Wednesday Potpourri

First, we cannot avoid the story from Canada. You recall that the Canadian prime minister, aka, the bastard son of Fidel Castro, has made a habit of denouncing his political opponents as Nazis. American leftists have acquired the same habit.

And yet, when faced with real Nazis, these same leftists stand up and cheer. It happened in Ottawa, at a meeting of the Canadian parliament, where Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky lustily cheered a Nazi war criminal.

The speaker of the Canadian parliament, Anthony Rota, introduced a great hero of Ukraine, one  Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old veteran of the “First Ukrainian Division,” also known as the “SS Galichina,” or the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division, a military unit of Ukrainian volunteers for the Waffen SS—the paramilitary arm of the Nazi Party. 

Perhaps they are simply incompetent. Perhaps they thought that no one would notice. When they did, Rota issued an apology and resigned. For his part Trudeau came out with a semi-apology, to the effect that he was sorry to have hurt anyone’s feelings. As for Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, a woman of Ukrainian heritage, her grandfather had been the editor of a Nazi collaborationist newspaper in occupied Krakow, during the war.

President Zelensky has not bothered to apologize. He may be Jewish, but many of his soldiers sport swastikas on their helmets.

The Anti-Defamation League has been silent throughout.

Second, with his non-apology Justin Trudeau blamed it all on Russian disinformation. Where have we heard that before?

In his words:

Obviously, it's extremely upsetting that this happened... this is something that is deeply embarrassing to the Parliament of Canada... It's going to be really important that all of us push back against Russian propaganda, Russian disinformation, and continue our steadfast and unequivocal support for Ukraine.

Third, an update to the story:

A Polish government minister has launched a bid to extradite Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian man who fought in a German-Nazi division during World War Two and last week received a standing ovation in Canada’s parliament. Lets hope so. 

Jewish groups might also be interested in him and any other Nazis that got sheltered in Canada. According to reports there were over 2000 Nazis who were given shelter in Canada after the end of World War 2.

Fourth, on a lighter note, from the satirical Babylon Bee, a commentary on the ongoing auto strike:

 

Auto CEOs Struggling With Whether To Replace Striking Workers With Robots Or Mexicans.

Fifth, on a heavier note, the hapless buffoon who serves as the Biden administration climate czar recommended that, in order to save the planet, people stop eating.

Agriculture contributes about 33% of all the emissions of the world. And we can’t get to net zero — we don’t get this job done — unless agriculture is front and center as part of the solution. You just can’t continue to both warm the planet, while also expecting to feed it. It doesn’t work. So we have to reduce emissions from the food system.

At least, he did not recommend that people stop breathing. Perhaps he is leaving that for later.

Sixth, speaking of food consumption, a law student named Victoria Ferraz replaced her vegan vegetarian diet with a diet comprised of steak, bacon and butter. 

She testifies that her body has deflamed, her acne has gone away, she has more energy and feels less bloated. She is no longer taking medicine for hypothyroidism. 

Calling veganism propaganda, she shared her diet with the New York Post:

“Every day is different for me because your body tells you what it wants. Right now, for breakfast and dinner I eat rib-eyes, top sirloin cap, pork belly, a lot of eggs, bacon, patties, butter, tallow, that whole range of animal-based products,” she explained.

“I completely eliminated sugar of all types: fruits, carbs, and processed sugar. I eat no plants, no veggies.”

Sixth, while we all report on the bad economic news out of China, we are not giving enough attention to the decline and fall of the German economy.

Matthew Lynn wrote about it in the Telegraph:

By contrast, Germany is paralysed by a coalition comprising the Social Democrats, the Greens, and the Free Democrats that can agree on almost nothing….

The coalition’s one big idea was splurging €10bn on getting Intel to build a new chip factory in the country in an attempt to drag Germany into the 21st century.

Given the coming glut of semiconductors on the global market, it already looks like a white elephant. Otherwise, Chancellor Scholz’s coalition appears to have no clue how to fix the mess.

Seventh, speaking of semiconductors, Taiwan Semiconductor is building a new plant in Arizona. Unfortunately, it has had to import workers from Taiwan, because American workers cannot do many of the jobs.

But, local labor unions do not like it that the company is trying to bring in workers from Taiwan. They also do not like it that the company has been hiring non-union contractors. 

For now the plant will likely not be operative until 2025.

Eighth, more about semiconductor manufacturing plants:

Intel says it needs 3,000 people to staff the semiconductor factory it plans to build in eastern Germany by the end of the decade. This year, the local apprentice program for chip-making technicians is training two.

Ninth, a more important matter, Keith Richards has offered his opinion of today’s pop music.

In his words:

I mean, that’s the point of it. They make it as cheap and as easy as possible and therefore it always sounds the same; there’s very little feel in it. I like to hear music by people playing instruments.

He added:

I don’t really like to hear people yelling at me and telling me it’s music, AKA rap. I can get enough of that without ­leaving my house.

Tenth, speaking of crime statistics. We now have so much of it that we ignore the crime problem in other countries, like France.

As it happens, most crime in France is committed by foreign nationals. Obviously, this is one reason why the Biden administration is hellbent on admitting more foreign nationals.

The following is from Denes Albert at Remix News:

Last year, 69 percent of violent robberies and other violent crimes, including sexual assaults, on public transport in the greater Paris region of Île-de-France were perpetrated by foreign nationals, according to the annual figures of the SSMSI, the statistics bureau of the French Ministry of Interior.

However, looking closer at the data, it is revealed that Africans alone are responsible for 52 percent of such crimes while only representing 3.2 percent of the population of France.

Even for all of France, the data clearly shows that African nationals account for 42 percent of the above-mentioned types of crimes, way above their statistical weight within the French population.

Eleventh, Real Clear Politics did a survey about attitudes toward free speech. As you might have guessed, Democrats are more comfortable with restrictions on free expression.

The New York Post reported:

According to the survey, 47% of Democrats say that speech should be legal “only under certain circumstances.”

A slim majority of Democrats (53%) agreed that speech should be legal under any circumstances while a third of Democrats (34%) think Americans have “too much freedom,” according to the poll.

Among registered Republicans, almost three quarters of them (74%) think speech should be legal “under any circumstances” while 61% of independents say the same, the RealClearPolitics survey found.

Just think, Democrats used to pride themselves on their liberality, their willingness to defend all manner of speech.

No longer.

Twelfth, the Daily Mail commissioned a poll about Vice President Kamala Harris.

The results were not encouraging. Among the adjectives chosen to describe Harris were: incompetent, stupid, unqualified, useless, worthless. 

People rated her the worst vice president in recent history, by a lot.

Thirteen, from famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh:

 "The reality is that Volodymyr Zelensky’s battered army no longer has any chance of a victory." 

Hersh reported the thoughts of an unnamed intelligence source:

That source said that despite some continued and recent attempts to paint the Ukraine counteroffensive as making slow but steady progress, the truth is the opposite. 

"It’s all lies," the source told Hersh. "The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going."

"The truth is if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army would mutiny. The soldiers aren’t willing to die any more, but this doesn’t fit the B.S. that is being authored by the Biden White House," the intelligence source explained. 

Fourteen, Bidenomics in action. From the New York Post:

Organized crime rings in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston are targeting retail inventories, causing more financial loss, according to a report by the National Retail Federation, a trade group representing US retailers.

… in 2022, inventory “shrink” as a percentage of total retail sales accounted for $112.1 billion in losses, up from $93.9 billion in 2021, according to the NRF report on Tuesday.

“Retailers are seeing unprecedented levels of theft coupled with rampant crime in their stores, and the situation is only becoming more dire,” said NRF Vice President for Asset Protection and Retail Operations David Johnston.

Retailers are either being forced to close a specific store location, reduce operating hours or alter in-store product selection to deal with the spike in retail crime, the report added.

Some would call it an insurrection.

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