives Matter in Toronto the Good

No, Virginia, Black Lives Matter/BLM is not just an American "thing", or even a "Black thing". The leftist-directed and leftist-funded "protests" following the death of George Floyd (see "Featured Post") has spread across the World's Longest Quasi-Undefended Border to several cities in Canuckistan, notably Toronto, where Whites are the beleaguered minority.

From what was known a century ago as "Toronto the Good" [because you couldn't get a drink there. Ed.] comes news of a "peaceful protest" this past weekend in which statues of the founder of Ryerson University (instrumental in planning residential schools for aboriginal children), Sir John Eh Macdonald (same, and anti-French too) and King Edward VII (symbol of colonism) were painted pink, to call attention to the usual laundry list of grievances.

A Black Lives Matter - Toronto news release says the statues were "artistically disrupted" in "support of demands to defund the police, invest in communities and create emergency safety services that do not harm Black and Indigenous people." Rodney Diverlus, co-founder of the group in Toronto, said people (about 40, judging from the videos) had come out for an "art-based demonstration," whose aim, he said, was to make a point about racism and police violence. He added that Anyone angered by the defacing of public monuments was misguided.

Toronto cops, apparently among the "misguided", charged three people, none of whom are visibly Black, with three counts of mischief under $5000 and conspiracy to commit a summary offence. "We understand we respect the right to protest, but in this incident, where we have statues and monuments that have been vandalized and defaced, the appropriate charges have been laid in this case," Constable Alex Li (not Black, but not white either) told the CP24 news channel.

Today, Agent 3, who vacations in Canada almost every summer, has sent us word of another story involving Toronto's finest and Black people. On the afternoon of July 10th, the cops were called to a shopping centre in Scarberia (eastern Toronto) a report of shots fired in the parking lot. Upon arrival at the scene, officers located a 26-year-old male victim suffering from a single gunshot wound to his abdomen. He was taken from the scene to hospital via emergency run but was pronounced dead two days later. He was later identified as Toronto resident Jordon Marcelle, whose Black Life apparently didn't Matter much to his killers.

And here's a composite photo, issed by Toronto police today, of the 21-year-old woman who has been arrested and a 26-year-old man who is wanted for murder in connection with the death of Jordon Marcelle.

Neither the woman, Tristawna Ona Christian, nor the man, Shaquille Jameel Taesean Small, is a cop. Neither is white. It's just another black-on-black murder, something that happens about once a week in Toronto the Good. Will there be justice for Jordon Marcelle? Will a judge and jury find that Black Lives Matter? Stay tune... but don't hold your breath.

Poetic justice in Burlington ON

"What goes `round comes `round." It's been quite a week for poetic or delayed justice for three "protesters". Of course it's fashionable nowadays to be anti-everything, but those who choose to take it into the streets should be aware that sometimes what you were doing when you should have been at home minding your own busines can come back to bite you in the bum.

A couple of days ago Walt told you about an anti-racism "protester" who had a "near miss" when a statue of a Confederate soldier fell on him while he was trying to pull it down. See "Poetic justice in Portsmouth VA", WWW 13/6/20.

While we were posting that -- on that very day -- Sarah Hegazi, a well-known antifa agitator, took her own life in her Toronto apartment. We cannot say why she did it -- something to do with being an openly gay Muslim woman seeking asylum in Canada, perhaps -- but she did tell the CBC in 2018 "Here in Canada, I haven't people, I haven't family, I haven't friends. So I'm not happy here."

Another person who thought Canada wasn't doing very well on rights issue -- "animal rights", in this case -- was (note past tense) Regan Russell, a longtime animal rights activist and member of Toronto Pig Save. [He's not making that up. Ed.]

Ms Russell and her pig-loving friends have been demonstrating for many moons outside slaughterhouses in the Greater [sic] Toronto Area, protesting the inhumane treatment of animals on their way to porcine heaven. A co-founder of Toronto Pig Save, one Anita Krajnc [pronounced "crank"? Ed.] was hauled into court in 2015 for trying to give water to a truckload of swine (the four-footed kind) waiting in the hot sun. Ms Krajnc was found not guilty of criminal mischief, but the case was a big deal (of course) in the lamestream media.

Yesterday, Ms Russell earned herself a Darwin Award, having been fatally struck by a truck while was protesting outside Fearman's Pork, a slaughterhouse in Burlington ON -- the very same place where Ms Krajnc had her encounter with the local constabulary. Ms Krajnc said Ms Russell "was in front of the truck when it ran over her."

The death of the 65-year-old activist comes just two days after the province of Ontario passed legislation that hiked fines for trespassing on farms and food-processing facilities and made it illegal to obstruct trucks carrying farm animals.

Predictably, a large number of activists showed up at the scene, planning to hold an all-night vigil in honour of Ms Russell and the pigs she loved. Said Ms Krajnc, "We have asked management to get some of these pigs in the truck to a sanctuary in her name."

[That's enough. That one was too easy. Ed.]

Black Lives Matter doesn't matter any more!

Looks like last night was comparatively peaceful across the Excited States of America. Not so much rfioting and looting as on the weekend and Monday. I expect today we'll see images of good citizens pitching in to clean up the debris left behind by even peaceful "protesters". I predict that 90% of those shown in such photos will be white. Lifetime pct .976.

You realize, gentle reader, that all the commotion in America's cities is not about George Floyd, police brutality, or even racial inequality, about which the SJWs have been moaning for two centuries.

Black lives do not matter! At least, not to antifa types, the mostly white leftists who are the real "protesters". What we are seeing is a well-organized, well-funded, violent campaign to overthrow the government of the USA. Well... not the whole government... just the man at its head, Still-President Trump.

The bad news for them -- good news for the USA -- is that the protests-cum-riots are having the opposite effect from that intended. They have all but insured the November re-election of the Donald! (Lifetime pct still .976.) I have to admit that Mr Trump hasn't come through the Covid-19 Dempanic covered with glory. But the rioters have effectivelyl ended the lockdown by defying it, and the rest of us figure that if they can take to the streets without worrying about getting the virus, we can take to the beaches!

As well, the media hysteria about "anti-black racism" has all but totally displaced the media hysteria about the Dempanic. And in this chapter of the soap opera that is American politics, President Trump is the one who looks like a hero -- the only one standing up for law and order, while dozen of weak-willed and weak-kneed Democratic politicians fall all over themselves to signal virtue and pander to the anti-American agitators.

I am now the only one who thinks that the "protesters" will succeed in keeping President Trump in the White House. Let me share a few well-chosen words from "Seven Thoughts on the Civil War the Other Side Wants So Badly", by Scott McKay, in The Spectator, 2/6/20.

The police can handle these rioters if they're allowed to. If the police can't, in some circumstances, the National Guard certainly can. This isn't some invading army; it's the dregs of society who have been induced into the streets for free air fryers from Target. The slightest application of law enforcement muscle will put this rioting down.

[On why the areas trashed by the riots won't ever be rebuilt] At the end of the day, everybody figures this is an area where the locals were so stupid and so disrespectful that they looted and burned down the very shops that kept the neighborhood going. And who wants to do business with such people?

You don't have to go any further back than 1968 to know that when America gets its fill of domestic violence and insurrection, it votes for the most conservative candidate it can find. How do you think Richard Nixon, who was the political version of a broken-down claiming horse who had lost an election for the governorship of California just a few years earlier, rolled into the White House like a tsunami? Nixon was the law-and-order candidate. It didn't really matter what else he was; the Silent Majority gave him the job and a mandate to put an end to The Sixties.

Democrats have been trying to recreate The Sixties ever since, and the public has been trying to tell them The Sixties weren't all that awesome.
Trump is going to law-and-order this all the way home. It’s an easy play for him. Trump’s response hasn’t been perfect, but he’s going to dominate the discussion the longer this goes. Do Democrats really think they’re going to beat him without even denouncing the riots? Are they that stupid?

Of course they are. Of course they are.

Well said, Mr McKay. Couldn't have said it better myself. [You got that right! Ed.]

UPDATED: EU court rules illegal immigrants don't have same rights as those who follow the law

Walt has been following events north of the World's Longest Undefended Border, where a handful of "First Nations" people ("Native Americans" to, errr, Americans) and the usual mobs of ultra-lefties and antifa types have succeeded in shutting down Canuckistan's railways almost completely.

They are protesting that the hereditary chiefs (as opposed to the democratically elected chiefs) of an obscure "nation" -- the Wet'suwet'ens -- were not consulted about the building of a natural gas pipeline that crosses their territory in northern British Columbia.

It's a big deal, since many of the things that millions of Canadians depend on to live a normal life -- e.g. water purification chemicals and propane, not to mention food -- move by rail. It's a big enough deal that Just In Trudeau interrupted his latest virtue-signalling world tour to come back to the World's Second-coldest Capital and take a meeting.

When he emerged, blinking in the sunlight, Mr Socks proclaimed that Canada is a country where the rule of law is respected and must be followed. This had Canucks ROFL because the railways have obtained court injunctions against the blockades, orders which the Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen refuse to enforce. In Canada, apparently, court orders and the country's laws don't apply to the marginalized and oppressed victims of colonialism, white privilege, yada yada yada.

Walt wonders what Blackface Justin thinks of a recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Gatestone Institute reports that on February 13th the ECHR issued a decision reaffirming the proposition that in order for migrants or other "victims" to benefit from certain human rights protections, such as access to lawyers, interpreters and the right to remain in Europe, they must first enter European territory in a legal, as opposed to an illegal, manner. Imagine that!

The case goes back to August of 2014, when hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa stormed the border fence at Melilla, a Spanish exclave in North Africa. After spending several hours perched on top of the fence, two men, one from Ivory Coast and the other from Mali, climbed down and were handcuffed by Spanish border police, who handed them over to Moroccan authorities.

The two Africans said they were never given a chance to explain their personal circumstances or receive help from lawyers or interpreters. In February 2015, with the help of human rights weasels ["lawyers", shurely! Ed.] the pair took their case to the ECHR.

In October 2017, the ECHR ruled that summary deportations were a violation of European law, which is politically correct on such things. The court determined that Spanish border police had failed to verify the identity of the migrants, or to provide them with access to lawyers, translators or medical personnel, and ordered Spain to pay each of the men €5,000 (over $5400 in real money). In December 2017, Spain's previous mildly conservative government appealed.

On February 13th, the ECHR unanimously reversed its previous judgment. In a statement, it explained that "[the migrants chose] not to use the legal procedures which existed in order to enter Spanish territory lawfully. Consequently, the Court considered that the lack of individual removal decisions could be attributed to the fact that the applicants — assuming that they had wished to assert rights under the Convention — had not made use of the official entry procedures existing for that purpose, and that it had thus been a consequence of their own conduct."

How about that?! Here's a photo of some illegal immigrants crossing the World's Longest Undefended Border at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Québec. Who's carrying their bags for them? Why it's the very same RCMP who, for some reason (Hello, Liberal government!) are not enforcing the injunctions against the mob blockading Canada's rail services.

Just In (from Africa) Trudeau has probably not heard about the ECHR decision, and it's not binding on Canadian courts or governments in any case. Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, spokesman for the Spanish Vox (= Voice) Party, commented: "The ECHR's ruling determines that a nation state has the right to defend its borders. When someone is dedicated to violating those borders, the nation state has the right to return that person to their place of origin as quickly as possible."

Wouldn't it be nice if Canada's woke government, or the even-more-woke government-in-waiting (?) of the USA did a 180, like the ECHR, and reserved the benefits of the rule of law to those who obey the law?

Further reading, from the National Post, 17/2/20:
"Enough is enough. Clear the blockades, restore the rule of law", by Derek H. Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to the USA and chief of staff to former PM Brian Baloney. "Dialogue is no prescription for those who refuse to listen because they believe themselves to be custodians of the only truth."
"If Trudeau has lost interest in his job, perhaps he should quit", NP editorial. "While cabinet members have struggled to deal with the rail blockades, Trudeau has been flying around Africa and Europe. Over his four years as prime minister, it has become noteworthy how often Justin Trudeau faces problems of his own making. His sanctimony keeps coming back to bite him. Canadians who follow politics have long been aware of the prime minister’s weakness for pious declarations of well-intentioned morality."

UPDATE ADDED 20/2/20: Canada's Public Safety and Emergency Unpreparedness Minister Bill Blair has just announced that the Mounties in British Columbia have agreed to withdraw from their position on Wet'suwet'en territory and barricade themselves in a nearby town names L'alamo. [Ed., please check town name.] So Just In (from Africa) Trudeau's Liberal government has caved to a few dozen radical activists who don't even have the support of the majority of the Wet'suwet'en people, as represented by their elected (as opposed to hereditary) chiefs. In today's Canuckistan, the mob rules!

Hong Kong nut-cutting time fast approaching

Looks like the crunch is coming for the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. Agent 78 has been following the news closely and reports that, as of this morning (Walt's time) only 100 or so anti-government protesters remain holed up at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, as a police siege of the campus entered its third day.

Carrie Lam, the puppet CEO chosen by the Beijing government, said 600 people, including 200 minors, had left the campus. The police siege, oddly, is intended to prevent the protesters from leaving, so they can be arrested and face "justice", Communist-style. Police have surrounded the university and are arresting anyone who leaves.

On Monday, groups of protesters made several attempts to escape, including sliding down hoses to waiting motorcycles, but it wasn’t clear if they managed to evade arrest. Ms Lam told AP that 400 of the 600 who left were detailed, but that those under 18 were not be immediately arrested but could face charges later. "We will use whatever means to continue to persuade and arrange for these remaining protesters to leave the campus as soon as possible," she said, "so that this whole operation could end in a peaceful manner."

Hong Kong police also announced that they will be treating the death of a man hit by a brick thrown by protesters late on Thursday as murder. Last Friday, pro-democracy protesters blocked a road near the Hong Kong Polytechnic campus, but were dispersed by police forces led by Inspector Charles Chan, using tear gas and water cannons. The president of the university said on Friday that he would call on the "assistance of non-students" if necessary. Sure enough, troops of the so-called People's Liberation Army (read: Chinese regular army) came to clear up the debris and open the road. The message was clear. Today they came with brooms. Tomorrow they will be back with something else.

Here in the decadent imperialist West, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo finally opened his official mouth to state the American non-position on the pro-democracy protests. He called on police and protesters to refrain from violence. Well, he used a few more words than that, without adding much more substance.

On Monday, Mr Pompeo called for all sides to exercise restraint in the escalating Hong Kong conflict, and said the territory's government should start an independent investigation into "incidents" during the pro-democracy protests, now entering their seventh month. That inquiry presumably would include reviewing accusations of police misconduct, one of the key demands of the protesters.

Speaking at a presser in Foggy Bottom, Secretary Pompeo said, the Hong Kong government bears primary responsibility for the conflict, which he said could not be resolved by law enforcement alone. He called for the Hong Kong government to "take clear steps to address public concerns," and stressed that Carrie Lam, the territory's chief executive, should "promote accountability" by putting in place an independent investigation.

What Mr Pompeo did not say was that Ms Lam's hands are tied. She answers not to Hong Kong's toothless Legislative Council, but to the Communist masters in Beijing, who are running out of patience with the Hong Kongers' refusal to embrace the benefits of "democracy with Chinese characteristics". Somehow the Secretary of State managed to get through his entire statement without once uttering the words "Beijing" or "China".

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), on the other hand, said Still-President Trump should make forceful statements on Hong Kong. Speaking in the Senate on Monday, Senator McConnell said leaders in Beijing and Hong Kong must "de-escalate." He said the administration already had "significant tools" it could use to support Hong Kong protesters. "I would encourage this president, who has seen Chinese behaviour for what it is, with clarity that others have lacked, not to shy away from speaking out on Hong Kong himself," Mr McConnell said. "The world should hear from him directly that the United States stands with these brave men and women."

He added he was working to try to bring the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act to a floor vote. The bill, which passed the House by unanimous consent, would mandate the executive branch to impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who carry out human rights abuses and review annually the favourable trade status that Washington grants Hong Kong. Mr McConnell has been criticized for delaying a floor vote on the bill. If he can do so now, and the bill passes the Senate (not a sure thing), it will be more than interesting to see what President Trump does with it. Nut-cutting time not just for the Hong Kong protesters but for the leader of the USA and the free world.

Footnote: Looking at the top photo Ed. has chosen for this story, I see that some of the students have obviously been paying attention in English class. As a former teacher of English to Chinese university students, seeing correct use of English in public discourse makes me quietly proud.

VIDEO: Antifa thugs assault elderly PPC supporters at Hamilton rally

What was supposed to be a "peaceful protest" outside last night's "Uncensored: Free Speech in Canada" roundtable -- featuring libertarian YouTuber (((David Rubin))) and Maxime Bernier, leader of the People's Party of Canada -- in Hamilton ON turned violent Sunday evening as supporters of the PPC were attacked by Antifa/Communist protesters as they tried to enter the venue at Mohawk College. The leftist terrorists -- you can see a Communist banner in the video -- went so far as to push an elderly lady using a walker!



There were a number of other confrontations and scuffles. Two men from opposing sides of the protests were led away in handcuffs by Hamilton police. Inspector Knacker said there were a total of four arrests for "breach of the peace", but all those detained were later released without conditions. Free speech, perhaps? Hamilton police are continuing their investigations.

Inside the McIntyre Arts Centre, When the event got underway, Maxime Bernier emerged on stage while "Eye of the Tiger" played. He received multiple standing ovations throughout the night for pledging to increase "personal freedoms" for all Canadians. He was joined onstage by American YouTuber and political commentator Dave Rubin, and two PPC candidates -- Prof. David Haskell (Cambridge-North Dumfries) and Frank Vaughan (Northumberland-Peterborough South), who acted as moderator. "Mad Max" praised all of his candidates, saying "[They] are not real politicians, and that's great! People don't trust politicians anymore."

The four chatted at length about preserving freedom from censorship in Canada, their doubts about climate change science, keeping government small and the PPC's plan to repeal the Multiculturalism Act. They also talked about immigration, with M Bernier saying the party's plan is "not racist, not anti-immigration and not pro-mass-immigration." The party would drastically reduce immigration to Canada, he said, and focus resources on those citizens already in the country.

When asked if he'd be willing to engage in a debate with protesters outside the venue, Mr Rubin said "I'd be happy to talk to them if they're not in my face and screaming at me and calling me a Nazi." He found that not just offensive but funny, considering that he's Jewish (also gay!) and that last night was the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.

"If I could sit down with any of those people and chat about it, I would try to do exactly what I did tonight", he said, "which is really try to get them to understand what are your rights, where do your rights come from and how special it is to live in a place like Canada or the U.S."

Umbrellas unfurled again in Hong Kong protest

In a fit of tone-deafness remarkable even for the Chinese Communists, the puppet government of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong chose the week of the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre to introduce in the legislative council a new law that would enable the extradition of Hong Kong Chinese (including those resident overseas) to the mainland for trial on any criminal charge. That would include treason, spying, and any act against the state or the Communist Party.

In response, Hong Kongers are turning out in the hundreds of thousands to protest the erosion of the "special status" in matters social, political and legal that Hong Kong was supposed to retain after the handover of the former British colony to Red China in 1997. Organizers say that over 1,000,000 people joined in the demonstrations today, blocking two main highways near government headquarters. Since the population of HKG is roughly 7,000,000, that's a pretty good turnout! Most of the protesters are students and young people. Students were boycotting classes to attend the rallies.

Despite official calls to disperse, demonstrators continued to march today. They overturned police barriers and stood their ground even when confronted with pepper spray and a threat by police to use force if they continued to oppose their orders. Some protesters left umbrellas on the police barricades, an homage to the "Occupy Democracy" movement that began in 2014. "Didn’t we say at the end of the Umbrella movement we would be back?" pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told the meeja, referring to the name often used for the 2014 "Occupy" demonstrations. The massive, months-long campaign was prompted by constitutional reforms that allowed Beijing to approve candidates for Hong Kong elections.

Many in Hong Kong are also upset by the creeping authoritarianism in Hong Kong, after they were promised autonomy when the perfidious British handed it back to the even more perfidious Chinese in 1997. Before and since, China has promised Hong Kong self-rule under the slogan of "one country, two systems". The move to allow extradition to China is only the latest example of the falsehood of the Communist Chinese "guarantees", their poor human rights record and blatant disregard for the rule of law.

The puppet government is still backing the extradition bill, which is expected to pass its final reading on June 20th. However, the Legislative Council (LegCo) announced late today (local time) that the second reading will be "delayed", the excuse being that the protests have clogged u p the streets around the LegCo building to the point where not enoough legislators were able to get in to attend the session. Agent 78, who knows a thing or two about Hong Kong and how things work in the People's Republic, says this is clearly a face-saving measure, and doesn't mean that the "umbrella revolutionaries" have won. "You can fight the puppets, but you can't beat the puppet-master." Stay tuned.

Further reading:
"Hong Kong's 'Umbrella Revolution' - paying the price for democracy", WWW 29/9/14
"5 things you should know about the Umbrella Revolution", WWW 3/10/14
"Do not forget the martyrs of Tiananmen Square", WWW 4/6/19

"Yellow vest" protests spread to Belgium, Netherlands... even Canada!

As is well known, the dream of every Frenchman [and Frenchwoman! Ed.] is to pay no taxes. Thus the plan of the government of Emmanuel Macron to raise the tax on fuel sparked a wave of protests which started a month ago and continued today in Paris and other French cities. The protesters have adopted dayglo yellow safety jackets as their uniform. Today some 125,000 "gilets jaunes" (= yellow vests) took to the streets to rally against the fuel tax, the high cost of living, and... wait for it... Emperor [President, shurely! Ed.] Macron himself. Here's a video clip.



In Paris today, 1000s of police used armored vehicles, tear gas and water cannons to "contain" demonstrators numbering over 10,000, by the estimate of the Ministry of the Interior. Some protesters set fire to cars and smashed windows. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said 1385 people had been arrested across the country. 17 law enforcement officers and just over 100 protesters suffered injuries.

Is this really just about having to pay a few cents more in taxes on gasoline? Mais non! The protests took place despite the government announcement on Wednesday that the fuel tax hike would be "suspended until furter notice". (Governments never admit they made a mistake, eh.) The demonstrators who turned out today broadened their list of grievances to include high living costs and economic reforms proposed by M Macron, which are seen to benefit business rather than workers.

And then there's the little matter of immigration, and how much more Islamization France can take before ceasing to be France. The big picture is that the majority of French citizens are sick, sore and tired of being governed by liberal elitist one-worlders. Speaking after today's protests had ended, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the time had come for a dialogue "to knit our national unity back together." He added that the Emperor [President! I won't tell you again! Ed.] would address the protests and their grievances "next week."

Readers in other countries may be thinking, "Hey, we have problems with our government too! When are we gonna get up on our hind feet? If the cheese-eating surrender monkeys can do it, we can too!" And so it has come to pass. The yellow vest movement has now spread across the globe. There were protests today in Belgium, France and... wait for it... even peaceful and polite Canada!

In the western Canadian province of Alberta, which holds oil in even higher regard than do Texans, there is huge resentment over the plans of the federal government (Junior Trudeau, Prop.) and the socialist provincial government to impose a carbon tax, in the interests of saving the world from climate change of course. There's also the anti-immigrant sentiment which Albertans share with their fellow citizens from coast to coast to coast.

Yellow vest protesters braved the sub-zero weather in Edmonton and Calgary today to let their governments know what they think about these insane liberal policies. (Not that their governments give a shit, of course.) The protests were free from physical violence, but the demonstrators spoke pretty plainly (for Canadians).

In Calgary, Allison Prentice told the CBC, "We are Canadian, we're not anywhere close to that kind of radical. I'm proud to be here and represent people who care about Canadians first." Others chanted "No Trudeau. No Trudeau!" outside of city hall. Some yelled "String him up!" Others yelled "traitor." Through a megaphone, one speaker said, "They hate our country and they hate our way of life," without specifying who "they" are. He didn't have to. Canadians know who their enemies are. Do you?

Chinese-Canadians protest hijab hoax

For Canadians, today is National Hug-a-Muslim Day. Canuck snowflakes, liberals and SJWs are busy in Québec City and elsewhere in the Great No-longer-white North, kicking off "Islamic Heritage Month" (seriously) by commemorating the first anniversary of an attack on a Québec City mosque that left six dead and several others injured. See "What REALLY happened at Québec City???", WWW 5/2/17 (includes VIDEO with Gavin McInnes).

Unfortunately for the Canadian Islamists (read: the National Council of Canadian Muslims) and Islamophiles, their "day of action" to "memorialize Islamophobia" -- see "Canadian Islamophiles plan National Hug-a-Muslim Day", WWW 18/1/18 -- has had a shadow cast over it by rallies in Montréal and elsewhere at which hundreds of Chinese-Canadians protested last month's "hijab hoax", in which a Muslim girl slandered their community by falsely claiming that an "Asian" (read: Chinese) man cut her hijab as she walked to school. See 'Anti-Muslim hate crime' hoax embarrasses Canuck Liberals", WWW 15/1/18.

In a presser organized by (((Shari Schwartz-Maltz))), media officer of the loony left Toronto District School Board, Khawlah Noman, an 11-year-old sixth-grader, accused "an Asian man" of pulling off her jacket hood and cutting the bottom of her hijab. The girl's emotional pain and suffering -- "I'm just a kid!" -- made headlines around the world, with politicians and public figures furiously signalling their virtue and their support for diversity in general and Muslims in particular. "My heart goes out to Khawlah Noman following this morning's cowardly attack on her in Toronto," tweeted Prime Minister Trudeau II. "Canada is an open and welcoming country, and incidents like this cannot be tolerated."

Miss Noman's claim was later rubbished by Toronto, who announced on January 15th that an extensive investigation had been conducted, as a result of which they had concluded that "it did not happen." Period. No explanation, and no apology at the time, although the girl's family later issued a rather mild apology to "all Canadians". The TDSB and Ms (((Schwartz-Maltz))), the Prime Minister and the lesbian Premier of Ontario merely said they were "relieved it didn't happen."

No-one was ever charged with, say, public mischief or filing a false report, let alone inciting hatred against "Asians" (read: Chinese). Jenny Wong, a Chinese-Canadian living in Montréal, told People's Daily Online, "The nature of this incident is vile. It is definitely a humiliation to Asian community, which has always been picked on. Even an 11-year-old knows that we are easy targets. This is unacceptable,” Jenny Wong, a 25-year-old Chinese Canadian living in Montreal, told People’s Daily Online on January 24th. "My friends and I will join a rally initiated by the local Chinese community in Montreal this Saturday, demanding an apology from the girl, the Canadian government, as well as a voice for the Asian community."

Two protest rallies were held in Toronto and Calgary earlier last week. Jenny Liu, a Chinese student at the University of Toronto, said "The Asian community in Canada doesn't have political muscle and is discriminated against or victimized. Canadian authorities and media outlets did not even carry out a thorough investigation before supporting the liar. Our rally slogan is focused on that lie: 'Hoax Today, Horror Tomorrow.' We feel hurt, and we demand that our voice is heard."

UPDATED: Trump keeps his promises; panic ensues

Things have moved so fast in the first full week of Donald Trump's presidency that it's been hard for me to keep up. [Nothing to do with the Chinese New Year celebrations, then? Ed.] Across the Excited States of America and around the world, supporters and haters of The Donald [Ed., can we still call him that?] are expressing surprise (the supporters) and horror (the haters) that President Trump has moved immediately to keep the promises he made during the late election campaign. A politician who does what he said he'd do? AMAZING!

Agent 3 tells me that President Trump has done more in one week that Canada's new(ish) prime minister did in his first year. That would be because Mr Trump thinks there has been enough talk, and now it's time for action, whereas M Trudeau believes in more "conversations" -- including a "face the music tour" last week -- and no action apart from giving taxpayers' money to "disadvantaged minorities" and foreigners.

Everything President Trump has done, without exception, has aroused the ire of the usual suspects -- snowflakes, SJWs, eco-wienies, lawyers, activists and Democratic politicians. The liberals are revolting, and I mean that sincerely. "Spontaneous protests" have broken out in the streets of America's "sanctuary cities", in airports, and in the wilderness of North Dakota.

The ageing hippies camping out on private property in Dakota are incensed by President Trump's decision to greenlight the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines. That decision has been warmly applauded by the folks in the oil patch, especially those north of the world's longest (somewhat) undefended border. Good time to buy Canadian oil stocks... and Transcanada Pipeline. (You're welcome.) Americans should be glad too. Why import oil from the sand niggers and terrorists when you can get it from the friendly frostbacks up north?

The protests raging today in the airports and sanctuary cities have been sparked by President Trump's executive order, announced on Friday, putting a four-month hold on the admission of "refugees" into the United States. The same order temporarily bars travellers from Syria and six other predominantly Muslim countries -- Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Iraq. Those, of course, are the sandpits from which Islamic terrorists come, in the guise of refugees and asylum-seekers, to wreak havoc in Western countries and kill as many "Christians" as they can, by whatever means possible.

The new restrictions on immigrants and refugees also apply to permanent residents who have passports from the seven Muslim countries. Any green card holders who were outside the country when the order took effect will have to be cleared back into the United States on a case-by-case basis. Google ordered its foreign Muslim employees to get back to the USA right sharpish, but several were caught in the air and detained on arrival at JFK and other airports. Chaos at the airport terminals ensured, and immigration lawyers, activists and Democratic politicians immediate organized protests and started knocking on judges' doors to help followers of the Prophet get back into the country.

At the break of dawn today, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying they plan on continuing to "enforce all of the president's executive orders in a manner that ensures the safety and security of the American people." The DHS was responding to a temporary order granted Saturday night by a New York judge staying the operation of the White House order, and releasing the dozen or so Muslims who were being held at JFK. "The president's executive orders remain in place," said the DHS statement. "Prohibited travel will remain prohibited, and the US government retains its right to revoke visas at any time if required for national security or public safety."

America's staunch allies, the friendly frostbacks referred to above, immediately announced that refugees and any other travellers barred from entering the USA would be welcome in Canada... provided of course that they aren't Christians or conservatives or racists or oilpersons. Starting tomorrow, all travellers crossing the border or arriving at Canadian airports will be given a "liberal values" test to determine their willingness to embrace diversity... and vote Liberal.

Footnote: The Toronto Sun ran a poll yesterday asking its readers if they approved of President Trump's executive order banning Muslims from entering the USA. The results so far: YES - 55%; NO - 33%; not sure - 12%. You may think that Prime Minister Selfie is tone-deaf to the sentiments of ordinary Canadians. But it's not his fault. He and his liberal cronies don't read the Toronto Sun. They do read comments on the CBC website, but, alas, the CBC isn't allowing comments on any stories about immigration and "refugees". Wonder why...

FOOTNOTE ADDED 30/1/17: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which considers itself the collective voice of the Muslim world, has 57 member states. President Trump's travel ban affects citizens of only seven (7) of them. The governments of Iran and Iraq, to name two, have reacted with predictable fury. But from the leaders of the other 57... crickets! In the heart of the Muslim world -- Cairo (Egypt) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), the executive order has met with a conspicuous silence.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's holiest sites, spoke to President Trump by telephone on Sunday but made no public comment. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, whose capital, Cairo, is a traditional seat of Islamic scholarship, said nothing. What are we to make of this silence? Could it be that these leaders agree that a ban on travellers from terrorism-infected states is a good idea? Or are they merely afraid that their nations may be next?

Further reading: "In Face of Trump's Order, Some Muslim Nations Are Conspicuously Silent", New York Times, 29/1/17.

Older Hong Kong protest leaders surrender; students remain in streets

From the beginning, a serious problem for the Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters has been leadership -- not so much lack of leadership, but division of leadership. Protesters have been encamped for over two months at two or three different sites in the city state -- Causeway Bay, Central and Mongkok -- and there has been a conspicuous lack of communication between them, or even within them. The protests resemble nothing so much as the stereotypical Chinese fire drill.

There seem to be two or three factions: students; members of the "Occupy Central" movement and other assorted other community leaders and political activists. They share the same goal -- free elections for the position of CEO of HKG -- but differ on the means of achieving it. In the last week clashes between the student protesters and police have become increasingly violent, to the dismay of the Occupy Central faction.  Today the leaders of the latter group surrendered to HKG police, in hopes of bringing peace back to the "peaceful protest".

In this Reuters photo, we see (L-R) Joseph Cardinal Zen, Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, as he walks with Occupy Central civil disobedience founders, Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, chairman of the Hong Kong Democracy Development Network, Chan Kin-man, professor of sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Benny Tai, law professor at the University of Hong Kong, as they arrive at the Central Police Station to surrender themselves.

The three leaders turned themselves in voluntarily, calling on students to retreat from protest sites in the city's financial centre amid fears of further violence, just hours after student leader Joshua Wong called on supporters to regroup.

"I hope we can show others the meaning of the surrender," said Mr. Tai. "We urge the occupation to end soon and more citizens will carry out the basic responsibility of civil disobedience, which is to surrender."

The three leaders filled in forms and were allowed to leave without facing any charges. Including them, Hong Kong police said, two dozen people aged between 33 and 82 had surrendered for "taking part in an unauthorized assembly", and authorities would conduct follow-up investigations based on the information provided.

The students, however, seem unimpressed by this show of pacifism and, as Walt is hearing on the phone this very moment, are bracing for another night of clashes with the police. Stay tuned and show your solidarity!

Further reading on WWW:
"Why Hong Kong's 'Umbrella Revolution' matters"
"5 things you should know about the Umbrella Revolution"

It's NOT about "black lives"

Walt waited 24 hours to see if the rioting and looting in Ferguson MO would get worse or better [better rioting? better looting? Ed.] but last night was quiet, by comparison with the night before. Al Sharpton appeared. The Prez said (not in so many words, since the words are copyrighted by Bill Clinton) that he felt the pain of "the community", which Walt understood to mean not the entire community of Ferguson, but the black part of it.

And 1000s of people marched, danced and boogied through the streets carrying signs which read "Black lives matter!" There were relatively small and peaceful marches in other US cities and even in Canada's blackest city, Toronto. Marchers in those places carried the same signs. Walt suspects there's a factory somewhere -- probably in China -- that turns them out for sale at dollar stores. [Now there's an entrepreneurial idea! Ed.]

What's wrong with these pictures? Specifically, what's wrong with these signs? Walt will tell you. It's not about black lives or even the life of Michael Brown. It's about a breakdown of law and order in the black community. And it's about that community being a crime-ridden, undisciplined underclass.

How did it get like that? How did they get like that? Walt will tell you that too. For 50 years the majority (read "white") community has been bending over backwards [and forwards! Ed.] to accommodate the "civil rights" of every minority group ever conceived -- not just blacks, but gays, wimmin, non-English speakers, Muslims, refugees, atheists, etc etc and so forth.

Nowadays everyone -- except straight white males -- has not just rights but "entitlements". They are all "entitled", all "owed" everything from food and housing to preferred admission to college, where their education will, of course, be free. The world owes them a living! Well, not the world actually, but the rest of us -- the majority -- as embodied in The Government. After all, it was The Government who (especially around election time) promised all these minorities the sun, moon and stars. And if those who feel entitled have received only the moon, of course The Government is to blame.

Notably absent from the half-century of yammering and promises about "civil rights" has been any talk of civic responsibility, or civic duty. When I took civics in grade school [long, long ago. Ed.], I was taught that a good citizen had certain responsibilities and duties which he owed to his community. For instance, a good citizen should keep his home and neighbourhood clean and tidy. He should get a job and do his best to support himself and his family, so as not to be a burden on the community or the state. (After all, the tax monies used to support those who could not support themselves came from the community.)

A big part of civic duty was promoting and maintaining law and order. In the 19th century, many parts of the country did not have police forces, as we understand them today. Perhaps there was a marshal or sheriff or chief magistrate who, if there were criminals to be dealt with, would swear in a posse of ordinary citizens to do the necessary. And criminals would be brought before the courts to be further dealt with by judges and juries. Serving on a jury was part of one's civic duty. But who wants to do one's "duty" any more?

The Prez, in his mushy and caring plea for calm, said that the black community needs "good policing" -- quite a remarkable statement for him to make, when you think about it. If Michael Brown's lawyers, the "Reverend" Al Sharpton et al. complain that they are getting "bad policing", that the cops a bunch of white racists, could they answer a simple question.

Where are the black police officers? Where are the black National Guards? Why is the black community not able to police itself? Isn't that a part of civic duty -- particularly in Ferguson MO, at this very moment?

Further reading: Walt recommends The Police Officer's Dilemma, a landmark study by Joshua Correll, Bernadette Park, and Charles M. Judd (University of Colorado at Boulder) and Bernd Wittenbrink (University of Chicago) published in 2002. Once you get through the academic jargon -- the subtitle is Using Ethnicity to Disambiguate Potentially Threatening Individuals -- you'll learn that participants in the authors' study "fired at an armed target more quickly if he was African-American than if he was White, and decided to not shoot an unarmed White target more quickly than an unarmed African-American target".

And -- here's the "Wow!" -- a test with actual police officers, conducted give years later, showed that it didn't matter whether the cop was white or black! A black cop was just as likely as a white cop to shoot a young black man. Young black men are much more likely to die of lead poisoning (i.e. gunshot wounds) than young white men. And when you look at all the shooters, not just police, the shooter of a young black man is more likely to be another young black man than a white. And that's a fact.

Still more reading (added 29/11): "Progressive Mythography", by  Andrew C. McCarthy, on the National Review website. Mr. McCarthy explodes the myth that white cops kill black kids.

Hong Kong protesters: they're baaaack!

When we tuned in last week, Hong Kong's pro-Communist CEO, Leung Chun-ying (aka CY Leung) had refused to step down to appease the 1000s of students and others demonstrating for free and fair elections in the former British colony. The protesters then defied Mr. Leung's ultimatum to vacate the areas they were occupying. So, in order to get them to go home without losing too much face, Mr. Leung promised the student leaders a meeting with his flak-catcher, Carrie Lam, on Friday.

Most of the demonstrators -- credulous souls -- went home, leaving just a few hundred camped out on Gloucester and Harcourt Roads, blocking a key thoroughfare in Hong Kong Island's Central and Admiralty districts. But sure enough, on Thursday the duplicitous Leung called off the promised talks, saying the protesters' refusal to end their campaign had made "constructive dialogue" impossible.

He also said (again) that he would not resign. In an interview with Hong Kong broadcaster TVB, he said the protests had "spun out of control" and did not rule out the use of force to end them. When asked about the protest camps, Mr Leung said, "We've resorted to all kinds of persuasions... We absolutely would not prefer clearing the venue, but if one day the venue has to be cleared, I believe the police will use their professional judgement and training using minimum amount of force."

So the pro-democracy protesters -- saddened but not surprised -- are back in the streets, in even greater numbers than before, paralysing parts of Hong Kong. In an open letter to China's Supreme Leader, Xi Jingping, a coalition of three protest groups proclaimed, "We cannot allow one person, Leung Chun-ying, to destroy the Hong Kong core values we so cherish."

Hong Kong's Chief Executive CY Leung has insisted China will not change its mind on the format for elections in 2017, despite weeks of protests.

In the Basic Law under which Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997, the Communists promised direct elections in 2017. But of course their idea of a free and fair election is one in which they choose which candidates are allowed to stand. Mr. Leung told TVB today that Beijing would not change its mind on the election format. "In achieving universal suffrage in 2017," he said, "if the prerequisite is to put down the Basic Law and the decision made by the National People's Congress Standing Committee, I believe we all know that the chance is almost zero."

The Basic Law (Hong Kong's mini-constitution) states that "the ultimate aim is the selection of the chief executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures". It was the NPC Standing Committee's decision on the make-up of that nominating committee that sparked the protest movement, since that format effectively gives ultimate control not to the people but to the Beijing regime.

Further reading on WWW: "Why Hong Kong's 'Umbrella Revolution' matters"

Comment from Ed.: Do you know when the Chinese have their best elections? Answer: just before bleakfast!

Protests over death of an "innocent" black youth continue

Walt presents, without much further comment, a video clip from CBC News, showing how serious the "black community" is in its demand for "justice" in the shooting of Michael Brown.

Note from Ed.: You'll have to take my word for it, there really was a video showing black yoofs boogyin' down the street doing the "hands up, don't shoot" dance. What a great sense of rhythm they have! But the video seems to have disappeared from the politically correct CBC News website. It's "unavailable" now. But here's the rest of this morning's news from Ferguson.

While the party continues, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson identified Darren Wilson as the shooter. Chief Jackson said Officer Wilson -- a six-year veteran of the force -- was called, along with other officers, the area after a 911 call reporting a "strong-arm robbery" at a nearby convenience store. Apparently a couple of yoofs of the coloured persuasion grabbed a box of cigars. It is not known whether any cigars were found on the body of Michael Brown.

UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE: The Ferguson Police Department has just released a montage of stills from surveillance video shot at the convenience store on August 9th. And what do we see here? A large black boy behaving badly towards a smaller shopkeeper who appears to be Asian. Do the stereotypes never end? Can't see the box of cigars. And is the large boy not just black but Brown? Even if he is, executing him seems a little severe. After all, scenes like this occur 100s of times every day, right across Armerica.