PMJT: The First 100 Days

[Kirkhill]

Care to explain then oh wise one?

No.

 

[Altair]

No.

Then excuse me if I find your post as ridiculous as I originally thought it was.

 

[PuckChaser]

Actions speak louder than words.

No matter who is at the helm of this country I would expect the same level of inaction.

So you fully expect Trudeau to either attend the funeral, attend the repatriation, or visit the family members? Otherwise we'll know exactly on what side of the fence he's on.

 

[Altair]

So you fully expect Trudeau to either attend the funeral, attend the repatriation, or visit the family members? Otherwise we'll know exactly on what side of the fence he's on.

Depends how many cameras are there, man loves a good photo op.

In all seriousness though, these are all cosmetic things, they don't help prevent these things from happening, Canadians in shitty third world countries are no safer, and at the end of the day, 6 Canadians were at the wrong place at the wrong time. From what I'm reading about this attack, it was to send a message to the french, the local government and to ISIL. Those Canadians weren't specific targeted for being Canadian,  they were just there when this went down.

No amount of tough words and rethoric changes that, no bombs in Iraq and syria changes that, and I'm a little confused as to why we are trying to read tea leaves about what is the proper way to express that terrorism sucks.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The issue is radical Islam and wherever it pop up it's dirty head. There is a religious war being waged on us, despite our wishing it was not true. You need to whack the moles and cut off the radical portions from their quiet sympathizers and supporters. 

 

[Jed]

Depends how many cameras are there, man loves a good photo op.

In all seriousness though, these are all cosmetic things, they don't help prevent these things from happening, Canadians in shitty third world countries are no safer, and at the end of the day, 6 Canadians were at the wrong place at the wrong time. From what I'm reading about this attack, it was to send a message to the french, the local government and to ISIL. Those Canadians weren't specific targeted for being Canadian,  they were just there when this went down.

No amount of tough words and rethoric changes that, no bombs in Iraq and syria changes that, and I'm a little confused as to why we are trying to read tea leaves about what is the proper way to express that terrorism sucks.

You sure cut your main man a lot of slack. Quite a contrast to your thoughts on our past incumbent.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Then excuse me if I find your post as ridiculous as I originally thought it was.

Please, tell me, are you actively trying to get banned?

 

[a_majoor]

After the Liberals made so much hay out of our Security Council seat that we never really had, being dumped out of an actual alliance that does things (NATO) meeting is a bigger snub IMHO.

I never really understood the burning desire by Canadian "Progressives" to receive acclaim from international thugs and dictators.

 

[Remius]

Please, tell me, are you actively trying to get banned?

For responding to a veiled insult?  I don't agree with Altair on a lot of things but someone took a shot at him first.  Some people are offended by his opinion.  That does not mean he's been offensive. 

 

[PPCLI Guy]

After the Liberals made so much hay out of our Security Council seat that we never really had, being dumped out of an actual alliance that does things (NATO) meeting is a bigger snub IMHO.

This is not a NATO meeting - that would have about 20 more attendees.  The grouping matches up to the largest contributors of ground forces who are also conducting air strikes.  Because we are doing advice and assist but not "Building Partner Capacity", we were not on the list.  Australia, Italy and the Dutch are.

Sorry - no conspiracy here.

Canada routinely attends meeting that only ground troop providers are invited to.  We are invited to the broader coalition meeting in Brussels on 11 Feb hosted by SECDEF (along with 25 of our closest allies....) because the criteria were expanded to those providing both ground troops and strike aircraft.  A little birdie tells me we will be represented on 2 Feb in Paris anyway.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Actions speak louder than words.

No matter who is at the helm of this country I would expect the same level of inaction.

Too true. Former Liberal Deputy PM John Manley "You cannot sit at the table of democracy and when the bill comes get up and go to the bathroom."

It seems Mr. Trudeau intends to hide in the crapper until the sh*t storm passes. He will leave the bill to someone else, even when our own are butchered. 

 

[PuckChaser]

This is not a NATO meeting - that would have about 20 more attendees.  The grouping matches up to the largest contributors of ground forces who are also conducting air strikes.  Because we are doing advice and assist but not "Building Partner Capacity", we were not on the list.  Australia, Italy and the Dutch are.

Sorry - no conspiracy here.

Canada routinely attends meeting that only ground troop providers are invited to.  We are invited to the broader coalition meeting in Brussels on 11 Feb hosted by SECDEF (along with 25 of our closest allies....) because the criteria were expanded to those providing both ground troops and strike aircraft.  A little birdie tells me we will be represented on 2 Feb in Paris anyway.

The Liberal line is that we've been excluded before they took power, so its Harper's Fault (TM). If so, I'm surprised the anti-Liberal mainstream media held onto this tidbit so long, knowing the Liberals would win the election so they could embarrass them later.

But, carry on with your rose coloured glasses. Of course us pulling the fighters in a purely political promise has nothing to do with us not at the big boys table.

 

[GAP]

The opposition has created quite a zinger out of this.

It's politics.....

 

[PuckChaser]

After calling out the Tories for creating "two-tier citizenship" for convicted terrorists with dual-citizenship, the Liberals decide to one-up them by creating two-tier refugees:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/refugee-travel-costs-loans-1.3406735

Liberals' waiving of travel costs for Syrian refugees created 2-tier system
Syrians who arrived prior to Nov. 4 and refugees from other countries must cover flights, medical checks

The first letter, dated Dec. 1, arrived before Christmas, while the second came just after the holiday. Both were from the government. Zouvik Baghjajian had been living in Canada for nearly five months by then, adjusting to her new life away from Syria.

She still could not get over how quiet it was near her new home, a tidy two-bedroom apartment in a suburban Toronto neighbourhood she shares with her husband and three children. 

"Very peaceful. No bombs," Baghjajian said.

The letters, though, had their own impact. They were notices from Collection Services, part of the Department of Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees, informing the family they owed $8,892 and were already close to $500 in arrears.

"We were shocked," she said. "This is a huge number. Huge price. Why?"

In fact, the bill was for the cost of flying the family to Canada from Lebanon and for the required medical checks done before they left.

It's estimated dozens of Syrian refugees are receiving similar notices, advising them that they are starting out their new lives with a debt to repay, which can be as high as $10,000 for some. They have between one and six years to repay the loan, depending on how much they owe (Baghjajian and her family have six years to pay off their loan in monthly installments of $123.51, but interest begins to accrue after three years.)

It usually takes the government about three months from the time refugees land to set up a loan account and send out notices, so by the time refugees get the first notice, they are often already in arrears.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

But, carry on with your rose coloured glasses. Of course us pulling the fighters in a purely political promise has nothing to do with us not at the big boys table.

Did you read what I wrote?  Any of it?  My glasses are clear, and informed by knowledge of the process, as I have indicated above.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Maybe ignoring casualties is the way to go.

Suppose it is nearly impossible to improve security without compromising liberty, and vice versa.  Suppose we have a marked preference for liberty.  Then we should be willing to tolerate some casualties as the cost of liberty.

But terror attacks typically have a political purpose (to apply political pressure).  So what?  If terror attacks gain no political traction, attackers may be motivated to try something else.

Hypothesis: if we can maintain a collective ho-hum about casualties among the plebes long enough, the assailants will notice they are getting no attention and start aiming their attacks at the patricians (the ruling classes and intellectuals and whatnot - politicians, executives, prominent media personalities, etc - and their families).  The rest of us can then go about our lives relatively free of anxiety.

 

[jollyjacktar]

I disagree.  I believe their response to us not paying attention would be to up the ante until we did.  The masses won't give such a shit if they're whacking the 1%, they'll care if they're in the bulls eye.  And panic or response from the masses is what they crave.

 

[George Wallace]

You can't make this stuff up:


Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Could your past life nix a Senate spot? Liberals appoint hypnotherapist, singer to selection panel
Glen McGregor, Postmedia News | January 19, 2016 10:05 PM ET

One of the panelists named by the Liberal government to a board that will select new senators tries to recover the past lives of people she treats using a largely debunked psychological technique.

Manitoba folk singer and hypnotherapist Heather Bishop is one of nine “eminent Canadians” who will help choose candidates to fill the 22 vacancies in the Senate, Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef announced Tuesday.

But for a government that prides itself on evidence-based policy, her addition to the Senate advisory board may raise a few brows.

In addition to hypnotherapy, Bishop practises “time line therapy” and something called “neuro-linguistic programming,” or NLP, according to her personal website.

Neuro-linguistic programming came into vogue in the 1970s, along with other self-help techniques like EST. Self-help guru Tony Robbins is its best-known practitioner.

‘Your unconscious mind stores all of your memories on a line and we call that your time line’

NLP supporters claim it can treat a wide range of psychiatric illnesses, including anxiety, phobias and depression, by changing behaviour through the use of language.

“The unconscious mind does not hear the negative,” Bishop explains. “You learn tricks about never expressing anything in the negative, always express it in the positive.”

Bishop says she uses NLP along with hypnotherapy and time line therapy to help people get to the root of phobias, even delving into past lives.

“Your unconscious mind stores all of your memories on a line and we call that your time line,” she said.

To treat a client with a phobia of dogs, for example, “I would put you into a trance. I would put you on your time line and tell you go back to the time you first locked-in your fear of dogs.”

This fear, she says, could originate even further, requiring what Bishop calls “past-life regression.”

“It could have been in a former lifetime. It might not be from this life. Sometimes people will say, ‘It was from before I was born.’ We go back to how many lifetimes ago.”

Peer reviews studies of NLP have mostly concluded that there is no evidence to support its claims, however.

A panel of the U.S. National Research Council called NLP “an unvalidated technique” and said that studies supporting it failed “to provide an empirical base of support for NLP assumptions… or NLP effectiveness.”

NLP is based on “outmoded view of the relationship between cognitive style and brain function ultimately boils down to crude analogies,” according to another study.

Another found NLP based on theories that are “laced with numerous factual errors.”

Others dismiss it as “new-age fakery” on par with astrology.

Bishop describes herself as “social activist, keynote speaker, visual artist, published author, teacher, and tradeswoman.” She is a member of the selection committee for the Order of Manitoba.

She said she learned she was being considered for the Senate appointments board when she received a phone call from Monsef’s office. She says she doesn’t know who put her name forward.

While she believes the science of NLP is legitimate, she says she won’t be using it to select new members of the Upper Chamber.

“This has nothing to do with with my appointment.”

Ottawa Citizen

More on LINK.

 

[Remius]

I'm not sure how they selected board members.  Maybe a broad spectrum?  It would be nice to see the full make up of this panel. I suspect her social activism, order or Canada and work in the arts might have been a factor.  But post media never mentioned any of that...

Edit to add: I don't know who heather bishop is.  If I relied on that article alone, she seems to be a bit of an oddball choice.  I had to google her to find the other info on her.  I guess not all media is pro liberal.

That being said, I'm not even sure what criteria they using to select panel members.  Maybe they want different people from various backgrounds, recognized in their fields and most importantly willing to do the job.    :dunno:

 

[McG]

CBC has posted the full list along with questions as to how non-partisan the board really is.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-senate-advisory-board-1.3410090