"Fair trade", à la Brandon

Let's suppose, just for the heck of it, that you're the President of the Disunited States. (See "As Georgia goes, so goes the nation", WWW 7/12/22.) Vladimir Putin's minions come to you with a deal... an offer you can't refuse.

They want to repatriate a Russian citizen, Viktor Anatolyevich Bout, aka the Lord of Death, a former Soviet military translator who became a very successful arms dealer. Mr Bout used multiple companies to smuggle weapons starting during the collapse of the Soviet Union from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s.

His luck ran out in March of 2008, when he was arrested in Thailand on terrorism charges. He was extradited to the US of A, and on 2 November 2011 was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court of conspiracy to kill US citizens and officials, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization.

He was sentenced to the minimum 25 years' imprisonment because the crime was due to a sting operation. Until this week, he was languising in the United States Penitentiary, Marion (IL).

For some reason, the Russians want him back, and are offering in exchange one (only) of two Americans, imprisoned in Russia, about whom the State Department and President Brandon have been making a fuss. 

One is Paul Whelan Paul Nicholas Whelan, a Canadian-born former United States Marine with no fewer than four passports: American, British, Irish, and Canadian! He was arrested in Russia on 28 December 2018, and accused of spying. On 15 June 2020, he received a 16-year prison sentence.

The other is Brittney Yevette Griner, a lesbian who plays professional basketball player for the WNBA Phoenix Mercury. She is the only NCAA basketball player to both score 2000 points and block 500 shots. In 2012 she was named the AP Player of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. Ms Griner led the United States women's national basketball team to victory at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Having been named to the US national women's team for the 2020 Olympics, Ms Griner protested the Star Spangled Banner and stated she would not be on the court while the national anthem was played during game openers. She completed her move to the dark side by signing a contract to play in the Russian Premier League during the WNBA off-season.

Alas for her, when she entered Russia in February 2022, Ms Griner was detained by customs officials after cartridges containing hash oil were found in her luggage. Last July, she pled guilty to smuggling charges. and  was sentenced to nine years in prison. 

Cue the SJW outrage! The usual suspects -- the alphabet people, the BLM types, the feminists, et al. -- and  whined to the State Department that she was "wrongfully detained"... even after her plea of guilty. The White House took up the cause because, well, mid-terms, and sure enough, a deal was reached earlier this week.

Pop quiz: Which of the two prisoners do you think President Brandon ransomed, to dramatize his commitment to fighting for freedom and justice?

Kinda warms the cockles of your heart, doesn't it? If your cockles get too warm, rub them with ice.

Recommended reading: "Biden Decides To Read 'Art Of The Deal' After Getting Ripped Off In Griner Trade", Babylon Bee (of course!),  9/12/22.

VIDEO: "Christmas Crisis for Willow Deer", by Christina Dodwell

Christina Dodwell,  FRGS (Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society -- even though she's not a "fellow" LOL) is an English explorer, travel writer, and lecturer. She is Chairman of the Dodwell Trust and was awarded the Mungo Park Medal in 1989. 

Like Walt, Ms Dodwell travelled in the country formerly known as Rhodesia. Unlike Walt, she has also journeyed through west Africa, Papua New Guinea, Turkey, China, Afghanistan, Madagascar, Siberia, and Kurdistan, by horse, canoe, elephant, camel and microlight. She has published books and articles about many of her travels.

Now happily retired from her explorations, she is settled in a lovely country home where she passes the time farming and, inter alia, creating stories for children about willow-work reindeer characters, crafted by herself!   

Christina has sent along her latest video, released a few days ago. It's a Christmas special, which she says is definitely her best to date. She writes: I made one final willow deer this year who was rejected by my older deer. However she refused to give up. The story is packed with action, drama and emotion. As for the villainous Mrs Alice Malice – so wicked. My friend who portrayed her is massively proud of her performance!

The 6th film in the Willow Deer series introduces "Star". Will she be accepted as part of the team. She is stronger than she looks and determined to show what she can do. Share this with your children and anyone who may enjoy. With best wishes from Christina Dodwell.

Trudeau discovers another threat to national security

What follows is a true story, not something made up by the good folks at the Babylon Bee. Clever as they are, they couldn't make up something as ridiculous as this.

Assiduous readers will remember that the Liberal government headed by Emperor Trudeau II were quick to see a "threat to national security" in the peaceful protests of the Freedom Convoy last winter. The Emergencies Act, aka Son of War Measures Act, was invoked, and dissent was quelled.

Apparently, however, they had the blinders on when it came to the awarding of a contract worth C$549,637 (just over $400,000 in real money) for the building and maintenance of a radio frequency (RF) filtering system for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The contract went to the lowest bidder (surprised?), a company called Sinclair Technologies, based in Aurora ON, just north of Toronto.

Sinclair Technologies? Who they? Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), the sinecure for Liberal appointees in charge of awarding government contracts to firms with the left right connections should have asked that question, but apparently didn't. Radio-Canada, a state-owned broadcaster, found the answer on... wait for it... Wikipedia.

A Wiki that mysteriously disappeared overnight said that, while Sinclair is based in Ontario, its parent company Norsat International has been owned by Chinese telecommunications firm Hytera since 2017. The Communist Chinese government owns "about 10 per cent" of Hytera through an investment fund. Well, that's only a minority interest, so... no problem, eh! 

Errr... well... hmm... maybe it could be a bit of a bother, if the Chicomms were dishonourable enough to install spyware on the Mounties' radio systems, and use the intelligence ["police intelligence"? Ed.] gained for nefarious purposes. 

Although the Chinese are Canada's friends (unlike those Nazi racist truckers), that could indeed pose a threat to national security. Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface called the revelation of Sinclair's ties to the People's Republic "disconcerting" and promised a "review" of the contract and the process by which it was awarded. 

In a scrum outside the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Socks told the meeja that while security agencies were "advising us as a government and as Canadians that we have to be very careful about foreign interference in our institutions ... other parts of the civil service were signing contracts that have questionable levels of security for our operations and our national security institutions like the RCMP."

Marco Mendocino, the Minister of Public Safety said the government is looking at the contract "very carefully." A bit late perhaps, since Sinclair is already installing its equipment at RCMP bases, but never mind. Said Mr Mendacious, "We're eyes wide open about the threats that are posed by hostile state and non-state actors, and that includes [China]."

Coming next... an investigation into the threat to national security posed by TikTok? Stay tuned.

"As Georgia goes, so goes the nation"

Can you imagine any political pundit writing that headline until, say, 2016? Yet last night's victory for Raphael Warnock in the run-off election for the Georgia Senate seat suggests that the Peach State is now a metaphor for the Disunited States of America.

In times past, bellwether states -- the ones that usually voted for the party of the man who would be President -- included: Pennsylvania – one miss from 1800 to 1880 (in 1824); Indiana – one miss from 1852 to 1912 (in 1876); Wisconsin – one miss from 1860 to 1912 (in 1884); and New York – one miss from 1880 to 1944 (in 1916).

But that was one or two centuries ago, in the days when Georgia was reliably Republican -- during Reconstruction -- or Democrat [or Dixiecrat! Ed.] in the mid-20th century -- or Republican again, after the disaster that was Jimmy Carter until the turmoil of the last decade or so.

With 99% of the vote counted, Senator Warnock was re-elected with 51.4% of the vote as against 48.6% for Herschel Walker. A look at the map tells you all ye need to know.

Mr Walker carried the rural areas, but lost the big(ish) cities, including the university town of Athens, and Savannah, the last bastion of the genteel old south.

And he lost Fulton County. As of the 2020 census, its population was just over a million, making it the state's most-populous county. Its county seat is Atlanta.

Today's Atlanta, which also happens to be Georgia's capital, is much differt from the city where, in the 1960s, Governor Lester Maddox sold pick and axe handles to bar "coloured people" -- the phrase seems so quaint now -- from entering his Pickrick Chicken House restaurant.

A stroll [for the brave, only! Ed.] through today's Atlanta, a microcosm of the "New South", reminds one of nowhere more than Philthydelphia. Atlants, like every other Democrat-run city, is seedy and rundown. "Persons experiencing homelessness" squat (and you can take that two ways) on sidewalks and in parks and abandoned buildings. The city is a mess -- a Democratic mess, especially on polling day. Hence the result

But that's the way it is in America as a hole. [Please check your spelling. Ed.] Demented Joe Biden accused President Trump of dividing the nation, and there was some truth in that. He promised to unite America and heal the wounds of the past four years. He failed. In fact he made things worse by upping his game of identity politics to the point where we have 50% of Americans opposing the other 50%, just as Georgians did yesterday.

Just like Georgia... The state of the disunion is such that Americans who live in cities despise rural people, and vice versa. The elites, especially those in the ivory towers of academia (Hello, Athens!) look down on those who never got brainwashed in college. And the great unwashed rightly distrust the elites and their bought-and-paid for media.

It is somewhat heartening to note that Americ is not hopelessly divided along racial lines. That one black man should be pitted against another, blacker man is telling. Lots of white folks, even in rural Georgia, voted for Senator Warnock, whereas many black folks voted for Herschel Walker because they rejected the old Baptist pastor, Uncle Tom stereotype of the "house nigger". Given a white candidate who actually had some qualifications to be a lawmaker, black people might have voted for him/her, rather than a barely literate football player.

Walt hopes that the Republicans will learn one more lesson from the mid-term elections of 2022. The US of A remains deeply divided over President Donald J. Trump. Half of America loves him. The other half hates him. And those percentages don't look like changing any time soon. 

The Republicans should learn that just because President Trump endorses a candidate doesn't make him/her a sure winner unless he/she can campaign and win on his/her own merit. [You can just say "he"; this "he/she" thing is getting tiresome. Ed.] The Republicans should have been able to win in a walk over John "Lurch" Fetterman, had they not chosen a candidate who is a Muslim and a dual citizen because he's a celebrity and The Donald likes him. 

I don't believe that many Americans are aching for a rematch of Trump vs Biden. Both Presidents have had their time, and by 2024 the nation will be in even worse shape than it is now. (Lifetime pct .990.) The time for vengeance has passed. The time has come for the GOP to let President Trump sit quietly [Is that possible? Ed.] by the pool at Mar-a-Lago, and unite behind a leader who can move the party and the country forward into economic and political recovery.

"Like who?", I hear you ask. The names Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence spring to mind. So does that of Senator J.D.Vance. Who would the Democrats put up against a ticket headed by any of those three? An 81-year-old who is already so far over the hill that he can't see it in his rearview mirror? And if not him, then who? 

VIDEO: Walt is dreaming of a White Christmas

While we wait to see who's going to win the Georgia Senate run-off -- the dark horse or the darker horse -- here's some nice Christmas music sung by Clyde McPhatter, Bill Pinkney and the Drifters.

Walt assures you there's no political message here. Shame on you if you detected one!

 

If you remember this version of the beloved song, you're at least 68 years old (!) and can remember a time when the disclaimer above wouldn't have been necessary.

At last: new law prohibiting abortion, extra-marital sex, and more!

Who'd have thought we'd see the day when a legislature would pass laws to reverse society's slide into immorality... or, worse, amorality. But it's going to happen! Not in the AABC countries (America, Australia, Britain, Canada), which are not Christian even in name these days, but in... wait for it... mostly Muslim Indonesia. 

Although it's not officially an "Islamic republic" like, say, Iran, Indonesia is the world's biggest country, by  population, in which Muslims are the majority, with Hindus and Christians tiny minorities. Reuters reports that Indonesia's government is introducing a new criminal code which, according to Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, deputy justice minister, will be "in line with Indonesian values."

The  new code will ban sex outside marriage. It also carries stiff penalties for abortion, “black magic” and insulting the president. The punishment for extramarital sex is up to one year in jail. And that's  just the punishment in this world, never mind the next.

The usual suspects have long warned the new law, which has been decades in the making, would violate the rights of women, minorities, and the alphabet people, as well as undermine freedom of speech. And, they say, it will be bad for business too! The law applies to foreigners as well as Indonesians, so there'll be no more going to Indonesia for a dirty weekend!

Bali, in particular, has traditionally been a top holiday destination, attracting millions of tourists every year. A spokesthingy for Indonesia's Employers' Association told Reuters the morality clauses of the new criminal code would "do more harm than good," especially for businesses engaged in tourism and hospitality. "For the business sector," she said, "the implementation of this law will create legal uncertainty and make investors reconsider investing in Indonesia."

The legislation also bans expressing any views contrary to Indonesia's state ideology -- that would be Islam -- and criminalizes abortion, with the exception of rape victims. Insulting the president, a charge that can only be reported by the president, carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. [Don't tell Brandon or Trudeau about this! Ed.]

The draft,which looks set to be passed into law next week, has the support of many conservative Islamic groups, whose influence is growing across the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation. Indonesians who feel that their right to be immoral is being infringed are advised to move to any of the aforementioned AABC countries, where that right is enshrined in law.

Further reading: "Indonesia ranks among most religious countries in Pew study", Jakarta Post, 30/7/20.

Wisdom for today from legal decisions of the Dirty Thirties

Americans and Canadians are going through hard times. The slowdown of business and other activity caused by the Wuhan flu pandemic sent our economies into a tailspin, from which we have not yet recovered, no matter what President Brandon and Prime Minister McBlackface tell you. Not only have we not recovered, but we are teetering on the brink of recession. 

More people are working than was the case two years ago, but more people are not working, too. Some folks, having discovered that our liberal governments will pay them not to work, have simply dropped out of the work force. Thus the same liberal governments are now telling us we need to import hundreds of thousands of third-world migrants to meet "staffing challenges".

Bidenflation has pushed prices up to the point where a lot "working poor" can barely afford to drive to work. The federal governments of both countries desperately need more revenue to cover the deficits they incur by shovelling money out to the special interest groups they rely on to keep them in power. But they are afraid to raise taxes, so the liberal cry today is "Make the rich pay their share...and more!"

And there is civil unrest, notably in Canada where Mr Socks invoked the Emergencies Act (aka Police State Act, aka Son of War Measures Act) to quash last winter's Freedom Convoy by, among other draconian measures, freezing dissenters' bank accounts without notice! That'll teach them to cling to their "unacceptable views"!

The United States went through a similar bad patch during the Great Recession of the 1930s. The Presidents of those days were mile aheads of both Demented Joe and the Emperor of Canuckistan in arrogating to their governments unprecedented powers of taxation and repression of dissent. 

Walt wonders if M Trudeau's handlers studied President Herbert Hoover's response to the 1932 march on Washington of the Bonus Army -- 1000s of war veterans demanding the bonuses which they had been promised at the end of WWI, which had never been paid. This is how it went down.

On 28 July 1932, Attorney General William D. Mitchell ordered the "Bonus Expeditionary Force" removed from all government property. Washington police met with resistance, shot at the protestors. Two veterans were wounded and later died. President Herbert Hoover then ordered the U.S. Army to clear the marchers' campsite. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded a contingent of infantry and cavalry, supported by six tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and their shelters and belongings burned.

Such heavy-handed tactics became the norm under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who used whatever means he could to force Americans -- particularly rich Americans and their businesses, large and small -- to submit to his New Deal. Those who dissented had the G-men sicced on them. After all, Roosevelt declaimed, this is an emergency!

One business which FDR's Treasury Dept. tried to coerce was a firm owned by three Jewish brothers who butchered chickens. They balked at Roosevelt's National Industrial Recovery Act, which allowed the President to regulate certain industries by distributing authority to develop codes of conduct among business groups and boards in those industries -- i.e.to control private businesses. The Schecters fought the feds all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in their favour. (A.L.A. Schecter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495 (1935)) 

In an opinion authored by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the unanimous Court exercised a check on the Legislative and Executive branches of government, declaring the Act and actions of the President an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority. 

SCOTUS ruled that the President cannot be allowed to have unbridled control to make whatever laws he believes to be necessary to achieve a certain goal. Justice Hughes wrote: "Extraordinary conditions may call for extraordinary remedies. But the argument necessarily stops short of an attempt to justify action which lies outside the sphere of constitutional authority. Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional powers." 

Here's another piece of wisdom from a famous judge, which may give some comfort to President Trump as he fights to avoid a too-public audit of his tax returns. In Helvering v. Gregory, 293 U.S. 465 (1935).69 F.2d 809 (2d Cir. 1934), Judge Billings Learned Hand, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, ruled that: "Anyone may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.... To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant."

The emphasis is mine. For some 65 years, beginning with the Court of Chief Justice Earl Warren too long (1953-1969), the Supreme Court was dominated by judicial activists intent on rewriting the laws of the USA, including the Constitution itself, to bring about "social justice" and equality of result, as opposed to the equality of opportunity which was the aim of the founding fathers. That is still the mindset of the Supreme Court of Canada.

However, the times they are a-changin'. Ordinary people, real people on both sides of the World's Longest Open Border are waking up to the fact that the liberal democratic state of Roosevelt-Johnson-Clinton-Biden and King-Pearson-Trudeau (Senior and Junior) is not their friend, but their enemy. Walt says: be like the Schecter brothers -- fight back! You can fight and beat city hall!