UPDATED. new VIDEO: Deadly DCA air crash - OTJ training + DEI

Regular readers will know that Walt is not one to jump to conclusions. [**cough** Ed.] However, I do think it's not too soon to start asking questions about yesterday's collision of an American Eagle CRJ700 and a UH600 helicopter belonging to the US Army. Here's the audio of Air Traffic Control directing other aircraft around the scene, with video of the moment of impact. 

 

The American Eagle airliner was carrying 60 pax and a crew of four, all of whom are presumed dead. The precise number of victims was unclear as rescue crews are still hunting for survivors, and recovering the bodies of those who didn't make it.

We do know that the Army chopper was on a training flight -- OTJ training in the middle of one of America's busiest and most complex airspaces. We also know that until President Trump signed his EO a few days ago, the American military was prioritizing the hiring of vizmins, BIPOCs, wimmin, trannies and others who "experience sexuality differently", without regard to their aptitude or qualifications. 

We would like to know who was flying the helicopter at the fatal moment. Whose voice is heard saying they could see the airliner? Was he/she/it a DEI hire? Same question for the air traffic controller who apparently didn't realize that the two aircraft were flying at the same altitude or warn them of the impending collision.

Just asking, you understand.

UPDATE ADDED 2/2/25

Looks like I got the answer I was expecting. Not such an unwarranted suspicion as some have suggested. 

In this video, Michael 'Rocket' Blackstone, a professional pilot with 26 years as an airline pilot, as well as an aerobatic airshow performer and stunt pilot asserts that the likely causes of this horrific accident are now pointing toward the 28-year-old 500-hour pilot, Captain Rebecca Lobach.

Capt. Lobach was apparently at the controls of the PAT-25 H-60 helicopter. She was allegedly taking a competency check ride with Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Eaves, 39, who was evaluating her even though he had only about 1000 hours himself.. 

  

These H-60 pilots failed to "see and avoid" the American Eagle CRJ traffic called out by DCA tower after stating that they had the traffic in sight. Clearly, the H-60 crew did not have the traffic in sight, failed to steer left as directed to pass behind the CRJ, failed to fly at or below the required 200' MSL, maximum altitude on the helicopter route. 

The ATC controller passed the full responsibility of in-flight separation at night to a helicopter crew whom he saw never make any heading changes to avoid the American Airlines aircraft. 

Mr Blackstone argues that this situation was completely avoidable, and many regulatory changes must be implemented immediately to protect the flying public from the dangers of military training missions.

Your Singhs today (Peel Region, ON) - "They're stealing our butter!"

Agent 3's attention was caught by this headline in the Toronto Sun: "SPREAD 'EM: Accused butter bandits toast after Peel cops bust slippery scheme". "Butter bandits"??!! What kind of people would steal butter? But it's Peel Region, where the majority of people are from south Asia, so let's see...

What follows is a lightly edited version of the report on the Peel Regional Police blotter:

Investigators from the 22 Division Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) have arrested and charged six individuals in a theft investigation in Brampton. 

In December 2024, investigators became aware of a significant increase in theft of butter and ghee* from grocery stores within the Region of Peel, with losses of over $60,000 in stolen property in 2023. 

Project Flaherty [??? Did they think the perps were Irish?] was established to target and combat the increase in butter and ghee thefts. As a result, three individuals were charged with Possession of Property Obtained by Crime: Vishavjeet Singh, a 22-year-old man of no-fixed address; Sukmander Singh, a 23-year-old man from Brampton; Dalwal Singh Sidhu, a 28-year-old man from Brampton.

In addition, three individuals were arrested and charged with Theft Under $5000: Navdeep Chaudhary, a 22-year-old man from Brampton; Kamaldeep Singh, a 38-year-old man of no-fixed address; Harkerat Singh, a 25-year-old man of no-fixed address.

The six individuals will appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton at a later date. CIB continues to investigate these incidents, including which businesses are accepting these stolen products. Similar incidents have been reported across Ontario, including one in Brantford where suspects stole about $1200 [$840 in real money] worth of butter from a grocery store. 

The coppers didn't say anything about what all these Singhs got into Canada and what they're doing here when they're not stealing butter. Walt suspects that they are all students at the infamous Singh School of Truck Driving. Those with no fixed address likely live in their trucks as they cross and recross the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM) with loads of spreadables and "other stuff".

CTV News adds that Scott Tracey, a spokesperson Guelph Police Service, told them in November that there appears to be an online black market for butter. Good police work there, Scott! One "expert"  noted that that butter thefts would continue as long as the cost of living and food prices remained high. No shit, Sherlock!

*Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is commonly used for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for Hindu religious rituals. You're welcome.

Québec to force "newcomers" to adopt "common culture"

What follows is excerpted from a report in the Groan & Wail, Canada's national snoozepaper.

Québec’s immigration minister says newcomers to the province need to embrace the “common culture,” as the government looks to put Québec identity back at the forefront of the political agenda. 

The Québec government will table a new bill Thursday on the integration of immigrants, which will require newcomers to adhere to Québec values like gender equality and secularism. 

"We will be pretty clear. We are a nation, we have a culture, we have democratic values," Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge told reporters in Québec City as the provincial legislature resumed Tuesday following the holiday break. "And people coming here must accept that." (Walt's emphasis.)

M Roberge said the bill aims to prevent "ghettoization" of immigrant communities by defining a social contract that will emphasize French as the official language of Québec. He said Québec has never accepted the concept of Canadian multiculturalism, first outlined in a 1971 policy to promote cultural diversity and enshrined in law in 1988. 

Canada has not defined a common culture for the country, the minister said, and Québec prefers the idea of interculturalism, focused on integrating immigrants into Québec culture. Newcomers have a "moral duty" to adhere to Québec culture, M Roberge said, adding that there will be obligations laid out in the bill – mechanisms to ensure its principles are upheld, though he offered no details.

Walt doubts that most Québécois would equate "gender equality" and "secularism" with traditional Québec values. Obviously M Roberge has in mind the new, woke, "progressive" values which have been imported from the US of A -- the ones he refers to as "democratic values". There should be a capital D there.

Nevertheless, Walt thinks making "newcomers" -- presumably including the bogus refugees and asylum-seekers which Québec is trying to push into other provinces -- adapt to the values and customs of their unwilling hosts, rather than the other way around, is a good idea. Many people in the rest of Canuckistan will wish their governments had the cojones to follow this course. 

Note from Ed.: I had a hard time finding an appropriate illustration of "Québec values". That tells you all ye know and all ye need to know about this subject.

Fun fact for Chinese New Year

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, calls marketing "a dark science devoted to making people want t hings they don't need." Markeing ranks second on Mr Adams' list of Top Ten All-Time Evils. Here is the complete list.

1. Leadership - 2. Marketing - 3. Satan - 4. Human Resources - 5. Cannibalism - 6. Decaffeinated coffee - 7. Death squads - 8. Three-hour meetings - 9. Cats - 10. Hitler

What's all this nonsense about making Canada the 51st state?

News travels slowly to this corner of the forest, especially in winter. It has just come to the attention of this dual citizen that President Trump, in a meeting with Blackie McBlackface, Emperor of Canuckistan, that the latter's country would be better off joining the Excited States of America as the 51st state. Why, he said to Junior, you could even be the first governor. Or if not you, then Wayne Gretsky.

Chief Walking Goose allowed as how the frostbacks he rules might not want to join a country where everyone has a gun for self-defence, but not everyone has health insurance coverage provided by the government. But, said the Donald, if you don't join us voluntarily, we have ways of making you see reason (read: the way I see things).

Did he mean another invasion? As President James Madison said way back in 1812, "it would only be a matter of marching." Even President Trump, who ignores history that he doesn't like, knows how that turned out. So he assured M Trudeau and his minions that he wasn't talking about an armed invasion. Goodness, no! A 25% tariff on all Canadian goods and services would do just as well, or even better.

Since he said that, Canadians of all political stripes have had their knickers* in a twist over how to respond to the threatened tariffs. Some argue for a tit-for-tat tariff. [DJT sez: "OK then. Tat!"] Others say maybe joining the US of A isn't such a bad idea. It would cure their government's terminal wokeness once and for all, without an election, let alone an assassination.

What they are forgetting is that Canada and the US of A have been arguing about, threatening, negotiating and renegotiating tariffs since before Canada was even a country. In fact, it was the threat of American tariffs against Canada that forced the assorted provinces to unite as one country (more or less), beginning in 1867. What follows is adapted from Stone Country, by George Bowering, Canada's first poet laureate, Penguin Canada 2003. 

The US war with the Confederate States of America complicated Canadian politics greatly. A lot of Canadians joined the Blue Coats to fight against the slave economy. But the British, still smarting from bad experiences with their former colonies, built warships that wound up in Grey Coat hands. 

These ships made a great nuisance of themselves in the Union shipping lanes, and when the war was all but over, President Lincoln started talking about reprisals, especially the receiving-huge-acreage kind of reprisals. Luckily this sort of talk tapered off after Lincoln's assassination, and the work was left to the feckless Fenians. 

In 1871, the case was closed when Britain agreed that it should pay some monetary compensations. But the big new republic was a place in which business and the military were learning to butter each other's buttocks. If military annexation was not going to look all that good, there were always economic means.

In 1854 the US and British North America had signed a Reciprocity Treaty, which had proven quite handy for the businessmen on both sides, and during their big war, the US had been happy to get fish, food, minerals and wood without paying tariffs on them. But when the war was over, the US Senate began to listen to the complains of businessmen whose business was fish, coal and lumber. 

Listen, said these businessmen, we need protection from these foreign traders. Don't you remember that we just recently fought a couple of wars with them? Don't you realize that if we put up tariffs they will eventually beg for annexation so they can make a living? 

The US withdrew from the Reciprocity Treaty in 1866, whereupon some economic realists proposed the idea of a confederation of the several provinces. Said Sir John Eh Macdonald, who would become the first prime minister, "I'll drink to that!", and so the Dominion of Canada was born. 

This was the kind of thing that made Canadian schoolchildren decide that history was kind of boring. US schoolchildren, of course, never heard abut it. But over the years there have been a lot of apoplectic fits, suicides and desertions caused by the tariffs that keep showing up at the US border.

The lesson for DJT, should he deign to pay attention, is that Canadians will find a way to keep the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM) intact and still do business with the new imperial America. Most of them -- let's say 50% + 1 -- reject the idea of joining the Excited States of America, even if staying out costs them a bit more. As those arch-Canucks, Bob & Doug McKenzie, would put it:

* Note from Ed. to American readers: "Knickers" is what the Brits call ladies' underpants. Canadians call them "panties", like Americans do.

To all our Chinese readers, friends and family

Walt, Poor Len [and Ed.! Ed.]

wish all our Chinese friends and readers

a happy and prosperous Year of the Snake!

GONG XI FA CAI!

KUNG HEI FAT CHOY!

VIDEO: Remembering Christmases past

Those of us who follow the Julian calendar, the Christmas season is just ending. Things ain't what they used to be. A lot of the old customs and traditions have been lost, or (dare say it?) surpressed for reasons of political correctness. Even the word "Christmas" itself has been effectively banned. Note the title at the end of this video.

Agent 5 has been good enough to send along this vintage video, made by Canada's National Film Board, showing how the great Christian holy day was celebrated by the Ukrainian community in the province of Manitoba, 82 years ago.

   

Makes you wish you could turn back the clock, doesn't it? We hope all our Ukrainian readers, friends and family have had a good and holy holiday. And we send everyone our best wishes for health, peace and prosperity in the New Year.