So. This Pentagon statement. Read it.
I take back the credit I gave Trump, below. Why? Because he gave the Syrians and Russians a head’s up. Seriously.
He hit a bunch of empty airplane hangars and a couple tool sheds. Best case.
…but to support this action (as I do).
(And what happened is exactly what Hillary suggested should be done, by the by. #StillWithHer.)
But what of the Russians who may have been on the ground there, in harm’s way? Volenti non fit injuria, as we lawyers say.
I personally like Barbie’s decision to pop by and photobomb us.
L to R: some guy off the street, Tom Axworthy, Dorothy Davey, Marty Goldfarb, Dennis Mills.
.@realDonaldTrump's #Russiagate isn't going away. He will therefore soon…
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) April 6, 2017
…and, for them, that spells disaster. Snippet from next week’s column below. And comments are open!
If the 2016-2017 Conservative leadership race is to be remembered for anything at all, it will be its willingness to replicate Donald Trump-style bigotry in Canada – and the narrow, mean-spirited bumper-sticker politics it has championed along the way.
Too many of their leadership candidates have forsaken what Stephen Harper did. Too many have forgotten that, by (a) coming together and (b) bringing new Canadians into the Conservative fold, the Conservatives finally won power.
With Axworthy, Goldfarb and Marsden! I’m honoured to host. Tickets are going fast, here. It’ll be an amazing night!
They’re all connected. Seriously.
So, there’s these two guys, profiled last week in the Washington Post:
Lucas Chapman, left, and Brace Belden, U.S. volunteers with the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, pose for a portrait next to a homemade armored vehicle in a rear base near Tal Samin, Syria. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post)
See that guy on the right, Brace Belden? He and his buddy are anarchists, fighting ISIS. Hollywood wants to make a big movie about them. And Brace? Brace is a punk rocker.
Now, check this out, from five years ago in Maximum Rock’n’Roll, the premier punk rock mag:
See that, bottom right corner? No less than ISIS-fighting anarchist punk Bruce Belden calls the Hot Nasties Invasion of the Tribbles EP the record of the week, and “great,” “pretty perfect,” “tasty (and tasteful),” “a great goddamn record,” and “everything I like about punk.”
We were, Belden says, “dumb teenagers from nowhere writing pop hits” – which sounds about right. We were dumb teenagers (now we’re dumb adults).
Anyway. All of the Nasties hope he is keeping safe over there, and we look forward to his return. We will play Invasion of the Tribbles – the Palma Violets’ favourite – when we finally meet up.
You'd be forgiven for thinking the United States is not a serious country anymore. #USPolitics pic.twitter.com/cEYtHdEbaz
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) April 5, 2017
Get a load of this.
Visitors planning getaways to the U.S. might have to relinquish their cell phone contacts and passwords under new ‘extreme vetting’ procedures being developed by the Trump administration.
The tightening could even be applied to longtime allies who are part of the State Department’s Visa Waiver program, which provides expedited admissions without a visa to residents of a list of 38 nations including allies like Britain, Australia, and France.
Among the tougher new measures: Visitors would have to answer questions about their ideology, hand over social media passwords and financial records, and their contacts, the paper reported.
Homeland officials said tougher procedures would be applied not just to prospective refugees but to visitors and other would-be immigrants.
The Journal reported that the changes might even apply to the Visa Waiver Program, where nations agree to passport controls and other security measures in exchange for ease of movement.
I would expect and hope that the Canadian government will protest this latest Trumpist xenophobic insanity.
But I’m not holding my breath.
The Soldiers of Odin is a rapidly-growing far-Right anti-refugee, anti-immigrant racist organization now found across Canada. Experts call them a terror group. More on them here and here.
The Jewish Defence League is a far-Right group that has itself been classified as extremist by the FBI for many years, and its parent organizations Kach and Kahane Chai are now officially terrorist organizations in Israel, Canada, the E.U. and the United States. More here and here. The JDL wasn’t always that way, as I write in Web of Hate, but it sure is now.
And now the JDL stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Muslim and immigrant-hating Soldiers of Odin. An organization founded by an actual neo-Nazi.
Here’s just one picture of a Canadian JDL guy with a Soldiers of Odin guy, in Toronto. Here is a video of them causing a mini-riot at Toronto City Hall.
That the JDL and Soldiers of Odin are hanging out together may not be a big deal – it may even make sense. They both clearly hate Muslims and Muslim refugees. Hateful birds of a feather, etc.
But what is significant is that the JDL and Soldiers of Odin are now scooting back and forth across international borders, despite the clear linkages to terrorism, and despite their clear willingness to commit crimes of violence.
How is that possible? Why aren’t the authorities stopping them? What are the police doing about it?
All good questions. But what isn’t in question is that the Jewish Defence League and Soldiers of Odin are now united, in their shared hatred of refugees, immigrants and Muslims.
And that’s a problem for everyone.
