CBC story on librarians rolling out the red carpet for Nazis

— 07.12.2017 06:06 PM

Here:

Warren Kinsella, a Toronto-based political consultant and commentator who is a staunch opponent of Fromm’s, disagrees.

“Public services are not supposed to be used to promote discrimination. The library in Etobicoke is doing that,” he said.

Warren Kinsella says “public services are not supposed to be used to promote discrimination,” and that the library is doing that. 

“They’re providing a platform for neo-Nazis and white supremacists and that’s outrageous.”

Kinsella is concerned this event may start a trend. He said if the library allows this group in, “there will be many more such groups,” which will “cause division and intimidate lots of people.”

Two things. One, I’m delighted we have John Tory on our side. (I’m irritated that an actual monkey was asked to write a legal opinion for the addled librarians, here. But that will be remedied in due course.)

Two, this is yet another reason my wife should run for city council. I know she would have worked with Tory, Pasternak and the others to stop this hate fest from happening. 

The fight continues.


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The Toronto Public Library hosts Neo-Nazis (updated twice)

— 07.12.2017 01:56 PM


UPDATE: Solid story from Torontoist here.

UPDATED: Another story, here. I’ll be on CBC abut it tonight, apparently.


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I cheer for the apes

— 07.12.2017 12:44 PM

As has been the case since I was eight years old and living in Texas, I will be cheering for the apes.

Also, I am cancelling a fun weekend trip to be at the first showing on the first day.

Yes, I have problems.




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Now on HuffPo: my stirring defence of Trudeau and Alberta

— 07.12.2017 08:18 AM

Here.

Key quotage:

None of the Conservatives who leapt on Trudeau’s gaffe — Jason Kenney, Brian Jean, Michelle Rempel, et al. — were nearly as outraged as they claimed to be. They were, as politicians do, taking political advantage of a rival politicians’ slip. It was a mistake, to be sure. But not a career-ending one.

Albertans (where I grew up) are like Quebecers (where I was born). They see themselves as a distinct society: part of Canada, but arguably better than the rest of Canada. As such, when the offered the opportunity, they will never hesitate to moan that they have been harmed and humiliated and hurt. It’s in the genes.


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The Trump smoking gun

— 07.11.2017 07:43 AM

From the New York Times:

Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.

The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy.

Mr. Goldstone’s message, as described to The New York Times by the three people, indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information.

The corrupt Trump cabal, naturally, will say (a) they don’t know the information came from the Kremlin; (b) the information received was of no consequence; and (c) Donald Trump Jr. was not a Trump campaign official.

None of those will fly – and they certainly won’t be persuasive with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, because:

(a) There is already lots of evidence, sworn and otherwise, that the Kremlin was helping Trump, via various campaign officials (cf. Messrs. Manafort, Flynn, Kushner, Page, Gordon, Cohen, Sessions et al.). This new email is important, however, because it directly implicates Trump’s family.

(b) If the information received wasn’t important,  why did Trump’s own son, his son-in-law, and his top campaign official all drop everything, mid-campaign, to attend? And whether the information was important or not is actually irrelevant – Trump’s family and campaign believed it was from a foreign power bent on defeating Hillary Clinton, and that is enough.

(c) Trump’s inner circle throughout his quixotic campaign comprised less than ten people, half of whom were members of his family.  “Diaper” Don Jr. appeared in the media over and over, during that race, to defend his father.  He was a Trump campaign surrogate and spokesperson.

This all meets the legal definition of “collusion” under 18 U.S. Code, 953:

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

As of today, we know that Donald Trump’s most senior officials, and his immediate family, colluded with a hostile power and/or an enemy of the United States.

Nothing will happen about this until, one, Mueller reports and, two, the Democrats win sufficient seats in the mid-terms.

But they’ve got them now.


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