VIDEO: Les Canadiens sont là!

Oh ye of little faith! Shame on all those who thought that just because the Toronto Maple Leafs finished first in the Canadian (aka Northern) Division, and the Montréal Canadiens just barely made it into the playoffs, the latter would be on the golf links before the end of May. You were wrong!

The Leafs, as is their wont, blew a lead of 3 games to 1, allowing the never-say-die Habs to win overtime victories in Games 5 and 6, and close the series out with a 3-1 win tonight. It was actually 3-0 until the second-last minute when Carey Price was robbed of the shutout he deserved. For the moment, at least, we have the video highlights.

Poor Len Canayen gives Carey Price not just the first star, but all three stars of tonight's game. But it can truly be said that the win -- indeed all of the Habs' wins -- was a total team effort. 

Goals by Brendan Gallagher (the heart and soul of la Sainte Flannelle), Corey Perry (the old pro) and an empty netter by Tyler Toffoli, who led the team in scoring this year. In Games 5 and 6, it was the kids -- Nick Suzuki, Kasperi Kotkaniemi and rookie phenom Cole Caufield -- who made the difference. 

The defence registered only one point in those games -- an assist by Jeff Petry in Game 6 -- concentrating instead on shutting down Leafs superstar (?) Auston Matthews, and his sidekick Mitch Marner. That was exactly what the doctor ordered, so full credit to the D-men and to everybody else. There were no weak links.

Alors, félicitations, les boys! On to Winnipeg!

Things you see on the Internet: "Trust, but verify!"

Agent 6 has interrupted his travels to send us these spectacular pictures of Brazilian people tempting fate by hanging from a famous rock. These images have not been photo-shopped. They are real pictures.

Incredibly brave people. Right? But the truth is... wait for it... the rock is only a few feet above the ground. All that is required is the proper perspective!

Now you know that fake news looks like! And why you shouldn't believe everything you see in pictures. Remember this anytime you watch news on TV or read it on the Internet. Sometimes, the truth is a lot different than what it appears. It all depends on perspective. Remember too, Walt always presents the truth... as we see it!

Canadiens v Leafs: advice for bettors

Ed. here. Walt and Poor Len are still hors de combat, preparing for tonight's crucial seventh game in the NHL quarter-final between Toronto's team -- the Maple Leafs -- and Canada's team -- the Montréal Canadiens. Poor Len has been taking notes, and promises to analyze the result tomorrow.

Poor Len regrets that he has no prediction or recommendation for those inclined to put down a sawbuck or two on the result. Walt's feeling is that if you bette on les Glorieux and can find a Leaf fan who'll give you a puck and a half, you should be in good shape. Lifetime pct .979.

Speaking of betting...

Canadian company won't embrace "wokeness", will stick to business

Cazart! At a time when big businesses in America and Europe are "taking a knee" to kiss BLM/gay ass, the largest publicly-traded company in Canada warned employees that their job is to sell products, not solve social problems. Tobias Lutke, CEO of e-commerce giant Shopify, laid down the law to employees demanding "woke" corporate virtue signalling, reminding them that anyone who was focused on other things when they were supposed to be working should not expect to keep their job. Believe it or not! 

Like many other corporations, Shopify is being pressed by some of its left-leaning employees to take an activist stand on causes such as "equity", "diversity", "inclusion", yada yada yada. Mr Lutke made it clear that doing so is not part of his company's strategy. 

"Shopify is also not the government," he wrote in an e-mail. "We cannot solve every societal problem here. We are part of an ecosystem, of economies, of culture, and of actual countries. We also can't take care of all your needs. We will try our best to take care of the ones that ensure you can support our mission."

That last part addressed complaints by six former employees over how the company has handled racial and social justice issues this past year. "Shopify, like any other for-profit company, is not a family," Mr Lutke wrote, noting that "family thinking" makes it more difficult to dismiss workers who perform poorly. In other words, his company bases its personnel decisions on merit, not who you are or what disadvantaged group you represent.

He added that his company may see opportunities to nudge certain social causes forward, but does so "because this directly helps our business and our merchants and not because of some moralistic overreach."

Mr Lutke's letter to employees comes after Jason Fried, CEO of  American web software company Basecamp, announced that staff will no longer be permitted to engage in "societal and political discussions." He said in a blog post that Basecamp was not a "social impact company," adding, "Every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy, or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant."

The logic of gun control

Note from Ed.: Walt and Poor Len are huddled in a sports bar in Canuckistan. When we hear something from either of them, we'll let you know.

World Day of Prayer for the Catholic Church in China

Regular readers of WWW will know that Walt has been banging the gong since Day 1 about the Vatican's great sellout of the true Catholic Church in China. See "Zen and the maintenance of the Faith - the REAL Catholic Church in China", WWW 15/7/09. 

The true Catholics in China comprise in the so-called "underground church", whose clergy and people are loyal to Rome, in spite of being thrown under the bus by Benedict XVI and Francis at the instigation of a succession of leftist Secretaries of State, most recently Pietro Cardinal Parolin, aka "Peter of Rome" (q.v.).

The persecution of Catholics in China began in 1949, when the Communists took control of the country, excepting Taiwan. They immediately set up the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, a schismatic "church" which kept the outward appearance of Catholicism, but whose bishops and priests owe their allegiance to the Communist Party. Those who would not join have been harassed, persecuted, arrested, jailed and even martyred -- the Catholic martyrs of our days, up to and including today. See "China -- not a good place to be a democrat or a Catholic", WWW 15/6/14.

Until 2018 one could say that the underground church was holding its own, in spite of continual persecution, just like the early Church in the Roman Empire. But in that year, the Vatican Secretary of State's efforts "to proceed on the path of a respectful and constructive dialogue with government authorities, in order to overcome past misunderstandings" between the Holy See and Communist China resulted in the betrayal of the many 1000s of Chinese Catholics who had been imprisoned, tortured and even martyred for their Faith.

In September of 2018 the Vatican announced the signing of an agreement with the People's Republic of China giving the Communist government "a role in the appointment of new bishops." In practice that means the Commies tell Rome who the new bishops are, and Rome says, that's fine, we don't want to cause any trouble. See "Vatican bends the knee to Chinese commies in secret accord", WWW 23/9/18.

The secret deal was supposed to be reviewed in two years, to see if things were working out. Need I tell you the outcome? The deal was renewed indefinitely in spite of the fierce protests of Cardinal Zen, Archbishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, and others. See "Cardinal Zen decries/Vatican defends sell-out of Chinese Catholics", WWW 3/3/20. 

So there we are. Rome has capitulated and the CPCA is now the "official" Catholic Church of China. But that doesn't mean we can't pray for the Catholic Church in China, meaning all those who hold onto the "Faith of our fathers, living still, in spite of dungeon, fire and sword."

Indeed, the universal Church celebrates today, the 24th of May as the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China, that China "may become a force for good and a protector of the rights of the most vulnerable."

The commemorative feast marks the Chinese celebration of Our Lady of Sheshan, the patroness of China. It is also, even more importantly, celebrated as the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. So let us pray: 

With faith in your intercession, we pray for the Church, particularly the Church in China, for our family and friends, for the poor and abandoned, and all the dying. Grant, O Mary, Help of Christians, the graces of which we stand in need. Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us! 

Note from Ed.: Many thanks to Agent 9 for reminding us of the significance of this date, and for his blessing.

Footnote and further reading: In a story that tells you all you need to know about the secret accord between Rome and the Chinese Communists, AsiaNews.it reports that Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu of Xinxiang and 10 priests of his diocese were arrested late last week, and are being held for “political sessions” with Communist Party officials. They are accused of "criminal activity": conducting religious activities without government approval, and refusing to enlist in the CPCA. 

Bishop Zhang is recognized by the Holy See but not by the Communist government. Under the terms of the secret agreement between the Vatican and Beijing, the Holy See recognized several bishops who had been appointed by the government. But Beijing did not reciprocate by recognizing bishops of the underground Church. 

Biden-Harris in office: the first four months

Sleepy Joe Biden, the man who the lickspittle media claim is the fairly elected President of the US of A, has been in office for four months. "In office" doesn't necessarily mean "in charge". Whoever's pulling Mr Biteme's strings has done a lot to "reset" America. If you're a Democrat, socialist or anywhere on the left end of the spectrum, you would say things are going well. We on the other side of the aisle beg to differ. Herewith a quick look at the Biden-Harris record, so far. 

Unnecessary stimulus The Democrats pushed through legislation for a relief package of close to $2,000,000,000,000 ($2 trillion). That newly minted money stimulated the economy, provided additional aid to the millions of unemployed workers and bailed out some cities and states that were damaged financially by Covid, and the damage done by the Antifa/BLM rioters and looters.

Was that stimulus needed? When President Trump was forced out of office, the American economy was in the middle of a V-shaped recovery from the deep but short-lived recession of the spring of 2020. In Q3 of 2020, GDP grew at an annualized rate of 33%. The growth rate was 4% in Q4, and 6.4% in the Q1 of 2021, when Mr Biteme assumed office.

The relief package will prove to be inflationary. The deficit for fiscal 2021 is projected to rise to at least $3.5 trillion, increasing the public debt (meaning money that you, your children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren etc will have to reply) to more than $30 trillion. When the feds remove that much capital from the market, there will eventually be a capital shortage, i.e. not be enough capital available to business for expansion. That will lead to more inflation.

Since January, the rate of inflation has risen to 6%. You may have noticed that last time you gassed up. Another consequence will be "stagflation" -- the slowing or stopping of growth -- which the US of A has not experienced in four decades!

The Biden-Harris tax plan will only make things worse. Democrats always want to "tax the rich", which to them means not the elites who can employ elaborate tax avoidance schemes, but folks like you and me who work hard and hope there will be a few pennies left after Uncle Sam takes his increasingly large cut. The Democrats want to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, which will cause savvy businesses to move to more friendly jurisdictions, including Canada.

They also want to raise the capital gains tax rate from 23.8% to more than 40%. But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more. They propose to raise the top tax bracket from 37% to 39.6%. All of these Robin-Hoodian tax grabs will reduce capital formation making the capital shortage worse.

Vaccination

When he was sworn in, Sleepy Joe promised to get the anti-Covid vaccines approved during the Trump administration into the arms of at least 100 million Americans within his first 100 days. Thanks to the success of Operation Warp Speed, initiated by President Trump and spear-headed by Vice-President Pence, that goal was met and exceeded.

On the other hand [in the other arm? Ed.], thanks to the flip-flop messaging of Dr Fauci and the administration, antivax resistance has increased to the point where slowpoke [geddit? Ed.] Canada has more people per 1000 who have received at least one dose of vaccine. That's why the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM) remains closed in spite of pressure by Sen. Chuckie "Cheese" Schumer and others to let Americans resume shopping in Canada again.

Illegal immigration

At the instigation of the SJWs who control him, Mr Biteme reversed President Trump's immigration policies, allowing hundreds of thousands of immigrants to escape alleged persecution in their home countries. He professes his belief that America is a country founded on and still rife with "systemic racism". How admitting hordes of aliens who don't speak English and don't share the majority culture will help this is a question for which Sleepy Joe has no answer.

The Trump administration built (or at least started) a wall along America's southern border, and instituted policies to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants from south of the border and the shithole countries of Africa and the Middle East. The Biden administration stopped building the wall (in spite of court orders to finish the job) and reversed the President Trump's policies. The result is a massive illegal immigration problem, which Vice-President Harris refuses to acknowledge or even investigate by, say, visiting the infested counties along the southern border.

Climate change and the environment

Mr Biden makes the requisite obeisance to the importance of reversing climate change [like King Canute? Ed.] and protecting the environment. That's why he stopped any drilling for fossil fuels on publicly owned land, and, as one of his first acts, cancelled the Keystone pipeline expansion approved by President Trump. Then, all of a sudden, there's no gas, or limited quantities of expensive gas, in large areas of the southeastern states.

They say (of course) that's all the fault of foreign hackers who caused the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, which has now been fixed. But that incident underscores America's need for energy security, which is not going to come from wind/solar power. The US need to maintain good relations with a friendly source or petroleum products like, say, Canada.

That brings us back to the Keystone pipeline, and another pipeline -- Enbridge Line 5 -- which runs from western Canada through upper Michigan into eastern Canada. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (Democrat) has ordered Line 5 closed down because, after nearly 70 years in operation, it might suddenly spring a leak into the Straits of Mackinac. Canada has asked President Biteme to intervene with a bit of common sense. Sleepy Joe's response? "Justin Trudeau? Who's that?"

Foreign policy

President Trump's foreign policy was "peace through strength". President Biteme thinks he knows better. He prefers the "turn the other cheek" policies of the Prez. It was President Trump's sanctions which crippled Iran, leaving them with little money to finance Islamic terrorism. Creepy Joe has chosen not to enforce the sanctions, so, right after the fake election of 2020, Iran began selling oil again.

President Trump had negotiated five peace agreements in the Middle East. Now, just four months into the Biden presidency, Hamas and Hezbollah have resumed their terrorist activites in the Holy Land, to the point of a nearly full-scale war. A White House spokesthingy said on Tuesday that Israel has a legitimate right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks but applied pressure on Israel over the treatment of Palestinians, saying Jerusalem "must be a place of co-existence."

Apparently the goal is to "rebalance" US policy, after President Trump sided with Israeli on all fronts. Another "success" trumpeted by the controlled media is President Biteme's promise to get American military forces out of Afghanistan by 9/11. Such "turn the other cheek" responses to the aggressions of our enemies can only embolden others, such as Russia, China and North Korea. Is the world a safer, more peaceful place now that the Democrats have taken on the task of promoting peaceful co-existence? Hardly. 

In summary... 

To his supporters and the liberal elites, Mr Biden is doing a great job. It may be that his administration has improved the perception of social justice and equity. But the price Americans are paying for massive illegal immigration, high inflation, higher taxes and a less safe world, is far too high.

Those of us not wearing rose-coloured glasses see problems (read: incipient disaster) in every area. Things can only get worse. Lifetime pct .979. 

Adapted from an op-ed piece by Michael Busler in BizPac Review, 21/5/21.