Shock and Outrage as Masked Antifa Crowd Blocks and Shouts at Elderly Couple in Canada

Antifa - the #PCMadness police are leading the 'Cancel Culture'

against free speech and sanity

Screenshots © Twitter / @ThinGrayLine01

Several Antifa members crowded around an elderly woman with a rolling walker, blocking her from crossing a street outside a college in Canada, where they held a rally against a local MP, ending with scuffles and arrests.

The ugly scene took place amid a loud Antifa protest outside Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario on Sunday. Video of the event, shared on social media, shows an elderly couple attempting to cross the street on a marked crosswalk as four masked protesters deliberately loom over them, blocking their path.

Soon, Antifa will be blocking people from voting as it makes a shambles of democracy.

The couple remained calm, seemingly trying to reason with the protesters. One incensed activist appears to be screaming at the woman in response and later makes an aggressive hand gesture to the man accompanying her.

Andy Ngo✔
@MrAndyNgo
Antifa protesters scream at & block elderly couple outside an event featuring conservative politician @MaximeBernier & @RubinReport. Further violence broke out, leading to two arrests. Mohawk College had faced massive campaign to cancel the event. 

The Antifa activists had their faces hidden by scarves and hoodies during the exchange, while one wore a ski mask. Other activists could be heard shouting “Nazi scum – off our street!” It is unclear how the argument between the protesters and the elderly couple started, and whether they let the couple go in the end.

"Nazi scum - off our street" is remarkably like the Nazi attitude toward Jews in pre-WWII Germany. Curious how things get twisted around like that. It should be against the law to cover your face like that unless you are on a ski hill or in a blizzard or there's an air quality alert.

The treatment of the couple, nevertheless, sparked outrage on Twitter. “This makes me sick,” one person wrote.

“The poor woman couldn’t even walk by herself. Do these guys think there (sic) tough for picking on the elderly?” another commenter said.

Antifa activists showed up outside Mohawk College to protest against politician Maxime Bernier, who was holding a fundraiser there. After briefly serving as foreign minister in the late 2000s, he quit Canada’s Tories last year to form the right-wing People’s Party, and currently serves as its sole MP.

Bernier advocates for stricter immigration laws and strongly opposes what he calls the “extreme multiculturalism and cult of diversity” of incumbent liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This predictably triggered the ire of Antifa, who have turned up to protest at several of Bernier’s events across the country.

Sunday’s rally was marred by sporadic scuffles between the protesters and Bernier supporters. Police intervened, arresting four people.

Jordan Peterson Doc Still Gets Premiere After Finding Itself Under ‘Cancel Culture’ Chopping Block

Jordan Peterson doc still gets premiere after finding itself under ‘cancel culture’ chopping block

©Instagram / @holdingspacefilms

A documentary tracking the rise of conservative figure Jordan Peterson has faced hurdles getting to the big screen in his home country of Canada, with the creators telling RT the difficulties signal deeper problems in the West.

A psychology professor and author, Peterson first rose to international prominence for his vocal and unapologetic opposition to extreme political correctness and identity politics. The firm stance won him quite a few supporters worldwide – and at least as many critics, who see him as a transgender-hating custodian of the patriarchy, whose ‘archaic’ views don’t deserve any platform in the woke modern world.

Filmmaker Patricia Marcoccia knew Peterson before he became an international phenomenon and she witnessed his meteoric burst into the public consciousness and watched as his profile grew exponentially in recent years. Her observations form the basis of the documentary ‘The Rise of Jordan Peterson’ which expands on an earlier film aired by Canadian public broadcaster CBC last year.

The film was due to be screened for a week in Canada by Carlton Cinema, a Toronto-based chain specializing in foreign and independent movies, but the screenings were scrapped. The cancellation reportedly followed complaints by some employees that they were uncomfortable with Peterson as the documentary’s subject. Controversial subject matter is apparently off limits these days, as the hyper-vigilant political correctness police gain more and more influence over what is (and is not) acceptable to say in public. 

The uproar over the Peterson film was somewhat ironic, Marcoccia told RT, because as far as the company knows, those doing the complaining haven’t even seen the documentary, and as such, are hardly best placed to make judgements. 

The controversy signals a wider problem with divisiveness, online echo chambers and an inability to accept others’ political opinions in the West, the film’s producer Maziar Ghaderi told RT.

“These days politics in the West has become so polarized that people don’t even speak with people that they disagree with — and social media makes it really easy to do that, and that’s very sad,” Ghaderi said.

“This political stuff shouldn’t be the center of your world.”

video 22:37

Carlton Cinema’s abrupt decision to back out is not the only cancellation the filmmakers have faced, either. Other theaters rejected the film too, arguing that it was “unethical” to contribute to the “cult of personality” around Peterson, Marcoccia claimed.

“[Some theaters] said if people don’t like Jordan Peterson, they won’t pay money to see a film about him. There were all sorts of reasons we were getting,” she added.

This kind of obfuscation is understandable, but regrettable, Ghaderi said, explaining that the intention with the documentary was to show that Peterson is neither devil incarnate nor conservative messiah — but a regular, living, breathing person. They hoped they could use the film to help overcome increased political polarization in society and encourage honest dialogue between warring factions in the culture wars. 

Yet, it seems gone are the days, when people at least waited until they had viewed the contentious movie or actually read the controversial book before calling for it to be scrapped.

The hand-wringing over the Peterson documentary comes as the latest in a series of attempts in the West to silence alternative or anti-mainstream views through public pressure and “cancel culture.” Controversial public figures, often those expressing conservative views, can easily find themselves “cancelled” by liberal society or face outright censorship on social media. 

From ironically wearing blackface over a decade ago to suggesting a three-year-old isn’t mature enough to decide its own gender, the list of offenses for which one can be excommunicated from polite society is growing by the day.

Barbara Kay
@BarbaraRKay
Cineplex now has permitted The Rise of Jordan Peterson documentary to play in their theatres across the country. https://www.thepostmillennial.com/cineplex-stands-up-for-free-speech-will-show-jordan-peterson-film/ …

Over the past couple of years, controversial conservative commentators like Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer have found themselves banned from Facebook. Others, like Steven Crowder, have had their YouTube accounts demonetized for the crime of expressing non-mainstream ideas.

Eager to comply with the demands of the liberal zeitgeist, YouTube went on a banning spree earlier this year, axing accounts for “extreme” content — but the Google-owned video platform did so with such gusto that even educational channels discussing topics like the history of Nazi Germany got swept up under the ban brush. It’s within that context that the Peterson documentary seems to be offering up a bit more than the PC police can handle.

Despite the hurdles, however, ‘The Rise of Jordan Peterson’ did get a chance for a theatrical premiere after Canada’s Cineplex chain agreed to screen it on a cinema-on-demand basis. 

Holding Space Films
@HoldSpaceFilms
We were blown away by the thoughtful comments, overwhelming support and open conversation at our sold-out world premiere here in Toronto! Thank you to everyone who participated. Hope to see you at one of our upcoming screenings: http://riseofjordanpetersonfilm.com 
 #RJPFilm


Marcoccia and Ghaderi said they had received positive feedback, with viewers describing the film as unbiased and thought-provoking. That’s enough to consider their endeavor a success, they said, since that’s how they hoped the work would be regarded.

There is respect to the audience in that we don’t dumb down things and oversimplify the narrative to make it fit into a simple story. We are being honest and reflect back reality.

Here are a Few Climate-Change Head Scratchers for Canadian Voters to Ponder

An eclectic list of little-known facts, head-scratching paradoxes

and utter hypocrisy

Canadians are facing a bewildering array of information and disinformation on the environment in the leadup to the federal election, writes Gwyn Morgan.Getty Images

Special to Financial Post

Gwyn Morgan

With energy and the environment playing an important role in the fall election, Canadians face starkly different policy positions from political parties, together with a bewildering array of information and disinformation. Here is my rather eclectic list of little-known facts, head-scratching paradoxes and utter hypocrisy.

CLIMATE EMERGENCY

On June 17, the House of Commons passed a motion declaring a National Climate Emergency.

Firstly, there is no such thing as a “national” climate emergency. Climate change is global, not national, and Canada’s contribution to global CO2 emissions is a minuscule 1.6 per cent. Here are the answers to some questions that will help you assess whether there’s really a “climate emergency.”

Apocalyptic projections of rapid sea level rises are driving municipal and provincial governments on both our east and west coasts to implement “sea level rise plans” that include sterilizing waterfront from development, building sea barriers and even buying out and destroying homes that are deemed vulnerable. So just how fast are sea levels rising? Here again the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides the answer. Despite all the calamitous rhetoric, the NOAA states that sea levels “continue to rise at the rate of about one-eighth of an inch (3.2 mm) per year.” At that rate, a house built 10 feet above sea level today would still be 9 feet 7 inches above sea level 40 years from now.

After hundreds of billions of dollars invested, wind and solar

contribute just two per cent of global energy supply

CLIMATE CHANGE HYPOCRISY

South Africa, India, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan and China, all signatories to the Paris climate accord, are building a combined 1,800 new coal-fired power plants. Coal plants emit twice as much CO2 as natural gas plants. Meanwhile, international environmental groups campaign against sending Canadian LNG to those countries. And here at home, the Trudeau Liberals have just introduced a tax specifically designed to discourage the building of new cleaner-burning gas-fired power plants as they continue to pursue the fantasy that wind and solar will keep the lights on. Good luck with that. After hundreds of billions of dollars invested, wind and solar contribute just two per cent of global energy supply. And that’s only when the wind is blowing, and the sun is shining.

CLIMATE CHANGE MONOVISION

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would have us believe that fossil fuel emissions are the sole reason for climate change. But what about urbanization and deforestation? A study by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs states that the urban population rose from 750 million in 1950 to 4.2 billion in 2018. We don’t need the IPCC’s hugely complex computer models to know that cities are hotter. All we have to do is walk from a paved sun-heated street lined with concrete buildings to a grassy park. Rather than reflecting the sun’s rays back to outer space, all that concrete and pavement absorbs the sun rays, creating a giant heat sink. Likewise, deforestation is turning vast tracts of cool African and South American jungles into heat-absorbing barrens. The U.S. EPA summarizes the combined effect, “Processes such as deforestation and urbanization … contribute to changes in climate.” Trying to deal with any problem without considering all possible causes is both a foolish and dangerous strategy.

FIRST, DO NO HARM

The Liberal government’s proposed “national clean fuel standard” requires increased biofuel content in motor fuels. Government mandated biofuel content requirements in North America and the EU have driven the burning of critically important jungle habitat to make way for palm oil plantations. On the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, over 50,000 Orangutans have died because of palm oil deforestation.

WHO BURNS THE STUFF ANYWAY

Several municipal Councils, including Toronto and Victoria, are looking to sue fossil-fuel producers for causing climate change, but 70 per cent of emissions come from their own constituents. And imagine their outcry if fuel producers failed to deliver!

B.C. GREEN INCOHERENCE 

B.C. Premier Horgan, a champion of carbon taxes, called an enquiry to investigate high gasoline prices, but prohibited the enquiry panel from considering the price impact of provincial taxes. He also wants Alberta to build a new refinery to supply his province, but he’s against the pipeline that’s needed to carry it.

SORRY, ONLY FOREIGN TANKERS ALLOWED

The Trudeau government implemented a tanker ban prohibiting movement of Canadian oil on the northern B.C. coast. Meanwhile, hundreds of tankers churn through the delicate and much more enclosed St. Lawrence estuaries carrying oil from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, Iraq, Nigeria, Angola and Algeria. And while ship/whale collisions are virtually unheard-of on BC’s northern coast, those foreign oil tankers move through waters where a critically endangered Northern Right Whale was killed in a ship collision just last month.

THE GREAT ANTI-OIL INDUSTRY WARRIOR IS BACK

Gerald Butts, former personal secretary to the prime minister, is back to help the Liberals win re-election. Before joining the Prime Minster’s Office (PMO), Butts was CEO of World Wildlife Canada (WWF), an organization dedicated to “landlocking” the oilsands by stopping new pipelines. In his role as head honcho of the PMO, he was the mastermind behind policies that could cripple our country’s oil industry. Gerald Butts has admitted via his Twitter account to receiving $361,642 from WWF during his first two years at the PMO. He claims it was severance, but how many Canadians have ever received severance for quitting their job?

So there you have it, my list of points to ponder through those long and balmy mid-summer evenings that “we the north” enjoy.

Gwyn Morgan is the retired founding CEO of Encana Corp. 

'CO2 is Plant Food': Australian Group Signs International Declaration Denying Climate Science

Mining engineers and business leaders among those joining Clintel group targeting UN

Admittedly, this group is hardly unbiased, but who else is going to stand up for the truth? Science has abandoned truth when it comes to climate change!

Graham Readfearn
The Guardian

Hazelwood mines in Morwell, Victoria  Meredith O'Shea/The Guardian

A group of 75 Australian former and current business figures – including mining engineers and retired geologists – have signed on to an international declaration targeting the UN and the EU and claiming “there is no climate emergency” and that “CO2 is plant food”.

Several of the signatories to the group – which described itself as Clintel – have high-level links to conservative politics, industry and mining.

They include Hugh Morgan, a former president of the Business Council of Australia, and Ian Plimer, a director on Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill Holdings iron ore project.

The move was designed to coincide with the UN’s climate action summit and general assembly in New York.

Also signing the declaration is Dr Peter Ridd, the former James Cook University scientist who claims that devastating bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef are not driven by climate change.

He also proved they are not nearly as widespread as his colleagues suggest.

Ridd was backed by Queensland’s beef and sugar cane industries to deliver a speaking tour in an attempt to undermine the science linking run-off from farms and poor water quality to coral declines. His views have helped force a Coalition-backed Senate inquiry into reef science.

The former chief scientist Ian Chubb compared Ridd’s efforts to the misinformation campaigns run by the tobacco industry on the impacts of cigarettes on public health.

The Clintel group describes itself as “a new, high-level global network of 500 prominent climate scientists and professionals” but it bears similarities to at least one previous network.

In an open letter addressed to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the UN’s chief climate negotiator, Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, the group describes the benefits of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as “imagined”.

One “ambassador” of the group is a Queensland-based coal-mining veteran, Viv Forbes. Another is the well-known British peer Christopher Monckton, who once likened the leading Australian economist and climate adviser Prof Ross Garnaut to a Nazi.

Australia PM Adviser Says Climate Change is 'UN-led Ruse to Establish New World Order'

The letter repeats well-worn and long-debunked talking points on climate change that are contradicted by scientific institutions and academies around the world, as well as the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The IPCC doesn't accept any scientific research that denies, or even mitigates, anthropogenic global warming. They have made it very clear in UN Agenda 21 that they would support scientific research that proves global warming is anthropogenic. Consequently, they won't support any climate research that might come to another conclusion. What this means is that scientific research must start with a foregone conclusion, and if the research shows otherwise, it must be discarded or reworked until it agrees with the IPCC's intent. This is not scientific research; it's propaganda!

The letter says: “Scientists should openly address the uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real benefits as well as the imagined costs of adaptation to global warming, and the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of mitigation.”

The prominent Clintel member Hugh Morgan, a former chief executive of the Western Mining Corporation, was until his resignation in 2017 a founding director and shareholder in the Cormack Foundation – a $70m funding vehicle for the Liberal party.

In 2016 Morgan co-signed a climate science denial statement from a group calling itself “Clexit” and formed in the wake of the UK’s Brexit vote.

That group, which had many of the same members and organisers as the Clintel group, described human-caused climate change as a “mass delusion” and claimed that adding CO2 to the atmosphere would be good for the planet.

The Clexit group said nations “should not tolerate UN and EU bureaucrats manipulating science in order to justify their dreams to redistribute wealth”.

Last week the UK-based thinktank InfluenceMap, which analyses corporate lobbying on climate change, named the Minerals Council of Australia in a global top 10 of “opponents of climate policy globally”.

This week a report for the UN climate summit reiterated the catastrophic consequences for human society of continued fossil fuel burning.

Is there ever a week when a 'scientific' paper comes out that doesn't raise the alarm? I give credit to the Guardian for at least covering this story, but it would be really nice if they went more in depth to see if there is more than just greed behind their claims. 

Perhaps they should cover stories about the scientists in China and Russia who are more concerned about global cooling in this century than global warming. Perhaps they should do a story on Prof. Murry Salby whose research proved that historically CO2 peaks followed global warming peaks by about 800 years. And they should look at how horribly he was treated for his findings. There is a genuine black-listing of scientists who are not 'in the game' of climate alarmism.

Global Warming - Getting Off the Fence (Updated)

Far-Left Sweden Tries Again to Indoctrinate Kids into #PCMadness Culture

Sweden could drop ancient history from school curriculum

in favor of gender roles & postmodernism

Future Swedish children may have no clue what this is © Global Look / Liang Youchang

Swedish state schools may drop ancient and medieval history from the curriculum to make room for postmodernism and “democratic values,” according to a controversial new proposal that has enraged many Swedes, local media reports.

The history of “ancient civilizations, from prehistoric times to around 1700” is absent in a proposed new curriculum for Swedish state primary schools in favor of focus on modern history and social sciences, Anna Westerholm, the Swedish National Agency for Education’s curriculum department head, told Svenska Dagbladet on Thursday. Tight class schedules leave no room for it, she said.

History has already been de-prioritized through “extensive deletions,” according to SvD, and formative eras like the Roman Empire and the Viking Age will now be removed altogether in favor of subjects like immigration, the environment, climate, “norm-challenging,” critical theory, “democratic values,” and gender roles. The emphasis will be on a “postmodernist view” of society, rather than the classical philosophical tradition, SvD reports, and history classes will focus on Western colonialism, nationalism, and the slave trade.

Westerholm reasoned that trying to squeeze too much history into the school year often forces teachers to cut off instruction before they even make it to World War II – meaning they miss out on learning about the post-war period. Additionally, teachers and students have complained that grading criteria are “difficult to interpret” and “long and complicated.”

“It hurts us too,” she sympathized, insisting the agency had done a “fairly thorough examination of how content and hours match” and found that removing ancient and medieval history “hurts the least.”

The idea has incensed professors and educational professionals. History professor Dick Harrison, speaking to Aftonbladet, called the idea “bizarre and baffling,” while Dagens Nyheter literature critic Maria Schottenius called it “crazy” and warned it would deprive students of a connection to their heritage.

“If you have no knowledge of the ancient, you can have no respect for the future either,” social science and ancient culture scholar Jenny Wallensten, of the Swedish Institute in Athens, told SvD, calling the new proposal “absurd.”

“To erase antiquity from history teaching? Unfortunate,” former Minister of Education Jan Björklund tweeted, adding that “the same proposal came when I was a minister, but I stopped it.”

While students have the option of studying ancient history in high school, those enrolled in vocational programs get very little exposure to it, Westerholm admits.

The new curriculum also emphasizes the reading of Norwegian and Danish texts and includes discussion of honor killings in social studies. Vocational education is deemphasized and students are given fewer electives, according to Swedish outlet Bohusläningen, while more hours are devoted to mathematics and sports.

Discussing honour killings would be a good thing, as would discussing female genital mutilation. But to sacrifice the rich history and culture of Swedish people in an effort to transform the next generation into politically correct lunatics is sheer madness and yet another form of child abuse. It's always the children who have to pay for the madness of adults.

Relentless Dark Talk About Climate Change is Harming Kids

DAVID STAPLES, EDMONTON JOURNAL

A girl wears face paint as schoolchildren take part in a student climate protest on March 15, 2019 in London, England.

 JACK TAYLOR / GETTY IMAGES, FILE

Canadian parents were put on the spot by their children this week.

You see, climate change is the hot subject at schools across the country. Teen activist Greta Thunberg is in the news. Children were asked to take part in Thunberg’s Global Climate Strike.

This led to kids asking difficult questions of their parents: Is it OK to miss school to protest? Is climate change real? Is there anything we can do about it?

When I was asked these questions by my own daughter, I answered carefully, partly because I wanted her to make up her own mind, but also because I wanted to avoid the relentlessly dark talk about climate change, talk that is harming our kids.

It is nothing less than child abuse

This phenomenon is so pronounced that a new term has developed to describe the psychological impact on people: eco-anxiety.

As Psychology Today describes it: “Eco-anxiety is a fairly recent psychological disorder afflicting an increasing number of individuals who worry about the environmental crisis.”

It doesn't help that virtually every day a new report comes out spelling doom and disaster. Nor does it help that climate alarmists including left wing governments and media are targeting children with their message of terror. It's hyperbole beyond all reason or sanity and it is terrifying our children. It is nothing less than child abuse.

It’s not just adults gripped by eco-anxiety, it’s children, in large part because many adults are describing to them a future ripped apart by climatic catastrophes. Thunberg herself spoke of this dark vision in her speech Monday to the United Nations Climate Action Summit: “People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction …”

Psychologist Christine Korol, who specializes in treating anxiety disorders at the Vancouver Anxiety Centre, says her teen daughter recently came home from school with news that a teacher had advised her students not to ever have children because of coming ecological catastrophe.

Little wonder then that Korol has had many parents coming to her for advice on how to help their anxious kids. Korol says this anxiety can take the form of despair, helplessness, and obsession about recycling or not burning fossil fuels.

One way to cope is to take action, such as making a YouTube video on the issue or participating in the Global Climate Strike, Korol says. “That’s a great way of coping so I hope that mitigates some of the anxiety, if they feel like they’re taking action.”

There is no climate change crises

and there is no need for alarm

To answer my own daughter, I told her I was no expert on climate science, but that the scientific consensus right now is that climate change is real and that the world is getting warmer.

That said — and I stressed this point — there is no climate change crises and there is no need for alarm.

I know this statement will astonish some folks, especially our many climate alarmists. But the world’s smartest and wisest thinkers and leaders have devised a great solution to climate change — converting to a safe, reliable source of abundant carbon-free energy, nuclear power.

Right now we are grossly under-estimating our ability to handle climate change. Yes, it’s going to take time and money to fully develop a nuclear economy. It’s also going to take political will, as many influential leaders such as Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, 65, and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, 70, have antiquated ideas and are fiercely opposed to nuclear power.

The fact is that our new 21st century nuclear reactors have never had major safety issues. They can power electrical grids, rapidly cut carbon emissions and become a source of cheap energy that raises hundreds of millions more people out of poverty.

Nuclear power is not only carbon-free, but one small nuclear plant creates a massive amount of power, says nuclear engineer Mark Schneider, a leading U.S. expert on nuclear power. This gives nuclear the lowest carbon and green footprint of any form of energy production.

It’s also reliable. It’s not dependent on windy days and sunny skies to work.

And because it’s scrutinized so closely, it’s got the best record for safety.

Nuclear already drives prosperous, low-carbon economies in France and Sweden. And nuclear is no pipe dream in Canada. Reactors have safely supplied two-thirds of the power for Ontario’s electrical grid for many decades.

The good news is that nuclear energy is strongly backed by industrialists like Bill Gates, environmental activists like Micheal Shellenberger and by both Andrew Scheer’s Conservative Party and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, two parties that will likely get about 75 per cent of the votes in the coming election.

I can’t think of a more hopeful message for our children.

All we have to do now is convince anxious and alarmist adults to get over their fears and to quit scaring children, especially about nuclear energy.

Burning fossil fuels caused global warming. But fossil thinking is the only thing preventing us from stopping it.

It has yet to be proven how much of a contribution fossil fuels make to climate change. It may be substantial, or it may not be that significant. Climate change alarmists are very secretive with their computer models as opposed to putting them out for scientific scrutiny by their peers as good, ethical science would require.

There is some disagreement about whether or not domesticated feed animals contribute more to climate change than fossil fuels. Certainly, deforestation is a significant contributor as well. 

But unbiased scientists know that CO2 and global warming are not closely linked through history. 

Also, there is a global political movement behind this alarmism. It is not science-driven as we are led to believe, but the politics is driving the science and anyone with scientific evidence that counters or mitigates the panic is quickly silenced. 

Corruption is Everywhere - Even in an Estonian Bank

Estonian banker embroiled in money laundering scandal found dead

FILE PHOTO: Danske Bank flags at the bank's Estonian branch in Tallinn © Reuters / Ints Kalnins

The former boss of Danske Bank in Estonia, Aivar Rehe, was found dead on Wednesday after almost two days of searching, police have confirmed.

The 56-year-old banker left his home in Tallinn on Monday, leaving his dog and phone behind. After the search of a nearby forest, and places he usually visited, ended on Tuesday night, police continued looking for the man on Wednesday. Some 40 people, including volunteers, took part in the operation and drones were deployed to cover a wider area.

The body of the banker was eventually found in his backyard, according to local media. The report claims that everything at the scene points toward death by suicide. Police earlier said that the man was a danger to himself.

Rehe headed Danske Bank’s Estonian branch from 2006 to 2015, including the period when the lender was at the center of a €200-billion ($230-billion) money laundering scandal. He was not considered to be a suspect in the scheme.

Estonia’s central bank said that it saw more than $1 trillion in money flows between 2008 and 2017. While the regulator did not deem the transactions suspicious at the time, such a large amount of cross-border money flows is impressive for a tiny European country with an economic output of around $25 billion.

Editor Of Kuwaiti Daily Calls To 'Rescue The World From The Persian Nazism'

In a September 17, 2019 article titled 'Rescue the World from the Persian Nazism,' Ahmed Al-Jarallah, editor-in-chief of the Kuwaiti English-language daily Arab Times, wrote that the issue of confronting Iran is no longer just a matter of thwarting the Persian expansion project but a matter of countering a threat to global security. In this situation, he said, American and European notions of going back to the Barack Obama policy of rapprochement with Iran are no longer feasible; the world must act to ensure a steady supply of oil at reasonable prices, for a failure to do so will result in a global recession. Al-Jarallah added that a failure to respond to Iran's aggression will be a degrading surrender, even more humiliating than the 1938 Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany, which led to World War II.[1]  

The following is his September 17 article, as it appeared in Arab Times.[2]

Ahmed Al-Jarallah (source: Arab Times, Kuwait)

"The issue of confrontation with Iran has gone beyond self-defense and thwarting the Persian regional expansion project, over which the Arab coalition forces are clashing with Houthi gangsters in Yemen, to threat against global interests and stability.

"For this, the equivocal and softening doors policy behind political skirmishes and crossfire for possible US-Iranian summit on the sideline of the United Nations General Assembly meetings is no longer an election tool through which President Donald Trump can win military opposition votes for war in his country.

"There is no more room for European mediation on the issue of relationship with Iran. The world either defends its interests to ensure oil supply at moderate prices or succumb to the state of terrorism by allowing the Mullah regime, which stakes success in blackmail, to dictate the pace.

"The nature of attacks on Saudi oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khuris with pieces of evidence gathered by the United States and satellite images absolutely ruled out the possibility that the Houthis carried out the attacks. This is because they do not have such capabilities and the distance is far. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Twitter: 'The proofs affirm that the attacks did not emanate from Yemen,' so he accused Iran of being behind the attacks on Saudi Arabia.

"This means Iraq or Iran is behind the attacks and the international community must take drastic action. Failure to do so will bring about recurrence of the 1973 scenario in a more volatile way. Shortage of oil supply from Saudi Arabia specifically, and the Arabian Gulf generally, may lead to global economic recession which will be unbearable for the West regardless of the rate of strategic reserve in America and others.

"In the era of satellite which surveys the world every hour; there is no secret, especially in the area of rockets, their bases and paths. Therefore, any global effort to thwart response to the attacks amounts to degrading surrender to the devilish Mullah regime. It will be more degrading than the Munich pact that gave German Nazism the opportunity to violate many countries and pushed for the World War in which 80 million people died. Every reasonable person understands these facts and knows where the lack of action may lead to, most especially if the price of a barrel of oil exceeds $100.

"It is possible to thwart the Iranian terrorism right now through serious international punishment, which will assist citizens repressed by the Mullah regime to topple the system. However, any compromise by going back to the Barack Obama type of policy, when he ignored the chemical bombing in Syria, will give birth to tens of terrorist groups similar to DAESH; in addition to making the world a victim of Iranian threat. Will the international community accept being controlled by the terrorist gang and new Nazism?

"This is an official question for the international community, part of which is trying to exploit the situation to remarket the Iranian Mullah internationally."

  

[1] It should be noted that, in an article he published one day earlier, on September 16, Jarallah argued  that the recent Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia should not lead to war with Iran but should be countered by maximizing the economic pressure on Iran (Arab Times, Kuwait,  September 16, 2019).

[2] Arab Times (Kuwait),  September 17, 2019.

Corruption is Everywhere - You Better Believe in Afghanistan and It's Costing Americans

U.S. cuts $160M in Afghan aid over government 'corruption'

In the Middle East - SW Asia wars, bags and suitcases full of American cash disappeared into the quagmire of political corruption, para-military forces and drug warlords. This is at least a step in the right direction.

By Darryl Coote

(UPI) -- The United States has cut $100 million in planned aid for Afghanistan and is withholding an additional $60 million due to government corruption and mismanagement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

In a written statement, Pompeo said the United States will still fulfill its commitment to complete a large-scale energy infrastructure project in the Middle Eastern nation, but will rescind funds earmarked for the endeavor.

"Government institutions and leaders in Afghanistan must be transparent and accountable," Pompeo tweeted Thursday. "We stand against those who exploit positions of power and influence to deprive people of the benefits of foreign assistance and a more prosperous future."

The energy project consists of five substations to transmit power to various major cities in the country, but the project will be now paid for through an "'off-budget' mechanism given the Afghan government's inability to transparently manage U.S. government resources."

An additional $60 million in planned aid will be withheld from the National Procurement Authority for the same reason, Pompeo said.

Afghanistan is set to stage new elections next week. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is seeking a second five-year term, following his 2014 election that was overshadowed by fraud and corruption accusations.

"We expect the Afghan government to demonstrate a clear commitment to fight corruption, to serve the Afghan people and to maintain their trust," Pompeo said. "Afghan leaders who fail to meet this standard should be held accountable."

True, but we are not trying to influence Afghan elections are we? Hmmmm?

The chief U.S. diplomat also said the United States would cease funding the Afghan's Monitoring and Evaluation Committee by the end of the year, as it is "incapable of being a partner in the international effort to build a better future for the Afghan people."

Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass criticized the NPA for not authorizing the purchase of fuel for a power plant that provides electricity to Kabul.

The upcoming election has been a point of contention in Afghanistan as the Taliban has vowed to do what it can to disrupt them, unleashing several attacks in recent days that have killed dozens.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week called off peace negotiations with the militant group a U.S. soldier was killed in an attack attributed to the Taliban.

Thousands of Young People Hospitalized Due to Cannabis and Other Substance Use

Last year, more than 23,500 youths were hospitalized in Canada

for harm from substance use - 40% for cannabis use

CBC News 

Cannabis accounted for nearly 40 per cent of hospital stays among youth for harm from substance use,

according to a new Canadian report. (Jason Redmond/Reuters)

About 65 young people in Canada per day land in hospital because of harm caused by cannabis, alcohol, opioids and other substances, according to a new report.

Clinicians and a former user say the findings from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) highlight the desperate need for more community supports to help those with mental health concerns.

The institute released the report, titled "Hospital stays for harm caused by substance use among youth age 10 to 24," on Thursday. The figures present a snapshot of the hospital stays in those age groups in 2017-2018, before the legalization of cannabis.

Last year, more than 23,500 youth were hospitalized for harm from substance use, the report says. In comparison, about 8,000 were hospitalized for illnesses related to the appendix. 

The findings highlight the need to focus attention on youth who experience harm caused by substance use and have mental health conditions occurring at the same time, as well as those who live in lower-income or rural and remote areas, the report's authors said.

Cannabis accounted for nearly 40 per cent of those hospital stays among youth, followed by alcohol-related hospitalizations at about 26 per cent.

OK, so can we stop saying pot is less harmful than alcohol? The frightening outbreak of lung disease among otherwise healthy youth in the US related to vaping, is also being related to the addition of THC drops to the mix. 7 people have died and several hundred made very ill.

Missed opportunities

Dr. Joanna Henderson, a psychologist and senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, says the report shows perspectives on substance abuse need to expand, especially when nearly 70 per cent of the hospitalizations for harm caused by substance use involve mental health conditions, as well.

And the questions is, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

That's nearly double the proportion among those aged 25 and older.

I have been reporting for years that pot is related to a great spike in the occurrence of schizophrenia in teenagers. There are numerous reports from all over the world. 

Teenagers who Smoke Cannabis Damage Their Brains for LIFE and May be More Likely to Develop Schizophrenia

Is Your Teen Smoking Pot? Is She Still Sane?

'The Link Between Marijuana and Psychosis is Significant'

Marketplace Tests Today's Marijuana and Finds It Very Dangerous for Under 25s

Pot Smoking Teens Suffer Brain Damage Well Into Adulthood

Another Study Links Pot Use to Increased Psychosis Development

Does Pot make you Crazy?

More Research on the Dangerous Effects of Marijuana on the Brain

Pot, Schizophrenia, and The Truth

ER Visits for Self-Harming Doubles in 8 Years in Ontario - Why?

Think Cannabis is Harmless? So Did I. But I Know Better Now

Pediatricians Need More Information on Medical Marijuana for Kids, Study Says

The Mad Rush to Legalize Pot Will Result in a Lot of Canadians Suffering Intolerably

"We need adequate services in the hospital but we also need to be thinking about how are we intervening sooner," said Henderson, who was not involved in the research.

"We are missing opportunities like schools, local malls … where young people are."

Young people need places in communities that are one-stop shops to connect them with employment, education, housing and health services, including mental health and substance use, she said.

'You're not alone'

Lucas Wade, 31, first started smoking cannabis at 17 "out of peer pressure," he said.  At age 20, he was toking daily for pleasure along with boozing. 

"I was admitted to hospital after my roommate found me after trying to suicide because I couldn't stop smoking pot, no matter what," Wade said. "I couldn't keep living that way."

Wade ended up homeless when a landlord evicted him for smoking indoors after signing a contract saying he wouldn't.

Wade studied social work and now works as a support counselor in Toronto, where he sees many youth with underlining mental health issues using substances as a coping mechanism.

The first step is to talk to someone close to you, such as a best friend, parent or sibling, Wade said.

(CIHI)

Remember, these numbers are from before cannabis was legalized. Next year's numbers will be considerably worse.

"If you're the youth, find a safe space or people where you can share and talk about this stuff because it is so hard. When you're in the throes of it, you feel so alone. You're not alone."

Previous research suggests young people with pre-existing mental health concerns can be at higher risk for problematic substance use and it occurs in the other direction as well, Henderson said.

Don't skip over that last line.  It occurs in the other direction as well means substance abuse can cause mental illness, as the many articles linked above indicate.

It's important not only to collect consistent data across Canada regularly to find any changes but to speak to young people about their experience with how services are delivered, she added.

About 17 per cent of the youth were hospitalized more than once in the same fiscal year, according to CIHI. That's another red flag for the need for better community supports, clinicians say.

Hospitalization rates varied by province and territory. The hospital stays are "the tip of the iceberg when it comes to estimating harm caused by substance use," CIHI said, and doesn't include fatal overdoses in the community.

Where to get help:

Canada Suicide Prevention Service: 1-833-456-4566 (phone) | 45645 (text) | crisisservicescanada.ca (chat).

In Quebec (French): Association québécoise de prévention du suicide: 1-866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553).

Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 (phone), www.kidshelpphone.ca (live chat counselling).

Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a 24-hour crisis centre.

The Tragi-Comic Accidental Sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia from UK

‘We’ve all accidentally sold weapons’: Truss mocked for

‘inadvertent’ illegal arms sales approval

(Main) Saudi Arabian F-15SA fighter jets © Reuters / Faisal Al Nasser

(Top right) UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss © Reuters / Toby Melville

UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has been ridiculed online after claiming the government had accidentally granted two military export licenses for Saudi Arabia, despite pledging to freeze weapons sales to Riyadh.

Truss was forced to apologize to the Court of Appeal on Monday for the “two inadvertent breaches,” revealing that she had launched an urgent departmental inquiry into the “errors.”

The UK suspended arms sales to the Kingdom in June after the court ruled that ministers had acted unlawfully by not determining whether weapons could be used against civilians in the war in Yemen. As a result, the government stated that no new licenses would be issued to Saudi Arabia while a review is conducted.

Truss’ rather comical admission has been seized upon by many people on social media. Jacobin Journalist Dawn Foster joked:

Dawn Foster✔

@DawnHFoster

You can accidentally use your housemate's coffee instead of your own but I'm struggling to see how you manage this https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1173878174058536960 …

Jon Stone✔

@joncstone

Liz Truss apologises for ‘accidentally’ illegally approving the sale of more arms to Saudi Arabia  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/saudi-arabia-yemen-war-uk-weapon-exports-court-liz-truss-a9107916.html …

Fellow journalist and author Laurie Penny:

Laurie Penny✔

@PennyRed

Don’t be too hard on Liz Truss. We’ve all accidentally sold weapons to Saudi Arabia a few times. 

Just the other day I got a bit carried away on eBay and found I’d bought three cheap dresses and an aircraft carrier. These things happen. We’re all human. 

Others joked that the problem must be the “one-click ordering system” the UK government has set up.

Andrew Smith of the Campaign Against Arms Trade, which brought the original legal challenge, said: “If the government cannot be trusted to follow its own rules, or an order from the Court of Appeal, then it must immediately end all arms exports to the Saudi regime.”

Before the court ruling in June, 40 percent of arms made in the UK were sold to Saudi Arabia.

While humor is badly needed on this blog, and I don't do enough of it, at the same time, I have been complaining for years about the USA providing weapons to more than one side of a conflict. It seems obvious that arms sales are very poorly regulated, and I suspect much of it is completely clandestine. At any rate, the order from the Court of Appeals appears to be taken as a bit of a joke.

What a shame that weapons manufacturing and sales are such a huge part of the budget of countries like USA, UK, France, Russia, Turkey, etc., etc. Surely, in the 21st century, we can find ways to use the trillions of dollars spent on weapons to actually do some good. Perhaps instead of fighting over access to oil we could partner with those countries to find ways to vastly improve poverty levels, get rid of diseases, and stop child sexual abuse. 

The Best Candidate in the Race for President Slams Trump for Pimping the Military

‘We are not your prostitutes!’ Tulsi Gabbard slams Trump for

‘pimping out’ US soldiers to Saudi Arabia

© Reuters / Carlos Barria

Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard has doubled down on her attacks on President Donald Trump’s ‘disgraceful’ allegiance to Saudi Arabia, eviscerating his ‘betrayal’ of her fellow soldiers and the US Constitution.

Singling out Trump’s statement that the US was “locked and loaded” but “waiting to hear from the Kingdom … under what terms we would proceed,” Gabbard slammed the US president for “offering to place our military assets under the command of a foreign country.”

Tulsi Gabbard✔

@TulsiGabbard

.@realDonaldTrump Despicable. Offering to place our military assets under the command of a foreign country—Saudi Arabia—is a disgrace and betrayal of my patriotic brothers and sisters in uniform and to our Constitution. We are not your prostitutes. You are not our pimp.

Gabbard called out the “betrayal of my brothers and sisters in uniform, the American people, and the Constitution” in a video posted to Twitter on Monday, reminding her Commander-in-Chief that she and her fellow soldiers took an oath to defend the Constitution - which doesn’t allow the president to offer up the country’s military on a silver platter to any foreign nation willing to pay for the privilege.

We are not your prostitutes. You are not our pimp.

The clip echoed an earlier tweet in which she reminded Trump that “having our country act as Saudi Arabia’s bitch is not ‘America First,’” and triggered an outpouring of support – and scorn – on social media.

“Every day I’m like ‘I can’t possibly like Tulsi more than I already do,’ then I’m proven wrong,” gushed one commenter. “In fact you’re even cooler than #WonderWoman cause you’re the real deal with real battlefield experience,” tweeted another.

Terrence Daniels (Captain Planet)

@Terrence_STR

Replying to @TulsiGabbard

Even a few disaffected Trump fans were onboard with Gabbard’s criticisms.

John Bishop 🇦🇺

@Crow30Darkness

Replying to @TulsiGabbard and 2 others

Donald Trump in 2019 should listen to Donald Trump in 2014. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/506198852933013504 …

Donald J. Trump✔

@realDonaldTrump

Saudi Arabia should fight their own wars, which they won't, or pay us an absolute fortune to protect them and their great wealth-$ trillion!

Everything is for sale in Trump's America, it appears.

Others pointed out some logical flaws in her thinking. “This take reduces US imperialism to a myth & makes it seem as though KSA is forcing an otherwise benevolent US to plunder the Global South & wage war on anti-imperialist states,” one user tweeted. “Israel pretty much runs the show when it comes to the ME and they get their support free from US taxpayer, KSA at least pays $billions for what they get?” pleaded another.

The US Military is not fighting Israel's battles. They may be contributing hardware, but I haven't heard of an American soldiers dying in Israel, ever.

“This video is a violation of Article 88 of the UCMJ,” pointed out another, highlighting the part of the US military code that forbids soldiers from “using contemptuous words” against officials. 

Would using nice, pleasant words make any difference?

Trump said earlier on Monday that “it certainly would look like” Iran was behind the attack this weekend on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing facility, a strike which Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed as their own, but also said he “doesn’t want war with anybody.”

I believe him; he just wants to sell arms and US military presence all over the world. 

BBC Accused of Pushing ‘PC Agenda’ with Rainbow Flag-Waving Rendition of ‘Rule, Britannia’

#PCMadness permeates the BBC

The BBC has been accused of spoiling an annual music festival, after a singer swapped the Union Jack for a rainbow flag in a rousing rendition of ‘Rule, Britannia’. The stunt sparked a storm of furious tweets.

Television viewers across the UK tuned in to watch the Last Night of the Proms – the climax of the eight-week classical music festival – in what has traditionally been a showcase of British patriotism and culture. But this year’s concert featured a provocative twist: The mezzo-soprano who accompanied the orchestra hoisted a rainbow ‘pride’ flag as she sang the British classic, ‘Rule, Britannia.’

Jamie Barton, an American singer and self-professed “queer girl with a nose ring,” said that she unfurled the flag during her performance because she wanted to make “a very clear statement of Pride.”

She made a very clear statement, but was it pride? That's not what I would call it.

"We are witnessing something rather remarkable," Radio 3’s Petroc Trelawney said during Barton’s performance. “That moment an audience falls in love with a singer.”

Trelawney obviously right in tune with his audience.

But judging from reactions on Twitter, the concert was deeply divisive, with many of the furious comments being directed at the event’s organizer – the BBC.

One disappointed viewer wrote that Last Night used to be a “celebration for the British people,” but has now been “hijacked by politically motivated virtue signalers.”

Chris Leigh 🇬🇧

@Chris_Leigh_UK

Replying to @bbcproms @jbartonmezzo

What the hell has happened to the Last Night? It used to be a celebration for the British people, but has been hijacked by politically motivated virtue signallers. Sadly, I will not be watching again.

Lord Muckington

@LordMuckington

Replying to @bbcproms @jbartonmezzo

The fact that this event was always a celebration of British culture and patriotism really pains the BBC. They just had to put a spanner in the works. I will not be watching next year.

Others lamented that the BBC’s “PC agenda” ruined the event, and said they would not be tuning in next year. A handful of particularly enraged netizens vowed to never again pay their TV license fee.

Chocolate Babe

@teenyween3

Replying to @bbcproms @jbartonmezzo

I’m saddened that @bbcproms would allow any sort of political and flag waving protests or expressions, at a fabulous traditional musical evening. Tarnished the evening for me

This wasn’t the concert’s only flag-related controversy, however. Remain campaigners urged audience members to wave EU flags during the event – leading to more finger-pointing at the BBC.

“Brussels Broadcasting Corporation doing what it does best,” one Twitter user joked.