Mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies for some sectors and public spaces are quickly emerging as one of the key proposals being put to Canadian voters during the first week of the federal election.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who is running for re-election as prime minister, doubled down on Wednesday over questions about his plan to require proof of vaccination for all those looking to travel domestically as soon as this fall, amid a fourth wave primarily driven by unvaccinated people.
There are no plans yet to aid Americans unable to make it past the tight cordon the Taliban has placed around Hamid Karzai International Airport, the base of the expanding U.S. evacuation effort in Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s spokesman acknowledged Wednesday.
In the last 24 hours, 18 Air Force C-17 cargo jets lifted off from the airport with about 2,000 passengers, of which 325 were U.S. citizens. The remaining numbers were Afghan civilians and some NATO personnel, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday.
Joe Biden: 'I'm getting sick and tired of hearing about morality, our moral obligation…the U.S. has no obligation to evacuate 1—or 100,001' refugees from this war-torn country https://t.co/cBnUEGDuNA
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 18, 2021
Former U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) goalkeeper Hope Solo claims that star U.S. player Megan Rapinoe bullied some players to get them to kneel during the national anthem before games.
While it’s certainly convenient to depict the shock and miscalculation U.S. officials claim over Afghanistan’s tragic, rapid fall to the Taliban as an intelligence failure, the reality is far worse. It’s a convenient deflection of responsibility for decisions taken owing to political and ideological considerations and provides a scapegoat for a policy decision that’s otherwise unable to offer a persuasive defense.
As CIA’s Counterterrorism Chief for South and Southwest Asia before my 2019 retirement, I was responsible for assessments concerning Afghanistan prepared for former President Donald Trump. And as a volunteer with candidate Joe Biden’s counterterrorism working group, I consulted on these same issues. The decision Trump made, and Biden ratified, to rapidly withdraw U.S. forces came despite warnings projecting the outcome we’re now witnessing. And it was a path to which Trump and Biden allowed themselves to be held captive owing to the “ending Forever Wars” slogan they both embraced.
Interesting read, an ex-CIA guy defends the CIA and scorches the “decision makers & politicians.” Some salt may be required.
h/t HY
My Pot dealer is better than yours, watch. pic.twitter.com/JA1rabuawu
— Knot the Agency Guy (@knot_agency) August 18, 2021
When Nova Scotia’s Liberal premier chose to call an election in the midst of the pandemic, word on the street was that federal forces might want to keep their eye on this baby, just in case something unexpected arose. It could, observers suggested, prove a harbinger of things to come.
“A weak performance by the Nova Scotia Liberals would be somewhat concerning to the federal Liberals,” a political science prof at Cape Breton University told The Canadian Press. “There seemed to be a high level of support going into the election for the incumbent. If that level of support is eroded, that would signal to the federal Liberals that the public is volatile.”
Cases have been registered against 400 unidentified people after a viral video showed a woman being assaulted at Minar-e-Pakistan on the country’s independence day.
This is why #Pakistanis r supporting #Taliban they have become 1 of them a Girl was Sexually Molested Stripped Naked by 400 Men at Minar E #Pakistan #Lahore on #IndependenceDayPakistan Celebrations NOT ALL MEN #Congratulationsindia #AfghanWomen #Afghanistan #TalibanSympathisers pic.twitter.com/9TIIh6tjC0
— 🇮🇳 Gopal Thakkar🚩 (@GopalAThakkar_) August 17, 2021
Rather than do what a true leader does – bring people together – Trudeau is seeking to turn Canadians against each other, demonize each other, and spread fear.
h/t Marvin
In October of 2020, former White House physician Ronny Jackson raised a question that was on the minds of many voters: “I watch Joe Biden on the campaign trail and I am concerned that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive ability to serve as our commander in chief and head of state.” Jackson, who had served under Presidents Obama and Trump, stressed that he was speaking as a “concerned citizen” rather than a physician. Inevitably, the media collectively descended on Jackson like so many flying monkeys, but he raised the issue again during Biden’s absence from the public eye last weekend as Afghanistan was being overrun by the Taliban.
If you’re an Afghan translator sheltering in a Kabul compound, life must seem pretty grim. The Taliban’s triumph has brought with it the restoration of sharia law – a throwback to when the movement ruled Afghanistan 20 years ago. The only difference between then and now seems to be their warriors’ concerted PR push, with journalists on the ground subject to ceaseless Taliban press conferences. If Madison Avenue did coups, perhaps.
But the night is darkest just before the dawn. And now, at last, hope is here: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have finally released a public statement.
The government wants you to believe it’s targeting hate speech, when in reality it’s targeting free speech
Free speech ensures that Canadians have the right to tell governments when they’re wrong. While this may be unpleasant for governments, it is absolutely vital in a democratic society.
Rather than strengthening Canadians’ rights, the Trudeau government wants to filter free speech through the lens of a bureaucratic superstructure. There can be no doubt that there are bad things on the internet. Child pornography, hate speech, and other such crimes are detestable. But these crimes are already labelled as such through the criminal code with lengthy prison sentences for those who are convicted.
Twenty years ago, the military-industrial complex rushed the United States into a pair of wars that cost billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives — only to end in the abject humiliation of American power in Kabul over the past few days. Meanwhile, defense contractors, who had no financial incentive to properly train an Afghan military to operate independently of them, made off handsomely along the way.
Today, a new alliance of big government and big business seeks to profiteer from the domestic culture war. I call it the woke-industrial complex. The consequences could be even more devastating this time around, for democracy at home and for the moral standing of the United States on the global stage.
The first rule of flight club is you don’t talk about flight club. While a private jet might once have been the ultimate status symbol, travelling lavishly has turned into a liability for celebrities who want to be taken seriously. “What about yer private jet, then?” has, understandably, become the knee-jerk response whenever the privileged pipe up about the climate crisis. If you’re going to lecture the hoi polloi on how we need to make sacrifices to save the world, it’s a good idea not to flaunt your own excesses.
It’s animal abuse.
The Biden administration is dealing with its deeply serious disasters in a deeply unserious way. Biden’s ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, appeared on CNN with Wolf Blitzer Tuesday and said that the United States and its remaining allies worked really, truly, very hard on a response to the Taliban as it tightened its grip on Afghanistan.
A left-wing academic who was fired after her organisation posted racial slurs against a black conservative is suing her university on the grounds that “black radicalism” and Critical Race Theory (CRT) should be protected beliefs under the UK Equality Act.
Aysha Khanom, who was sacked from her advisory role with Leeds Beckett University (LBU) after the Twitter account for her organisation described conservative political commentator Calvin Robinson as a “house negro” and a “coconut”, is launching a landmark case claiming that her firing was discriminatory.
