VIDEO: Joe's baaaaaack!

Walt hopes President Trump sees this. Donald, please don't mistake Trudeau and the residents of the "Greater Toronto Area" for real Canadians. You're making a big mistake picking fights with these guys.

Further reading: "Trump's Canadian Tariffs Expected To Have Devastating Impact On The Curling Broom Industry", on the Babylon Bee (where else?), 4/3/25.

Your Singhs today ("Greater" Toronto edition)

The Region of Peel (called Peel County until 1973) is a huge bedroom on the western border of Toronto, Canada. Its population, according to the 2021 census, was just under 1.5 million. Included in that total were some 1.4 million Sikhs. [Ed., please check that figure. Do the Canucks keep track of people's race and religion?]

At least, that's the way it seems, judging by reports of crimes and misdemeanors in which the perps accused so often have "Singh" as a middle name or surname. Some recent reports of the nefarious activities of assorted Singhs may be found by entering "Singh" in the search window above. Here's a new one, posted by the Peel Regional Police earlier today. We've added a few comments.

The Peelers [Will non-Brits get that? Ed.] announced the break-up of a "prolific" theft ring targeting Liquor Control Board of Ontario (a government agency) stores across the so-called Greater Toronto Area. Between August of 2024 and this past February, a gang of Singhs (and one guy who might be a Hindu) made off with nearly C$240,000 worth of dat ole debbil gin and related products. 

The group allegedly targeted as many as 50 LCBO locations during that time and used co-ordinated techniques to steal a total of C$237,738.95 in alcohol. Investigators say that on many occasions multiple suspects arrived at the stores together and distracted employees before accomplices entered restricted access points. Images provided by police appear to show the suspects carrying large quantities of liquor from the stores in boxes and push carts. Five individuals have been arrested and charged. Here are their mug shots.

Here are their rap sheets. Charged with Theft over $5000 are:

Anuj Kumar, 25, no fixed address

Simarpeet Singh, 29, no fixed address 

Sharndeep Singh, 25, no fixed address, also charged with Breach of Release Order, meaning he was already out on bail

Simranjeet Singh, 24, no fixed address, also charged with Break and Enter with Intent to Commit Indictable Offence, and

Prabhpreet Singh, 29, of Caledon (the northern part of Peel Region), also charged with Conspiracy to Commit Indictable Offence 

All five arrested individuals were held for a bail hearing at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton. The outcome of the bail hearings has not been made public, but Walt's local agent speculates that the four of no fixed address have likely been released after promising not go anywhere near Toronto Airport, located just a few miles to the east, from which there are daily flights to India and Pakistan.

Two additional suspects are "outstanding", as the cops say, and may already have left on one of those planes. They are identified by police as 28-year-old Jagshir Singh and 25-year-old Punit Sehjra, likewise of no fixed address.

Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Marc Andrews told the meeja,"The work of our Criminal Investigation Bureau has been nothing short of exceptional in dismantling this prolific organized crime group. We will leave no 18-wheeler unsearched until we have located the remaining Singhs."

He said nothing about how all these Singhs got into Canada, nor their present status. It may be that they are all on student visas, pursuing a higher education at the infamous Singh School of Truck Driving. (See WWW, passim.)

Walt notes that the presser was given by the very white Deputy Chief Marc Andrews. No doubt the Chief was otherwise engaged. His name is Nishan Duraiappah. He began his career with Halton Police after immigrating in December 1995, and has served in a variety of assignments including front line policing, specialized investigations and "Diversity and Community Relations" [sic].

Reading the thoughts of Zelenskyy at the White House

Today, at 0001 EST, Canada and Mexico got Zelenskyed. Worse is to come, for all concerned. Lifetime pct .987.

UPDATED: "Allahu akbar!" in Germany, again?

Walt had no sooner posted "Fasching season cancelled in Munich for fear of another Muslim attack" (see below), when the mojo wire spat out news of... wait for it... another Muslim attack!

In Mannheim, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, die Polizei have arrested a man, so far unidentified, who "allegedly" [as they always say. Ed.] drove a black SUV into a crowd of people this morning, seriously injuring many, including one who was possibly killed.

Police have ordered the public to keep away from the area shown in the picture above, near Mannheim's city centre. A local newspaper spoke of a "rampage" by the alleged driver and of at least one fatality. The Stuttgarter Zeitung reports that "debris was visible at the scene and at least one person was lying covered under a tarpaulin."

Die Rheinpfalz notes that officers "confirm rampage" and that one person has died. No further information has been made public yet, but Bild states police sources say the death toll has risen to two, and that 25 are injured. Frankfurter Runschau states University Hospital Mannheim has been activated, with trauma teams set up to deal with a "mass event".

Police have yet to make any comment on the cause of this incident or whether there is any known motive. Readers will forgive us, I think, for jumping to the usual conclusion. As I said in the previous post, the driving of vehicles at high speeds into crowds is something that has become all too familiar in German cities recently. There's no denying that adherents of "the Religion of Peace" are engaging in jihad -- a holy war against us "infidels"!

UPDATE added 4/3/25: According to media reports, the perpetrator of the Mannheim atrocity is Alexander S. from Ludwigshafen. He only posted dog videos and a video of a street artist painting over swastikas. 

He did not share any political content on his Facebook page, so it's difficult to attribute any ideology to him. One can't say that he's a jihadi. So also, one can't he isn't a jihadi. Perhaps we'll learn more if he faces trial, instead of being confined to a mental institution to avoid embarrassment of the authorities. Stay tuned.

Fasching season cancelled in Munich for fear of another Muslim attack

Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, the Christian season of fasting and penance in preparation for Easter. In many nominally Christian countries, people mark the day before a season of sobriety with carnivals and other events of gaiety, costumes, bibulousness, fun and frolic. 

There's the famous carnival in Brazil and, of course, Mardi Gras down in the Big Easy. Pre-Lenten carnival celebrations are traditional in Germany too, where the carnival season goes by different names: Karneval, Fasching, and Fastnacht. While all three stem from the same pre-Lenten tradition, each region in Germany has its own customs.

Alas, there will be no Karneval, Fasching or Fastnacht in Munich, Germany, this year. Authorities have cancelled the traditional carnival celebrations following the Islamic terror attack on a demonstration in the city that left two dead and 39 injured. 

Officials in the Bavarian capital announced on 19 February that neither the "Nonsense Thursday" event, which was to be held on February 27th, nor the Shrove Tuesday celebration will take place this year. A third carnival event in the city's central pedestrian zone has also been cancelled. 

Need we tell you why? In a statement released six days after the horrific attack on a crowd of innocent people, city officials said they had not taken the decision lightly but "as a city family it is unimaginable for us to light-heartedly celebrate carnival after the attack and especially after the deaths of our colleague and her daughter." 

So the cancellation was an act of mourning, then? Noooo. Security concerns were the true reason. In recent months, Germany has seen an unprecedented spate of terrorist attacks by Muslim immigrants, "refugees" and asylum-seekers. 

On 23 August 2024, a Syrian immigrant allegedly killed three people and injured eight in a stabbing attack on a "Festival for Diversity" [sic] in Solingen, for which Islamic State claimed responsibility. 

On 20 December 2024, a Syrian immigrant rammed a vehicle into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, leaving six people dead and 300 injured.

This past January 22nd, an Afghan asylum-seeker stabbed a two-year-old child and a 41-year-old man to death in Aschaffenburg, where carnival parades have also been put on hold. 

The German people have noticed, as witness the spectacular rise of the Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) in February's election. Commenting on the decision to cancel the Munich events, columnist Julian Reichelt pointed out the irony of a standard phrase uttered almost daily by German politicians over the past few years: "We will not let Islamists change our way of life."

To Angela Merkel, Fred Merz and the others who keep saying there's no problem with mass immigration, Walt says: Ist Ihnen nicht aufgefallen, dass sich Ihr Lebensstil bereits verändert hat? Und nicht zum Besseren.

Book Review: "Listen. Liberal!" by Thomas Franks

"Modern liberalism in action: an unregulated virtue-exchange in which representative of one class of humanity [the elites] ritually forgive the sins of another class [the rest of us], all of it conened and facilitated by a vast army of well-graduated American professionals, their reassuring expertised propped up by bogus social science, while the unfortunately object of their high and noble compassion sink slowloy back into a preindustrial state." 

Except for Walt's interpolations, that was written in "Listen, Liberal!" by Thomas Franks, a certified liberal who used to write for The Wall Street Journal and Harper's. After almost eight year's of the Obama presidensity, Mr Franks gave up on the Prez's "politics of hope".

He discovered that the US of A was being run, not by classical liberals fighting for the betterment of the common man, but by a class of progessional elites and technocratic experts, who have what Mr Franks calls "social authority". 

"Although we [the 'common' people] are the subjects are the subjects of ptheir[ diagnoses and prescriptions," he writes, "the group to which professionals ultimately answer is not the public but their peers.... They listen mainly to one another. The professions are autonomous; they are not required to heed voices from below their circle of expertise."

Mr Franks points out that the Democrats have done little to advance traditional liberal goals. They occupied the White house for 16 of the 24 years (to 2015, the date of his writing), and yet the decline of the middle class has only accelerated. Corpoorate and cultural elitism eclipsed the Democrats' supposed middle-class commitment. 

That's why, in "Listen, Liberal!", he calls the Democrats back to their historic goals, and predicts that unless they returned to the politics of the man in the street, they would lose the 2016 election. Which they did. And because they learned no lessons from their defeat, they would have lost the 2020 election had it not been rigged in the greatest political theft in American history.

But the Dimocrats didn't learn anything from their stolen victory. If anything, their policies got worse under the Prez's hand-picked and ill-fated successor. Elitism morphed into wokeism, leaving ordinary Americans in last place behind not just the elites but all the special interest groups the Dims pandered to in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion, hoping that the DEI types would keep them in power. 

The party of Mr and Mrs Clintons, Mr and Mrs Obama, Mr and "Dr" Biden, and Ms Harris and some white man, is now agonizing over its dim (geddit?) prospects for the future. Those who take helm of the presently rudderless ship would do well to read "Listen, Liberal!"... twice! And repeat if necessary.

Note to Canadian Liberals: The same happened to the Liberal Party of Canada, in spades, under the leadership of Blackie McBlackface, the heroic advocate of wokeism who is due to resign this month to avoid having the imprint of a big real Canadian boot etched permanently on his derrière. 

Only a fool... or a Trudeau Liberal... could fail to see the parallels with the fate of Obama, who, by the way, publicly endorsed Trudeau in the greatest liberal bromance of recent years.

Walt's one-and-only copy of this excellent book, gently used, autographed on request, is available on eBid.

Trump & Vance vs Zelensky - Who insulted whom? Who won?

You've seen the video clips, over and over. What did you think? 

Some say the chaotic contretemps between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance reminded them of a Three Stooges short, with Curly played by Mr Zelenskyy, who is, after all, a trained comedic thespian.

To me, it resembled a staged WWE tagteam match, in which both bad guys got into the ring at once, trapped one of the good guys in their corner and proceeded to beat the shit out of him... except that this wasn't physical, just verbal, so maybe we should say "beat the bullshit our of him."

For sure, there was a lot of "talking over", not so much "talking over" in the sense of a rational discussion. For those who had trouble following the video, here's a transcript of the meeting as it broke down. Mr Vance lights the fuse and Mr Trump explodes!

Zelenskyy: Yes, yes, but after that, he broke the ceasefire. He killed our people and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy, JD, are you asking me about? What do you mean?

Vance: I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.

Zelenskyy: Yes, but if— 

Vance: Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president—

Zelenskyy: Have you ever been to Ukraine that you are saying what problems we have? 

Vance: I’ve actually watched and seen the stories and I know what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President. Do you disagree that you’ve had problems with bringing people into your military? And do you think that is respectful for— 

Zelenskyy: I will answer you— 

Vance: To come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to try to prevent the destruction of your country. 

Zelenskyy: A lot of questions, let’s start from the beginning. First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have nice ocean and don’t feel now, but you will feel it in the future. God bless, you know. God bless you and bless you.

Trump: You don’t know that. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.

Zelenskyy: I’m not telling you— 

Trump: Because you’re in no position to dictate that. You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good. We’re going to feel very good and very strong. You’re right now not in a very good position. You’ve allowing yourself to be in a very bad position and he [Vance] happens to be right about it.

Zelenskyy: From the very beginning of the war— 

Trump: You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards. 

Zelenskyy: I’m not playing cards.

Trump: Yeah, you’re playing cards. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that’s backed you. Far more than a lot of people said they should have. 

Vance: Have you said thank you once, this entire meeting?

Zelenskyy: A lot of times. Even today.

Vance: No, in this entire meeting.

Zelenskyy: Even today. 

Vance: You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.

Zelenskyy: Please. You think that if you will speak very loudly about the war— 

Trump: He’s not speaking loudly. He’s not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble. 

Zelenskyy: Can I answer? 

Trump: No, no. You’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.

Zelenskyy: I know.

Trump: You’re not winning. You’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out, OK? Because of us. 

Zelenskyy: Mr. President. We have stayed in our country, staying strong. From the very beginning of the war when being alone. And we are thankful, I said thank you. 

Trump: You haven’t been alone. You haven’t been alone. We gave you, through this stupid president, $350 billion. We gave you military equipment. And your men are brave. But they had to use our military. If you didn’t have our military equipment, if you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks. 

Zelenskyy: In three days, I’ve heard it from Putin. In three days. This is something—

Trump: Maybe less. It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this again. Vance: Just say thank you.

Zelenskyy: I said a lot of times, thank you to the American people.

Vance: Accept that there are disagreements and let’s go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media when you’re wrong. We know that you’re wrong.

Trump: Well, you see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on. I think it’s very important. That’s why I kept this going so long. You have to be thankful. You don’t have the cards. Your people are dying. You’re running low on soldiers. You’re running low on soldiers. It would be a damn good thing… and then you tell us I don’t want a ceasefire. I don’t want a ceasefire. I want to go. And I want this. Look, if you could get a ceasefire right now, I tell you, you take it. So the bullets stop flying and your men stop getting killed.

Zelenskyy: Of course, I want to stop the war.

Trump: But you’re saying you don’t want a ceasefire. I want a ceasefire. Because you’ll get a ceasefire faster— 

Zelenskyy: Ask our people about a ceasefire, what they think.

Trump: That wasn’t with me. That was a guy named Biden who is not a smart person. Excuse me, that was with Obama, who gave you sheets and I gave you javelins.

Zelenskyy: Yes.

Trump: I gave you the javelins to take out all those tanks. Obama gave you sheets. In fact, the statement is Obama gave sheets and Trump gave Javelins [missiles]. You got to be more thankful because let me tell you, you don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards. But without us, you don’t have any cards.

Agent 2, who (like Agents 1 and 5) is of Ukrainian descent, wants to know what I think of all this. hoo-rah. In answer, I have emphasized the first part of the third-last sentence. I can't help but be reminded of this movie scene.

Another movie that comes to mind is The Irishman, in which Jimmy Hoffa (portrayed by Al Pacino) and Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) lay down two rules: never be late and never wear shorts to a meeting. Tony Pro arrives 15 minutes late wearing shorts and a clownfish-print shirt, which Hoffa takes as a sign of disrespect.

I say this as a supporter of the Ukrainian people's fight for survival, as well as of the President and Vice-President of the United States of America: When you go begging for help, you dress up -- same as when you go to get a loan from the bank. You don't argue with the bank manager. And when the loan is granted, you say thank you. Period.

That's not to say that  I condone the bullying behaviour of America's leaders. Berating Mr Zelenskyy may play well with some of the home folks, but it embarrasses others, and doesn't earn America's leaders any respect. None at all. 

As for who "won"... the only one laughing is Vladimir Putin.

Further reading: 

The Babylon Bee version: "Zelensky Tries Bold New Strategy Of Insulting The People He's Begging For Money From", 28/2/25.

"Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reveals Zelensky nixed Trump’s mineral deal twice prior to Oval Office blowup", New York Post, 1/3/25. Includes video.