Time to lower our elbows and make a deal

Time to lower our elbows and make a deal

Canada’s “elbows-up” approach to American tariffs has been unique among market-based economies. What have the EU, Japan, South Korea, U.K. and especially Mexico done differently and what lessons might we learn from them? Mexico has recently announced it wants to complete trade negotiations with the U.S. before the November midterms. That would leave Canada as a jilted bride.

The prime minister and the country obviously had a difficult hand to play in dealing with President Donald Trump — erratic, unreliable, crude and rude — and his clear desire to make Canada the 51st state rightfully angered Canadians.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Canada - USA Tariff Wars", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Piddington migrant camp dealt another blow after discovery of one of world’s rarest bats at planned asylum site

Piddington migrant camp dealt another blow after discovery of one of world’s rarest bats at planned asylum site

The migrant camp set to be opened close to the Oxfordshire village of Piddington has been dealt another blow following the discovery that one of the world’s rarest bats is living on the site.

Barbastelle bats, a rare species of bats whose numbers are thought to have declined across Europe, have been detected by wildlife experts.

The discovery of the bats could lead to severe delays or scupper plans to house up to 1,256 asylum seekers on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Bicester site.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCamp Of The Saints

BRULOTTE: The North Atlantic is a strategic front again — Canada is not ready

BRULOTTE: The North Atlantic is a strategic front again — Canada is not ready

For most of the generation that followed the Cold War, Canadians had the luxury of forgetting about the North Atlantic. The Soviet Union disappeared, NATO expanded eastward, and the waters between North America and Europe seemed less like a strategic front than a vast and secure highway connecting friendly countries. That comfortable assumption is now dangerously out of date.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Arctic Sovereignty", "CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", "Canadian Sovereignty", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Trump considering ‘blowing up entire nation’ of Iran

Trump considering ‘blowing up entire nation’ of Iran

Donald Trump said he was considering “blowing up the entire nation” of Iran amid claims the US was preparing to resume military action against the regime.

The US president also suggested he could “let them rot economically”, as Tehran is squeezed by a naval blockade, or strike a peace deal.

Iran on Sunday said it was preparing for possible air strikes and threatened to retaliate. US embassies and the US state department issued security alerts this weekend amid fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"US Israel Iran War"

Why would Canada want to hitch itself to the EU?

Why would Canada want to hitch itself to the EU?

“Canada has what the world wants,” Mark Carney likes to tell people. But what does Canada want? The European Union, apparently. The bloc’s President, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced that Canada would become its first “associate member.” This is happening, she said, because “above all… Europe and Canada believe in democracy.”

Really? The EU spent years trying to block Brexit. And in 2015, when Greece voted to reject the conditions on EU loans, Brussels replied with even more stringent conditions. “There can be no democratic choice against the European treaties,” von der Leyen’s predecessor said at the time. But the rise of right-wing parties across Europe – most recently, the AfD’s election victory in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt – is proof many have lost confidence in the EU project.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government, European Union

Canada, France to Develop Shared Space Launch Infrastructure

Canada, France to Develop Shared Space Launch Infrastructure

Canada and France have asked their space agencies and defense departments to develop and share infrastructure including space-launch systems, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on a visit to a French territory near Newfoundland and Labrador.

The prime minister made the announcement Sunday alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at Saint-Pierre, the capital of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, a French archipelago that sits just off Canada’s Atlantic coast. No timelines or funding commitments were disclosed.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government, France

Over 400 officers, hidden mics and tracking devices: How a ‘challenging’ investigation exposed an alleged network of corrupt Toronto cops

Over 400 officers, hidden mics and tracking devices: How a ‘challenging’ investigation exposed an alleged network of corrupt Toronto cops

On a day in late January, Toronto detective Antonio D’Onofrio took his place in a Newmarket courtroom.

He was one of hundreds who’d worked on the months-long investigation now known as Project South, a case that began as a probe into an armed home invasion targeting a manager at a Toronto jail but had since ballooned into one of the largest investigations of criminal corruption in the Toronto Police Service’s history.

D’Onofrio, an officer with Toronto police’s professional standards unit, was seeking a justice of the peace’s sign-off to execute a series of raids that would see several of his fellow officers arrested.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime

Wendell Berry’s Warning for the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Wendell Berry’s Warning for the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In 1987, Wendell Berry’s essay “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer” appeared in Harper’s. The personal computer had by then become ubiquitous. Manufacturers of hardware and software were booming, and as in most booms, many jumped on the hype bandwagon.

Berry’s point in his essay remains clear — the progress of machines is not identical with human progress. Replying to the many people who told him that he could improve his writing by using a computer instead of his pencil, pad, and Royal typewriter, he challenged their underlying premise — that emulating machines is the highest good.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"AI - Artificial Intelligence"

GOLDSTEIN: U.S., not EU, the priority on trade

GOLDSTEIN: U.S., not EU, the priority on trade

Whatever becoming an “associate member” of the European Union means, what it does is drive home the importance of Prime Minister Mark Carney reaching a deal with the U.S. on trade.

Last year, the value of Canadian goods exported to the 27-member-country EU was $43 billion, or 5.5% of our total merchandise exports of $779 billion.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Canada - USA Tariff Wars", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, European Union

The Muslim Brotherhood: Follow the Money

The Muslim Brotherhood: Follow the Money

Words can kill. Washington knows that radical narratives can prepare the ground for radical action. But ideology alone does not sustain organizations, build international networks or finance operations. They need money. And recent actions by the U.S. government raise a question that deserves much greater attention: How extensive are the transnational financial networks connecting Muslim Brotherhood affiliates, front organizations and designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West, Muslim Brotherhood