European Politics, War, Coal, and Climate Change; Germany sets pace; Ukraine - Victim of Russia and the West; NATO planned Ukraine conflict since 2014

..

Germany will turn to coal-based power to make up for Russian gas shortage

By Darryl Coote

   

Last week, Russian gas company Gazprom said that it reduced supplies to Germany via its Nord Stream 1 pipeline

to 67 million cubic meters a day, which is a substantial decline. File Photo by Igor Golovniov/Shutterstock

June 20 (UPI) -- Germany has announced a slew of measures aimed at reducing its gas consumption, including turning to coal-fired power plants for energy, as Russia continues to throttle supplies to Europe amid its war in Ukraine.

Robert Habeck, Berlin's economy and climate minister, revealed the measures Sunday in a statement, saying to reduce the use of gas in producing electricity, they will have to resort to coal-fired power plants -- a decision he called "bitter" but "necessary" to ensure storage tanks are full this winter.

"Security of supply is currently guaranteed, but the situation is serious," he said. "We are therefore further strengthening precautions and taking additional measures to reduce gas consumption."

He said the coal-fired plants will be used for a "transitional period." Other measures include a gas auction model to be launched this summer to encourage industrial consumers to reduced their use of gas as well as strengthening the storage of gas through offering loans secured by a federal guarantee to Germany's gas market operator.

The announcement comes as Russia continues to limit gas to Europe where nations have repeatedly sought to punish Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

On Friday, Italy and Slovakia said Gazprom, Russia's state-owned energy company, had halved their gas deliveries.

On Thursday, Gazprom said in a statement on its official Telegram account that it reduced gas supplies to Germany via its Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 67 million cubic meters a day, which is a substantial decline.

Gazprom said it stopped the Siemens gas turbine engine for repairs.

Habeck, however, called the move by Russia in a statement as an obvious "strategy to unsettle and drive up prices."

"The quantities can be procured on the market, albeit at high prices," he said late last week. "Security of supply is guaranteed. But we are monitoring things very closely and are in close contact with the relevant actors about the crisis structures."

He said that the current situation shows the need to conserve energy and that they will take other mitigating measures.

Does it really show the need to conserve energy, or does it show the need to end the Ukraine war and restore sanity with Russia? How far will this set the climate change strategy of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere back? With Germany as an example, much of the rest of Europe will also resort to coal-fired energy plants. 

This has everything to do with the madness of NATO, the USA, and Europe's lack of real leaders. NATO and Washington are happy to smother Europe with coal dust and smog in order to keep the war in Ukraine going. Think of all that war inventory that keeps moving.

Western leaders warn war in Ukraine could last years

By Daniel Uria

   

Smoke from shelling rises near a mine waste bank in the Luhansk area of north-east of Severodonetsk. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday urged Western allies to maintain support for Ukraine, warning its war with Russian invaders could span years. Photo by Oleksandr Ratushniak/EPA-EFE

June 19 (UPI) -- Russia's war in Ukraine could extend for several years, a pair of Western leaders warned on Sunday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged the international community to maintain its support for Ukraine as it fights to fend off Moscow's invasion, warning it is nearly impossible to tell when the conflict will come to an end.

Johnson wrote in the Sunday Times of London that Ukraine's allies must work to ensure that it "has the strategic endurance to survive and eventually prevail" over Russian forces" in a prolonged conflict.

"I am afraid that we need to steel ourselves for a long war as [Russian President Vladimir Putin] resorts to a campaign of attrition, trying to grind down Ukraine by sheer brutality," he said.

Johnson said that allies must also increase efforts to make sure Ukrainian forces are properly trained to operate advanced equipment, adding that Britain hoped to train "up to "10,000 soldiers every 120 days."

It was estimated that Russia now controls 80%-90% of the Donbas region going into Sunday and at least 4,509 civilians have been killed and 5,585 civilians have been injured, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights since the war began on Feb. 24.

However, the Ukrainian military said that a Russian regiment was forced to withdraw from the eastern front "to restore combat capability" after sustaining heavy losses, while Ukrainian forces had destroyed "30 units of various equipment and weapons of the enemy" in a 24-hour period beginning Friday morning.

Stoltenberg told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that Western nations "must not let up in supporting Ukraine" noting that Ukrainian forces were fighting bravely and could push Russian troops out of the Donbas region.

He said the support must persist "even if the costs are high, not only for military support but also because of rising energy and food prices" noting that those costs could not compare "to the price that the Ukrainians have to pay every day with many lives."

What insanity! NATO, and countries that have no risk of losing personnel or civilians are prepared to drag this war out for years, killing thousands more civilians and soldiers, and destroying more infrastructure and economies, so they can sell more weapons. 

NATO will meet in Madrid for two days beginning June 29 to address security concerns and the strategic direction of the alliance over the next decade, Stoltenberg added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a message to fathers who "protect and defend" during the war in a Father's Day message posted Sunday.

"Being a father is a great responsibility and a great happiness," said Zelensky, a father of two. "It is strength, wisdom, motivation to go forward and not to give up. And no matter how difficult it is -- to protect and defend the most precious. Thank you, our heroes."

On Saturday, the U.S. State Department said it had reviewed photos and videos appearing to show two Americans who had been captured after traveling to Ukraine to voluntarily join the war effort.

The agency had previously described the two men, Alex Dreuke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Hyunh, 27, as "reportedly captured by Russia's military forces in Ukraine, after they were reported missing by their families last week but declined to comment on the authenticity of the images or the men's conditions.

American officials, however, remained in contact with the men's families, Ukrainian authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross, a State Department spokesperson said.

NATO admits it’s been preparing for conflict with Russia since 2014

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that increases in deployments and military spending

were carried out with Moscow in mind

FILE PHOTO: French troops inspect military vehicles at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, near the city of Constanta, Romania, June 14, 2022 © AP / Yoan Valat

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Wednesday that increases in military spending and rising numbers of troop deployments in Eastern Europe since 2014 were carried out in anticipation of a conflict with Russia.

Speaking after a meeting of NATO members and partner states in Madrid, Stoltenberg accused Moscow of “using force in the eastern Donbass since 2014,” despite the fact that Kiev’s forces have been shelling cities in the region ever since the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics declared independence from Ukraine that year.

Nevertheless, Stoltenberg said that the US-led military bloc decided in 2014 to start beefing up its forces in Eastern Europe. 

“The reality is also that we have been preparing for this since 2014,” he stated. “That is the reason that we have increased our presence in the eastern part of the alliance, why NATO allies have started to invest more in defense, and why we have increased [our] readiness.”

According to NATO figures, the bloc’s European members and Canada have increased their military expenditure by between 1.2% and 5.9% every year since 2014. However, only 10 out of 30 NATO states currently meet the bloc’s target of spending 2% of GDP on defense. 

The increase in expenditure has been most noticeable in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, with Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania all meeting the target for the first time in 2022.

And where does this astonishing amount of money go? To the Military Establishment Complex. It comes from taxes on the common people and goes to the uber-wealthy war-mongers. It's a wealth transfer system that will leave the filthy rich even filthier and richer, and will leave the common families poorer.

Earlier on Wednesday, NATO members agreed to adopt a new Strategic Concept. This policy blueprint sets out the alliance’s stance toward partners, non-members, and adversaries, with the 2022 iteration naming Russia as the “most significant and direct threat” to the bloc.

On the other hand, Moscow has labeled NATO’s expansion into former Soviet states since the end of the Cold War – which Western leaders explicitly promised in the early 1990s would not happen – as a threat against its own security. NATO’s official position on Ukraine, set out in the 2008 Bucharest Declaration, is that it and Georgia “will become members of NATO” at an unspecified future date. Russia has cited Ukraine’s pursuit of NATO membership as a key factor behind the current conflict.

Despite the alliance’s post-Cold War march into the former Eastern Bloc, Stoltenberg claimed on Wednesday that “NATO has strived for a better relationship with Russia for decades.”

Yes, and I have a tropical island on the coast of Labrador for sale cheap!

Ozzone 6-20 > As a saved soul, the real business of your life is intercessory prayer, or it should be!

 

Bits and Bites from around the World > Suu Kyi moved to Solitary Confinement; 22 Students die celebrating graduation; UFOs in Russia and US Navy

..

Myanmar junta moves deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi

to solitary confinement

Has the military had enough of Burma's conscience?

By Clyde Hughes

   

In April, the junta-led government sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in prison on a corruption conviction.

Military prosecutors said she took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold.

File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo

June 23 (UPI) -- Myanmar's military-led government said on Thursday that it's moved former civilian leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to a solitary confinement prison in Naypyidaw.

Suu Kyi, 76, has been in the custody of the military junta since a coup on Feb. 1, 2021. She has since been charged with nearly two dozen criminal offenses, including corruption and using unauthorized communications devices. The charges could keep her in prison for the rest of her life.

"By the law, it's confirmed that [Suu Kyi] has been moved to the prison," Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said, according to CNN. "And she's been kept at separate confinement well."

Deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has already been sentenced to several years in prison on various

criminal charges that were filed after the junta takeover in Februry 2021. File Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA-EFE

Many senior members of Suu Kyi's government and party are among those held in Naypyidaw. Adviser and Australian economist Sean Turnell is also detained there.

Myanmar military brutalizing children, creating 'lost generation,' U.N. says

In April, the junta-led government sentenced Suu Kyi to five years in prison on a corruption conviction. Military prosecutors said she took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold.

Suu Kyi has rejected the accusations and some independent legal experts have said they are sham charges intended solely to legitimize and justify the military takeover last year.

Since Suu Kyi's removal, the Myanmar military has tried and convicted Suu Kyi on other charges -- including possessing unauthorized walkie-talkies and violating COVID-19 restrictions. She'd already been sentenced to six years in prison on separate charges.

I seriously doubt that she will survive prison. The government can do what it likes there. There should be serious international repercussions for this.

At least 22 'students' dead in South African nightclub

while 'celebrating end of exams'

By JACK WRIGHT and ELIZABETH HAIGH FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 16:26 EDT, 26 June 2022

At least 22 people have been found dead inside a nightclub in South Africa amid claims they were poisoned. 

Police rushed to the Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park, a township in the southern city of East London, in the early hours of Sunday after receiving reports from the public.

Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said those killed in the club are believed to be aged between 18 and 20.

The Eastern Cape provincial community and safety department official Unathi Binqose ruled out a stampede as cause of death. He said he understood the patrons were students 'celebrating pens down, a party held after writing (high school) exams'. 

However, regional newspaper DispatchLive reported claims those who died were exposed to some kind of poison. 

Empty bottles of alcohol, wigs and even a pastel purple 'Happy Birthday' sash lay strewn on the dusty street outside the double-storey Enyobeni Tavern, according to Unathi Binqose, a safety government official who arrived at the scene at dawn. 

Local reports suggest none of the bodies had any obvious wounds or injuries, ruling out suggestions that a stampede or similar tragic incident would have occurred. 

At least once a year you hear about multiple deaths at Indian weddings where alcohol was provided, often made with toxic ingredients. This could be a similar catastrophe.

Crowds gather as forensic personnel investigate Enyobeni Tavern, in Scenery Park, today

Local media also reported: 'Bodies are lying strewn across tables, chairs and on the floor; with no obvious signs of injury'. 

Crowds of people, including parents whose children were missing, gathered on Sunday outside the tavern where the tragedy happened in the city of East London, while mortuary vehicles collected the bodies.

Senior government officials rushed to the southern city. They included national Police Minister Bheki Cele, who broke down in tears after emerging from a morgue where the bodies were being stored.

'It's a terrible scene,' he told reporters. 'They are pretty young... It breaks (you).'

The provincial government of Eastern Cape said at least eight girls and 13 boys had died. Seventeen were found dead inside the tavern. The rest died in hospital.

Drinking is permitted for over-18s in township taverns, commonly known as shebeens, which are often situated cheek by jowl with family homes or, in some cases, inside the homes themselves.

But safety regulations and drinking-age laws are not always enforced.

'We have a child that was there, who passed away on the scene,' said the parents of a 17-year-old girl.

'This child, we were not thinking was going to die this way. This was a humble child, respectful,' said grieving mother Ntombizonke Mgangala, standing next to her husband outside the morgue.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is attending the G7 summit in Germany, sent his condolences.

He voiced concern 'about the reported circumstances under which such young people were gathered at a venue which, on the face of it, should be off-limits to persons under the age of 18'.

The authorities are now considering whether to revise liquor licensing regulations. South Africa is among the countries in Africa where most alcohol is consumed.

'The number has increased to 20, three have died in hospital. But there are still two who are very critical,' the head of the provincial government safety department Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe said on local TV. This was before the confirmed death toll rose to 22.

A visibly shocked head of the Eastern Cape Province Oscar Mabuyane spoke from outside the scene, a building surrounded by houses in an area called Scenery Park.

'It's absolutely unbelievable, we can't understand it, losing 20 young lives just like that,' he told reporters, condemning 'this unfortunate consumption, unlimited consumption of liquor'.

'You can't just trade in the middle of society like this and think that young people are not going to experiment,' he said.

Local television showed police officers trying to calm down a crowd of people gathered outside the club in the city, which lies on the Indian Ocean coast, nearly 620 miles south of Johannesburg.

Mr Kinana told the Newzroom Africa rolling news channel: 'The SAPS confirms that about 17... were found dead inside a local cabin in Scenery Park, in the area of East London.

'We received this report in the early hours of Sunday. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation as we speak.

'We do not want to make any speculations at this stage. Our investigation is continuing.'

Russia’s secret UFO files reveal fighter jet was buzzed by strange lights

& 600mph craft moving like ‘no human aircraft’

Henry Holloway

10:50, 27 Jun 2022

RUSSIAN pilots encountered strange lights in the sky and soldiers witnessed objects moving in ways like no human aircraft, secret documents reveal.

Newly uncovered Cold War-era files reveal that it was not just the US who was experiencing encounters with strange objects in the sky - but the same phenomena was being seen in the Soviet Union.

KGB documents showing a sketch of a saucer shape firing a beam'

KGB documents show scores of reports by Russian soldiers, airmen and pilots as they observed eerie shapes, huge objects, glimmering lights and mysterious flashes.

Some of the most striking reports include a Russian colonel who reported a shape-shifting object which fired a "beam of light" towards the ground.

Others include a MiG-21 pilot who was baffled by a mysterious object, and a witness who saw an object that did not move like any known human machine.

The Sun Online can reveal these documents as Russia waded into the UFO debate - which has become a hot topic in Washington DC.

There is much more on this story at the Scottish Sun, including more photos and documents.

========================================================================================

Dozens of sailors confirm their warships were swarmed by

'at least 100' otherworldly UFOs

> Naval crew have told documentary maker Jeremy Corbell that US warships were swarmed in 2019 by 'at least 100' UFOs with unexplainable capabilities

>Last year Corbell published videos from the warship incidents that set social media ablaze

>The videos were verified by the Pentagon and showed flashing objects hovering above US Navy ships in the Pacific Ocean 

>In an historic hearing on UFOs last month, Navy chiefs tried to explain away the incident, saying they were 'reasonably confident' the objects were drones

>Corbell is now hitting back, claiming that he has 'dozens' of accounts from crew, investigators and briefed officials who say that the UFOs were otherworldly 

>The nature and origin of the craft are still unknown, and witnesses say that they flew in ways that would put publicly known drone technology to shame

>A crewman with direct knowledge of the case, who spoke to DailyMail.com on condition of anonymity, called the incident 'world-changing' 

By JOSH BOSWELL and CHRIS SHARP FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Please go to the Daily Mail for the full story, more photos and videos.

========================================================================================

Ozzone 6-19 > Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him

 

Bits and Bites from Around the World > Assange Closer to Extradition to the USA; Man refuses to answer pregnancy question; Girl marries herself

..

Britain clears way for Julian Assange's extradition to United States

By Clyde Hughes

   

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks to reporters from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London

 on May 19, 2017. The British Home Secretary agreed to the extradition of Assange to the United States on Friday.

File Photo by Facundo Arrizabalaga/PA-EFE

June 17 (UPI) -- Jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange moved closer to extradition to the United States on Friday after the British Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the move.

Assange, who faces 18 espionage-related laws in the United States, has been aggressively fighting efforts to be taken across the Atlantic Ocean to court hearings.

He has been in London's Belmarsh prison for the past three years after being protected for years in the Ecuadorian embassy there.

"Under the Extradition Act 2003, the Secretary of State must sign an extradition order if there are no grounds to prohibit the order being made," Britain's Home Office said in a statement.

"On 17 June, following consideration by both the Magistrates Court and High Court, the extradition of Mr. Julian Assange to the U.S. was ordered.

"Mr. Assange retains the normal 14-day right to appeal. In this case, the U.K. courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust, or an abuse of process to extradite Mr. Assange.

"Nor have they found that extradition would be incompatible with his human rights, including his right to a fair trial and to freedom of expression, and that whilst in the U.S. he will be treated appropriately, including in relation to his health."

In March, a three-judge panel of Britain's Supreme Court ruled that Assange's appeal of a December High Court decision allowing his extradition to the United States did not "raise an arguable point of law" leading the way to Friday's decision.

WikiLeaks released a statement vowing to continue fighting the extradition.

"Today is not the end of the fight. It is only the beginning of a new legal battle," WikiLeaks said, according to The Guardian. "We will appeal through the legal system; the next appeal will be before the high court.

"Julian did nothing wrong. He has committed no crime and is not a criminal. He is a journalist and a publisher and he is being punished for doing his job. It was in Priti Patel's power to do the right thing.

"Instead, she will forever be remembered as an accomplice of the United States in its agenda to turn investigative journalism into a criminal enterprise."

The extradition is tied to 2010, when WikiLeaks posted a series of leaks by former U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning, along with more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables containing classified diplomatic analysis from world leaders.

In 2010 an arrest warrant for Assange was issued for two separate sexual assault allegations in Sweden and Britain ruled he should be extradited to Sweden.

Assange fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London seeking political asylum in 2012, claiming political asylum. He was later charged in the United States in connection with the 2010 cable leak.

I believe the Swedish charges were trumped up because the USA felt Sweden would extradite Assange more easily than Britain. They have since been dropped. 

I also believe that Assange should not have been charged in the USA until the criminal activity he exposed had been dealt with. 

This seems like a Deep State activity aimed at getting control of the internet media. 

Man prevented from donating blood over pregnancy question

Man prevented from donating blood over pregnancy question

© Getty Images / UniversalImagesGroup

Habitual blood donor Leslie Sinclair has been turned away from the Albert Halls clinic in the Scottish city of Stirling after refusing to answer a question on an intake form asking about whether he was expecting a child or had been pregnant during the prior six months.

Sinclair was sent home on Wednesday night from the facility where, despite much-publicized efforts by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) to find 16,000 new donors, National Health Service (NHS) personnel refused to take his blood without a response to the pregnancy question.

“I am angry because I have been giving blood since I was 18 and have regularly gone along. I’m very happy to do so without any problem,” Sinclair said on Thursday, according to the Daily Mail. He explained that while he had no objection to filling out forms about “medical conditions or diseases” because he knows “the blood needs to be safe,” he found the pregnancy question baffling.

“I pointed out to the staff that it was impossible for me to be in that position, but I was told that I would need to answer, otherwise I couldn’t give blood. I told them that was stupid and that if I had to leave, I wouldn’t be back, and that was it, I got on my bike and cycled away,” the retired engineering company driver said.

The 66-year-old, who claims to have donated over 125 pints of blood in the last 50 years, denounced the NHS’ new policy as “nonsensical,” pointing out that “there are vulnerable people waiting for blood, including children, and in desperate need of help.” Pregnant women are required to wait six months after giving birth to donate blood.

The NHS launched what it described as its biggest-ever blood drive in October, calling for an unprecedented 100,000 new donors by the spring in anticipation of doctors returning to performing elective surgical procedures that were largely shut down or postponed during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The agency also announced last June that “everyone” would be asked “the same gender-neutral questions” in what a PSA video called “our most inclusive donation experience yet.” 

SNBTS director Marc Turner explained that “while pregnancy is only a relevant question to those whose biological sex or sex assigned at birth is female, sex assigned at birth is not always visually clear to staff.” He cited the NHS’ “duty to promote inclusiveness” as the basis for requiring the clearly-male Sinclair to share his pregnancy status.

India: Gujarat girl ties the knot with herself

Her marriage had to be solemnised at home instead of temple as priest backs out

Published:  June 09, 2022 16:40

IANS 

Kshama Bindu going through the rituals of marriage.

Image Credit: AP

Baroda: Gujarat girl Kshama Bindu, who grabbed the headlines and hit the eye of the storm after she expressed her intention to marry herself, has solemnised her marriage in a private function at her residence.

Kshama performed mehandi, haldi ceremonies and got married on Wednesday in the presence of ten people, including her friends and colleagues.

Sharing her wedding pictures on Instagram, 24-year-old Kshama posted in Hindi, “Khud se mohabbat me pad gai, kal mai apni hi Dulhan ban gai”.

In the pictures of her ‘mehandi’, she could be seen wearing a kurta, jacket and dhoti.

Her marriage had to be solemnised at home on June 8 instead of temple on June 11 as the priest who had agreed to get Kshama married to herself backed out after opposition from local politicians.

Kshama’s expression of self love grabbed a mix reaction. On one hand, she was trolled on social media, while on the other hand, many people supported her.

Talking to IANS, Kshama said she changed her wedding venue and kept it simple as she did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

She thanked everyone who wished her on social media after the wedding.

Canadian Convulsions > Trump slams Trudeau; Canada's Defenceless Minister; Trudeau's Incompetent Cabinet

..

Trump Rebukes Trudeau Over Forceful Removal,

Slandering of Convoy Protesters

By The Canadian Press 

February 27, 2022

Former U.S. President Donald Trump is assailing Canada as a country of “left-wing fascists” for the way it cleared protesters out of Ottawa last weekend.

Trump’s remarks at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida marked the first time in nearly a month he’s publicly acknowledged the protests.

He said protesters in Canada were “slandered” as Nazis, racists and terrorists, charged with what he called “phony crimes” and accused of being loyal to foreign powers.

The comments prompted a passionate standing ovation from the crowd.

Trump says police crossed a line when they began removing protesters after nearly a month of their occupation of streets in downtown Ottawa, both on and nearby Parliament Hill.

He says he stands with the truckers who staged the protest and with Canadians who he says are fighting to reclaim their freedom.

“The tyranny we have witnessed in Canada in recent weeks should shock and dismay people all over the world,” he said to hoots and hollers from a sympathetic crowd in Orlando.

“In an advanced Western democracy, that peaceful movement of patriotic truckers, workers and families protesting for their most basic rights and liberties has been violently put down.”

Trump likened Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to President Joe Biden, whom he vowed to ensure would be dispatched to “political exile,” along with Democratic allies like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“They have been slandered as Nazis, racists and terrorists – these are the names they’ve been called,” Trump said.

“I watched them; I saw those Maple Leafs all over, the flags and the love for their country. Plenty of Americans were there, too, and they love our country. They’re being hunted down like enemies of their own government and treated worse than drug dealers and murderers or rapists.”

Authorities in Canada crossed a line when they began making arrests, towing vehicles and forcing the protesters out of the national capital’s downtown core, he continued.

“You’re either with the peaceful truckers, or you are with the left-wing fascists – that’s what’s been happening,” he said.

“We stand with the truckers and we stand with the Canadian people in their noble quest to reclaim their freedom.”

============================================================================================

Canada leaves itself defenceless as it contributes to the prolonging of the war in Ukraine.

Canada says aiding Ukraine has ‘exhausted’ its stock of weapons

It has sent thousands of rocket launchers, grenades, and kit

to assist the country in its conflict with Russia

Canadian aid for Ukraine being loaded on a plane at Toronto's Pearson Airport. © AP / Chris Young

Canada has depleted its own stock of weapons in its bid to support Ukraine amid Russia’s military operation in the country, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand has acknowledged.

“I believe that we have exhausted our inventory … to the extent that we are able to provide [more] weapons,” Anand said during a live appearance on CBC on Friday.

“There are capacity issues we need to make sure we are on top of for the purposes of ensuring the Canadian Armed Forces are well resourced,” she added.

Ottawa had been among Western capitals that have provided Kiev with so-called “lethal aid.” It has so far sent or is in the process of sending 4,500 rocket launchers, 7,500 hand grenades, 100 anti-tank launchers with 2,000 rounds, two C-130J tactical aircraft, and various other pieces of kit from Canada.

Russia sent its troops into Ukraine in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the breakaway Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc.

Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force. 

Eventually, Ukraine will agree to recognize Donetsk and Lugansk as per the Minsk agreement, and will renounce joining NATO. The sooner that happens, the sooner Putin will remove his troops from most of Ukraine. The longer it takes, the more likely Putin is liable to claim another chunk of Ukraine, and, the more people will die or be forced to flee their homes.

Countries that support Ukraine are prolonging the war that Ukraine cannot win, costing lives and untold catastrophes in European and world economics.

Canada has left itself militarily defenceless and has had the utter stupidity to announce that to the world. It's so embarrassing being a Canadian in Trudeau's Canada.

Many members of Trudeau's incompetent cabinet should be fired ASAP

The Liberal government is a dumpster fire that can't fix the airports,

can't issue passports and can't seem to get anything right lately

Author of the article: Brian Lilley

Publishing date: Jun 18, 2022  •  1 day ago  •  6 minute read

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a press conference with members of his new cabinet in Ottawa, Oct. 26, 2021. PHOTO BY LARS HAGBERG /AFP via Getty Images

If you were to hold a contest for Justin Trudeau’s most incompetent cabinet minister, there would be lots of competition.

Problems at airports, at passport offices, a massive immigration backlog, not to mention a Canadian diplomat partying it up at the Russian embassy.

I’ve been writing about the problems various ministers and their departments have been dealing with over the last several weeks but I’m not alone in noticing the wheels coming off the bus. Tom Mulcair wrote a recent column detailing the problems facing Trudeau’s government.

“Canadians, including many Liberals, have been witnessing and lamenting months of abject failure in the most basic administrative and decision-making processes in government,” Mulcair wrote. “It’s a whole-of-government approach to incompetence.”

Mulcair knows how government should work. Before being the leader of the opposition in Ottawa, Mulcair was a cabinet minister in Quebec. And before that had been a civil servant.

Clearly, in his eyes, this government isn’t up to the job.

Paul Tellier is another old hand at government who has been critical of the way the Trudeau crowd operates. Tellier was a senior civil servant in several departments when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister and eventually was named Clerk of the Privy Council under Brian Mulroney. He’s also had a stellar private sector career and doesn’t think much of Trudeau’s management style.

“The current government, with centralization of everything in the PMO, is in the process of destroying the public service … and the word ‘destroying’ is not too strong,” Tellier told Policy Options recently.

The centralization of power in the prime minister’s office isn’t something Justin Trudeau brought to Ottawa, it’s been going on for decades. But he’s made it worse instead of better. Which is part of the reason why he and his office wear so many or the mistakes his cabinet makes.

Barring an election or his own resignation, we can’t get rid of Trudeau, but we can hope for a summer cabinet shuffle to get rid of the incompetent ministers.

Here’s a short list on who should be fired from their current posts and why.

Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino attends a news conference in Ottawa, Feb. 15, 2022.

PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE /REUTERS

Marco Mendicino – Public Safety

Right now, Mendicino is under fire for lying to Parliament over the invocation of the Emergencies Act, but he’s also the man responsible for part of the border problem, the customs agents.

The Conservatives are calling for Mendicino to resign or be fired for repeatedly saying that police asked for the Emergencies Act to be invoked and that’s why the government acted. We know that’s not true because the police have said so. When ministers lie to Parliament, they’re supposed to resign. So far that hasn’t happened.

As for his part in the mess at airports, specifically Pearson in Toronto, there have been months of delays. Backlogged customs counters have contributed to flight delays and passengers sitting on the tarmac for hours. When departments aren’t working properly, it is the minister’s responsibility to fix it and he has failed to do so.

Mendicino has a great resume and credentials, but he can’t perform, so it’s time to go.

Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra attends a news conference in Ottawa, Feb. 15, 2022.

PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE/FILE PHOTO /REUTERS

Omar Alghabra – Transport

While Mendicino is responsible for the delays in people arriving at Pearson, Alghabra is the minister responsible for why you have trouble taking off on time. The delays due to security screening and a lack of agents have been growing for months.

Any close watcher of politics knew Alghabra was in trouble when he blamed rusty travelers for being slow at getting their laptops out of their bags and into the bins. Blaming the public for your mistakes is always a bad idea in politics and the mess with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority is Alghabra’s responsibility.

He’s announced new hires but it’s too late and not enough. Air travel spikes by 20% in July and August and the 850 extra screeners aren’t enough to cover the coming increase in volume and cover staff absences due to the vacation schedule.

Alghabra might be a smooth political operative for Trudeau but he isn’t handling this important file, shuffle him out.

Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, holds a press conference in Ottawa on Monday, July 12, 2021,

regarding Canada’s support for vaccination efforts in developing countries, humanitarian and conflict situations.

PHOTO BY SEAN KILPATRICK /THE CANADIAN PRESS

Karina Gould – Passport Canada

Like the issues with border agents and security screeners at airports, the problems at the passport office aren’t new. They’ve been festering for months. Lines have been growing, Canadians have been complaining, but the minister only recently recognized this.

Like her cabinet colleagues, Karina Gould wants you to know it’s not her fault, it’s yours. You didn’t apply for your passport soon enough and now there’s a surge. Sure, the surge they’re complaining about is lower than the normal number of passports they would process in the same amount of time prior to the pandemic but it’s your fault.

Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser attends a press conference with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada April 6, 2022. PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE /REUTERS

Sean Fraser – Immigration

We have a two-million person backlog when it comes to immigration applications in this country, even for people we desperately need to fill jobs. Want to come to Canada under the federal skilled trades program, it’s a 43-month processing time. The start-up visa program to get entrepreneurs to invest in a start-up business is 31 months.

These are people with high demand skills that we need, and we are pushing them away to other countries.

The immigration system is broken, so is this minister.

Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly speaks at a news conference about the situation in Ukraine, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 22, 2022. PHOTO BY PATRICK DOYLE /REUTERS

Melanie Joly – Foreign Affairs

After screwing up the Canada 150 celebrations with a Canada Day party that didn’t work and building a skating rink on Parliament Hill that cost $8.1 million to operate, I didn’t think Melanie Joly would ever be in cabinet again.

She was a disaster in the Heritage portfolio, overseeing the opening of a Holocaust memorial in Ottawa that failed to mention Jews or that six million of them perished at the hands of the Nazis.

Now she’s running one of the most important portfolios, foreign affairs — or Global Affairs Canada in Trudeau parlance. Just over a week ago, a senior diplomat in her department attended a party to celebrate Russia at the Russian embassy. If you haven’t heard, we’ve called what Russia is doing in Ukraine genocide and we are imposing harsh sanctions to isolate the regime, but we are also going to their parties to show we are good sports.

Joly’s political staff knew about this ahead of time and didn’t stop it, but they deny the minister knew. Her department first defended the diplomat attending the party and then apologized under media pressure.

Joly is obviously a lightweight, not suitable for the role she’s in. Even though Trudeau obviously has a soft spot for her, she needs to go.

For sure, you can't get rid of the only attractive minister in the government.

There could be a longer list

The list of people who could or should be shuffled out of cabinet could be longer.

Justice Minister David Lametti comes to mind. He just pushed a bill through Parliament to drop sentencing requirements for repeat offenders on serious gun crimes. He’s effectively lowering sentences for them. He also isn’t standing up to Quebec’s Bill 21 or Bill 96, two flagrant violations of the Charter he is supposed to defend.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez should be turfed for not only pushing through Bill C-11, the internet censorship bill, but having MPs vote on secret amendments to the bill. The problem is, he was was doing what his boss, the PM, wanted him to do.

In an ideal world it would include Trudeau himself. In a normal minority government, this level of incompetence spread over so many ministries would be enough to vote a government down.

Thanks to Jagmeet Singh and the NDP though, he’s going to be in office until 2025 or until he decides to pull the plug.

The incompetence in this government is brought to you by Justin Trudeau but all of it is made possible by Singh’s unwavering support.

Add the Minister of Defence to that list as documented in the story immediately above.

As I have mentioned in years past, Trudeau picks his cabinets by their sex, their sexual persuasion, their colour, their faith (as long as it's not Christian), and their heritage. It makes for a colourful Cabinet, but certainly an incompetent one.

The Truth About the Covid-19 Pandemic - From a Peer-Reviewed Neurosurgeon

..

A Retired Neurosurgeon Writes the Mother of 'I Told You So'

Letters About Covid-19 Pandemic Response

"World famous experts... are excluded from media exposure and from social media should they in any way deviate against the concocted lies and distortions by the makers of these vaccines."

Kyle Becker

The Wildfire Newsletter

Jun 14

A retired neurosurgeon named Russell L. Blaylock has written the mother of all 'I told you so' letters about the Covid-19 pandemic, which he calls the most manipulated infectious disease events in history.

In the bimonthly peer-reviewed journal Surgical Neurology International, Blaylock lays out the campaign of destructive Covid lies that characterized the federal, state and local government response that was conducted in collusion with Big Pharma.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most manipulated infectious disease events in history, characterized by official lies in an unending stream lead by government bureaucracies, medical associations, medical boards, the media, and international agencies," Blaylock writes while providing sources. "We have witnessed a long list of unprecedented intrusions into medical practice, including attacks on medical experts, destruction of medical careers among doctors refusing to participate in killing their patients and a massive regimentation of health care, led by non-qualified individuals with enormous wealth, power and influence."

"For the first time in American history a president, governors, mayors, hospital administrators and federal bureaucrats are determining medical treatments based not on accurate scientifically based or even experience based information, but rather to force the acceptance of special forms of care and 'prevention'—including remdesivir, use of respirators and ultimately a series of essentially untested messenger RNA vaccines," Blaylock went on. "For the first time in history medical treatment, protocols are not being formulated based on the experience of the physicians treating the largest number of patients successfully, but rather individuals and bureaucracies that have never treated a single patient—including Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, EcoHealth Alliance, the CDC, WHO, state public health officers and hospital administrators."

"The media (TV, newspapers, magazines, etc), medical societies, state medical boards and the owners of social media have appointed themselves to be the sole source of information concerning this so-called 'pandemic'," he added. "Websites have been removed, highly credentialed and experienced clinical doctors and scientific experts in the field of infectious diseases have been demonized, careers have been destroyed and all dissenting information has been labeled “misinformation” and “dangerous lies”, even when sourced from top experts in the fields of virology, infectious diseases, pulmonary critical care, and epidemiology."

"These blackouts of truth occur even when this information is backed by extensive scientific citations from some of the most qualified medical specialists in the world," he continued. "Incredibly, even individuals, such as Dr. Michael Yeadon, a retired ex-Chief Scientist, and vice-president for the science division of Pfizer Pharmaceutical company in the UK, who charged the company with making an extremely dangerous vaccine, is ignored and demonized. Further, he, along with other highly qualified scientists have stated that no one should take this vaccine."

Blaylock then goes on to describe this assault on dissenting voices in the medical field.

"Another unprecedented tactic is to remove dissenting doctors from their positions as journal editors, reviewers and retracting of their scientific papers from journals, even after these papers have been in print," he continued. "Until this pandemic event, I have never seen so many journal papers being retracted— the vast majority promoting alternatives to official dogma, especially if the papers question vaccine safety. Normally a submitted paper or study is reviewed by experts in the field, called peer review. These reviews can be quite intense and nit picking in detail, insisting that all errors within the paper be corrected before publication. So, unless fraud or some other major hidden problem is discovered after the paper is in print, the paper remains in the scientific literature."

"We are now witnessing a growing number of excellent scientific papers, written by top experts in the field, being retracted from major medical and scientific journals weeks, months and even years after publication," he noted. "A careful review indicates that in far too many instances the authors dared question accepted dogma by the controllers of scientific publications—especially concerning the safety, alternative treatments or efficacy of vaccines. These journals rely on extensive adverting by pharmaceutical companies for their revenue. Several instances have occurred where powerful pharmaceutical companies exerted their influence on owners of these journals to remove articles that in any way question these companies’ products."

"Worse still is the actual designing of medical articles for promoting drugs and pharmaceutical products that involve fake studies, so-called ghostwritten articles," the retired neurosurgeon added. "Richard Horton is quoted by the Guardian as saying 'journals have devolved into information laundering operations for the pharmaceutical industry.' Proven fraudulent 'ghostwritten' articles sponsored by pharmaceutical giants have appeared regularly in top clinical journals, such as JAMA, and New England Journal of Medicine—never to be removed despite proven scientific abuse and manipulation of data."

"Ghostwritten articles involve using planning companies whose job it is to design articles containing manipulated data to support a pharmaceutical product and then have these articles accepted by high-impact clinical journals, that is, the journals most likely to affect clinical decision making of doctors," he went on. "Further, they supply doctors in clinical practice with free reprints of these manipulated articles. The Guardian found 250 companies engaged in this ghostwriting business. The final step in designing these articles for publication in the most prestigious journals is to recruit well recognized medical experts from prestigious institutions, to add their name to these articles. These recruited medical authors are either paid upon agreeing to add their name to these pre- written articles or they do so for the prestige of having their name on an article in a prestigious medical journal."

The doctor then laid into television and print media for allegedly propagating myths and false claims about pharmaceutical products.

"Television media receives the majority of its advertising budget from the international pharmaceutical companies—this creates an irresistible influence to report all concocted studies supporting their vaccines and other so-called treatments," the doctor said. "In 2020 alone the pharmaceutical industries spent 6.56 billion dollars on such advertising. Pharma TV advertising amounted to 4.58 billion, an incredible 75% of their budget. That buys a lot of influence and control over the media."

"World famous experts within all fields of infectious diseases are excluded from media exposure and from social media should they in any way deviate against the concocted lies and distortions by the makers of these vaccines," he added. "In addition, these pharmaceutical companies spend tens of millions on social media advertising, with Pfizer leading the pack with $55 million in 2020."

"While these attacks on free speech are terrifying enough, even worse is the virtually universal control hospital administrators have exercised over the details of medical care in hospitals," he added. "These hirelings are now instructing doctors which treatment protocols they will adhere to and which treatments they will not use, no matter how harmful the 'approved' treatments are or how beneficial the 'unapproved' treatments are."

"Never in the history of American medicine have hospital administrators dictated to its physicians how they will practice medicine and what medications they can use," he continued. "The CDC has no authority to dictate to hospitals or doctors concerning medical treatments. Yet, most physicians complied without the slightest resistance."

Even more damning, the doctor listed a number of things that were labeled as “myths” and “misinformation” that were later proven to be true.

The asymptomatic vaccinated are spreading the virus equally as with unvaccinated symptomatic infected.

The vaccines cannot protect adequately against new variants, such as Delta and Omicron.

Natural immunity is far superior to vaccine immunity and is most likely lifelong.

Vaccine immunity not only wanes after several months, but all immune cells are impaired for prolonged periods, putting the vaccinated at a high risk of all infections and cancer.

COVID vaccines can cause a significant incidence of blood clots and other serious side effects

The vaccine proponents will demand numerous boosters as each variant appears on the scene.

Fauci will insist on the covid vaccine for small children and even babies.

Vaccine passports will be required to enter a business, fly in a plane, and use public transportation

There will be internment camps for the unvaccinated (as in Australia, Austria and Canada)

The unvaccinated will be denied employment.

There are secret agreements between the government, elitist institutions, and vaccine makers

Many hospitals were either empty or had low occupancy during the pandemic.

The spike protein from the vaccine enters the nucleus of the cell, altering cell DNA repair function.

Hundreds of thousands have been killed by the vaccines and many times more have been permanently damaged.

Early treatment could have saved the lives of most of the 700,000 who died.

Vaccine-induced myocarditis (which was denied initially) is a significant problem and clears over a short period.

Special deadly lots (batches) of these vaccines are mixed with the mass of other Covid-19 vaccines

The retired neurosurgeon's lengthy letter can be read at the National Library of Medicine. Suffice to say, it is one of the best reviews of America's disastrous Covid-19 response out there.

==========================================================================================