Ukraine offensive to speed up as forces break through Russia’s strongest line of defence

Ukraine’s forces believe they have broken through Russia’s strongest line of defence and will now be able to advance more quickly, a commander fighting in the south has said.

Kyiv’s troops are poised to capture the village of Robotyne in the southern sector of the frontline, a victory that commanders say could unlock Russia’s formidable defences.

Elsewhere on Ukraine’s battlefields, two Ukrainian jets collided during a training flight, killing three pilots, including an ace who had ambitions to fly F-16s.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Ukraine - Russia"

GOLDSTEIN: Liberals talk tough on climate change – but not to China

Lunatic

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rags the puck on holding a public inquiry on China’s interference into Canadian democracy, which he’s never wanted, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is in China seeking its cooperation on climate change.

Guilbeault’s trip isn’t surprising – U.S. climate envoy John Kerry was in Beijing last month seeking the same thing – nor will it will result in any breakthroughs.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Canada's China Class", "China - Communist Slave State", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Green-Scam

Why Our EV Policies Are So Extremely Stupid

Incentive and tradition are against it, but auto executives occasionally blurt out important truths. The now retired Bob Lutz, who served in top roles for Ford, GM and Chrysler, regularly suggested the government should stop its fuel-economy nonsense and impose a gas tax if it wants Americans to buy high-mileage vehicles.

The late Sergio Marchionne of Fiat and Chrysler correctly called the Obama fuel-economy rules an “electric vehicle mandate.” Not for public consumption, a Toyota executive complained the same rules were also a “second bailout for Detroit” due to a carve-out for U.S.-built gasoline-powered pickups and large SUVs.

Last year, a splenetic industry insider emailed me attacking a column by basically repeating my own argument back to me (a typical phenomenon): Americans want big cars. Detroit is incentivized by the so-called chicken tax to wring all its profits from large, gas-fueled pickups and SUVs while making “compliance” vehicles for the government that lose money.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"EV's - Electric Vehicles"

This is what happens when Justin Trudeau neglects issues that really matter to Canadians

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged this week that: “It’s not an easy time to be a politician.” He wasn’t referring to fears for his — and others’ — safety, rather he was responding to the backlash he and his government have received from Canadians angry with the Liberals’ outlook, their actions, or lack of actions, on several files.

Some of that outrage is misplaced, spurred by misinformation and opposition rhetoric. This month, in P.E.I., for example, I got an earful from a taxi driver in Montague, upset with Trudeau for “wanting to take all our guns away” and “funding wars overseas” (wars in plural).

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Silicon Valley elites revealed as buyers of $800m of land to build utopian city

After weeks of local speculation, the purchasers of 55,000 acres of northern California land have been revealed. The group Flannery Associates – backed by a cohort of Silicon Valley investors – has quietly purchased $800m worth of agricultural and empty land, the New York Times has reported. Their goal is to build a utopian new town that will offer its thousands of residents reliable public transportation and urban living, all of which would operate using clean energy.

The project was spearheaded by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former trader for the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, and is backed by prominent Silicon Valley investors including Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist; Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of Linkedin; Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder of the philanthropic group Emerson Collective and wife of Steve Jobs; Marc Andreessen, an investor and software developer; Patrick and John Collison, the sibling co-founders of the payment processor Stripe; and the entrepreneurs Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman, the Times reported.

From the people who brought you San Francisco.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Progressive Paradise"

Heaven Over Budapest: A Sign of the Times in the Hungarian Capital

Your faithful diarist went out on the Feast of Stephen—and saw something like a miracle. Seriously.

Sunday, August 20th was the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian king of Hungary, coronated in the year 1000 with a crown sent by the Pope. It is also one of the three official national Magyar holidays. This year I received an invitation to watch the fireworks over the Danube from the terrace of the Carmelite monastery where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has his office. I stood with a crowd of partygoers oohing and aahing at the spectacular blasts illuminating the city below.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary

Fewer Than One-Third of Canadians Have ‘High Trust’ in Federal Government

Under a third of Canadians say they have “high trust” in the country’s federal government, according to in-house research conducted by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).

“Trust, particularly in the government and health care sector, is central to the effectiveness of public health measures,” said PHAC’s report. “While respondents have a lot of trust in hospitals and health care workers, trust in the federal government (e.g., the Public Health Agency) is much lower.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada

GUNTER: Canadian cities on low end of employment income scale

This week, Vancouver’s Fraser Institute put out tables showing the median employment income in the 141 largest cities in North America.

The highest-ranked Canadian city is Ottawa because bureaucrats have higher incomes on average than private-sector workers. Still, our nation’s capital was only 53rd best on the continent.

But mass immigration doesn’t depress wages! Justin said so!

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Mass Immigration - Follow the money", Canada's Corporate Welfare Class, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class

Thousands of Minors Have Been Sexually Mutilated

Thousands of Minors Have Received ‘Gender-Affirming Surgeries’

“… A total of 48 019 patients who underwent GAS were identified, including 25 099 (52.3%) who were aged 19 to 30 years. The most common procedures were breast and chest procedures, which occurred in 27 187 patients (56.6%), followed by genital reconstruction (16 872 [35.1%]) and other facial and cosmetic procedures (6669 [13.9%]).”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inBig Deviant, Big Tranny

The Liar Sleeps Tonight

What’s the truth about Biden’s public naps?

Most presidents are fact checked about their policies, few have been fact checked about whether they were awake. Joe Biden has had the most sleeping fact checks of any other president, but that’s because presidents usually don’t fall asleep at major events like visits by foreign leaders or commemorations of mass deaths in a recent natural disaster.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Biden Family Sleaze"

The fragmentation of the old world order

The expansion of BRICS reflects a striking shift in the global balance of power.

The BRICS summit in Johannesburg this week represents a potentially significant moment in the shifting, fragmenting world order.

BRICS – an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – is an economic bloc made up of the fastest-growing developing countries. From the very moment of its first summit in 2009, this bloc has positioned itself as an alternative to the G7 bloc of advanced economies, made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.

BRIC’s has been described as a collection of failed states, if so can the G7 be described as a collection of incipient failed states?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUncategorized

How the BBC Blames Israel and Absolves Palestinians for the Mistreatment of Journalists

Everyone remembers the death of Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who worked for Al Jazeera. She was standing just outside the entrance to Jenin on May 11, 2022, while a firefight went on between the IDF and terrorists from Jenin camp, when she was shot and killed. The Israelis have said that they believe there was a “high possibiity” that an Israeli bullet had hit Abu Akleh, but that there had been no intent to kill her; in the fog of war, errors are made. And indeed, it would have made no sense for the IDF to have deliberately killed her; there was nothing to be gained, and everything to lose, in the propaganda bonanza that the Palestinians could — and did — exploit as they denounced the IDF’s “deliberate murder.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIsraeli - Islam Conflict

Forgive my male gaze

Men are no longer trusted to admire beauty

Lost in thought again, I pace the humming street with my eyes down. They get into less trouble that way. If the pavements weren’t so cluttered with abandoned rented bicycles and e-scooters, I’d try walking backwards.

I am brooding over words I wrote several weeks ago when describing that species of social embarrassment called not knowing where to look when you pass a school playground of children. “It takes me a moment to remember,” I wrote, “that a man wandering on his own must no longer pause to look at children running races in their mirth.” I did not, I now think, adequately register the sadness of that loss. Scurry from a playground for fear of appearing sinister and we might as well be scurrying from the vitality of life itself.

Somewhat off topic – I used to have a daily morning walk that took me past a daycare, same time every day.

One day a young girl of maybe 3 or 4 standing away from the other children began calling out to me, calling me “Daddy.”

The first couple of times were amusing and I walked on without concern but she did not give up her efforts.

I began to worry I was traumatizing this poor child who daily mistook me for her father.

Worse yet I was a “Dad” who ignored her.

But I dared not stop to set her right knowing the mess that could be.

I changed my route.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Peak F*cked Up"