IN THE NEWS....in both Canada and the United States.

FIRST...Another day, another mass school shooting.  This time in South Florida.   I have a novel idea ...ban guns!

SECOND...President Donald Trump yesterday stated that it would be up to Congress to consider the issue of infrastructure renewal.  He made clear though his personal ambivalence with his following statement:  'if they allocate money to it...that's fine...if they decide not to do that...that's fine too'.  As many of you know, I never took seriously Trump's promise to pump multi federal dollars into Infrastructure.  The cold hard fact is ...the United States of America is dead broke.

THIRD...Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau and his Justice Minister who is of native blood, have vowed to reform the Justice System in the wake of a Jury verdict which found a farmer not guilty of murdering a young native indian.  Why not just dispense with the Jury System and deem the defendant guilty whenever the 'victim' is from a minority community.

FOURTH...Ontario's Conservative Party finds itself in a Leadership Race mere months from a general election.  Despite the fact that the Party has a massive lead over its opponents, there is a paucity of candidates...only 3 and none particularly stellar.  This could be the result of 14+ years of Liberal / Progressive rule which has literally destroyed the province's economy...once the engine of the country, Ontario is now a have-not province relying upon the generosity of its sister provinces to pay its bills.  I believe the winner will be Ms Caroline Mulroney, daughter of one of Canada's Prime Ministers, with that being her only claim to the brass ring.  As with our current Prime Minister, nice hair and nice teeth are more important than experience and earning your stripes.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

WHERE HAVE ALL THE TORIES GONE ...

LONG TIME PASSING ?

I AM THE FIRST TO BEMOAN THE FACT THAT THERE ARE LESS AND LESS SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES IN THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENTS AROUND THE WORLD AND EACH YEAR IT SEEMS THOSE OF US THAT REMAIN, ARE PAID LESS AND LESS ATTENTION TOO.

THEN I GOT TO THINKING...

THERE IS ALSO LESS AND LESS FISCAL CONSERVATIVES AS WELL.  WHAT WE HAVE ENDED UP WITH ARE VARIOUS SHADES OF LIBERALISM (aka PROGRESSIVES).   

In Canada, we had a Prime Minister in the 1950s who was fond of saying that the only protection a Conservative had "was under the game laws". 

I am not sure that even that applies any more!

Let me be clear, when I say Fiscal Conservative I am defining those who favour the smallest government possible, and one that pays its own way without going into debt.

Over the course of the last 50 years, governments of all stripes have added greatly to its Growth while Debt & Deficits have become the norm. Why the United States Debt exceeds its annual GDP while Japan is in even worst shape with its Debt totaling 250% of its GDP.

We are heading for a reckoning ....it may not happen today or even tomorrow but you can rest assured it is coming.

In this vain, a few days ago, US Senator Rand Paul made an impassioned plea for common sense in the debate to pass a 2 year budget extension for the Federal Government.  Estimates suggest that this Budget will add at least an additional $3 Trillion Dollars to the already $21 Trillion Dollar Debt.  If those sums do not appear scary it is only because of its enormity.

Back in 2009 in Senator Paul's own words he said, 'a $Trillion Dollars, stacked in $100 Dollar Bills, would extend 789 miles into the sky'.  Today, multiply that by 21 Trillion Dollars....realizing that this number continues to grow exponentially.  

Senator Paul's plea did not change the debate ...the budget was approved by all sides, but it also did not go unnoticed. 

Here is some of what he had to say:

SEN. RAND PAUL: When the Democrats are in power, Republicans appear to be the conservative party. But when Republicans are in power, it seems there is no conservative party.

You see, opposition seems to bring people together, and they know what they're not for. But then they get in power and they decide, we're just going to spend that money too. We're going to send that money to our friends this time.

The hypocrisy hangs in the air and chokes anyone with a sense of decency or intellectual honesty.

The right cries out, 'Our military is hollowed out!' Even though military spending more than doubled since 2001.

The left is no better. Democrats don't oppose military money as long as they can get some for themselves... for their pet causes.

The dirty little secret is that, by and large, both parties don't care about the debt.

The spending bill is 700 pages, and there will be no amendments.

The debate, although it's somewhat inside baseball that we're having here, is over me having a 15-minute debate. And they say, 'Woe is me! If you get one, everybody will want an amendment.'

Well, that would be called debate.

That would be called an open process.

That would be called concern for your country, enough to take a few minutes.

And they're like, 'But it's Thursday, and we like to be on vacation on Fridays.'

And so they clamor. We've been sitting around all day. It's not like we've had 100 amendments today, we're all worn out and can't do one more. We're going to have zero amendments. Zero, goose egg, no amendments.

It's a binary choice. They love that word, it's a binary choice.

Take it or leave it. You know what? I'm going to leave it. I didn't come up here for this. I didn't leave my family throughout the week and travel up here to be a part of something that is so much inertia, and so much status quo, that they're not leading the country. They're just following along, and it's a big ball rolling down a hill grabbing up your dollars as the boulder rolls down the hill, it gets bigger and bigger, it's going to crush us.

But nobody has the guts to stand up and say no.

Over the past 40 years, only four times have we actually done 12 individual department of government appropriations bills. You've heard of like the Appropriation Committee? This is where the spending is. You have the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, Health and Human services.

We're supposed to pass each individual bill, and what would happen when we pass the bills, they would go through committee and each committee would look and see, well, this spending seems to be working. We're getting a great result, and we want some more next year. And this spending appears to be, have been put in a closet and lit on fire, and so next year we're not giving that person who put the $10 million in the closet and lit it on fire, we're not going to give them any money.

Guess what? That doesn't happen. So people keep putting your money in a closet and lighting it on fire.

God Bless Rand Paul.  It is just too damn bad that those like him are so few these days.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

WHO DOESN'T LIKE A PARADE !

Well I certainly do...especially if it is a Santa Claus Parade.

Way back, in one of my earliest Blogs, I mentioned being in one cross-starred  Santa Parade in my home town of Brighton where the wind was so strong that day it blew every float away save the sturdy Santa Float.

The parade consisted of that one float plus a station wagon which provided the only music...Gene Autry's Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with yours truly winding the gramophone and its 78 rpm record.  

So it probably comes as no surprise that upon Donald Trump's return from Paris earlier this year where he witnessed its annual Bastille Day Military Parade, he started planning one of his own.  

A Parade with marching bands, armed forces personnel and tanks.

After all, what is a parade if it does not contain tanks and hopefully a bucket load of nuclear rockets thrown in.

I am sure that you, like me, this brings to mind such worthy defenders of Democracy as Vladd Putin, Xi Jinping and North Korea's Yong-un and their impressive military shows of power and might. 

Not to leave out a plethora of petty dictators and tyrants that circumnavigate the world.  And their need for such displays has more to do with scaring the bejeepers out of their countrymen to ensure none of them have the temerity to challenge their enlightened rules.

And we know of course that this would never be Donald Trump's goal... why he is only out to have a nice sunny 4th of July and enjoy America's delicacy... the Hot Dog.

At least I hope that this is the intended goal for his parade.

But maybe...just maybe there is something else at play here.

Maybe it has something to do with xxxxx envy as was evident recently when the Yong-un bragged about the seize of his Nuclear Button to which Trump quite rightly responded that his Nuclear Button is much Bigger and in fact can kill more than any other country in the world. 

Not though in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt and encompassed in his oft repeated quote,  'walk softly but carry a big stick'.

From the beginning of Donald Trump's Administration there were several areas where I had reservations about the direction they might be going.  One of those and one of the most important was his reliance upon elderly male Generals.  Indeed his top 3 Advisors all fall into this category.

As a Libertarian, I do not trust Big Government including Big Military especially a Military which is not held in proper civilian check. 

I have written about the Cuban Missile Crisis where had it not been for President Kennedy and to a lesser extent his brother Bobbie, the world would have likely experienced its first nuclear war.  The Joint Chiefs wanted to go into Cuba with guns blazing but thankfully neither Kennedy trusted the Chiefs all that much and devised a less confrontational response, namely, a naval blockade.

I say thankfully since post crisis, America discovered that the Russian Troops on the ground had been instructed from Moscow to respond to any attack, with nuclear missiles.

So have a parade and enjoy your hot dog President Trump and leave the scare tactics to those leaders who are insecure enough to  need them. 

THE NUNES MEMO

This past Friday saw the long-awaited release of the above-noted memo.  

It was light on specifics but the following are the facts I was able to glean from it:

1. In October of 2016 at the height of the bitter Election Campaign between Republican Trump and Democratic Clinton, the FBI and the Department of Justice applied to the Courts for a warrant to allow surveillance of one of Trump's campaign workers...Carter Page.
2. This same Carter Page had been the subject of their investigations prior to the time that Donald Trump came onto the scene.
3. Key information, without which, it is agreed by all, the Judge would not have allowed the issuance of the Warrant was supplied by Hillary Clinton's Campaign and by the Democratic Party at great expense ($) to them both. 
4. All of this Information in due course turned out to be false.
5. It was obtained by Clinton et al from the Russians through an intermediary by the name of ChristopherSteele ...a self professed 'Trump Hater'.  
6. Finally, the application to the Court did not expose the fact that Hillary / Her Party were the principals involved in obtaining this data, but it did allow that it had come from a 'political rival of Trump. 

Trump claims that the Nunes' Memo 'completely vindicates him'.  It does not, but in truth does not matter since he never needed vindication...there has never been any evidence tying him to Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 Election.

The Democrats on the other-hand  say 'there is nothing there ...move on'.

'Nothing there?'  Other than the fact that it confirms both the FBI and DOJ were fully aware of the fact that it was Hillary and her Campaign who were playing footsies with the Ruskies in advance of Election Day.

So in the post Election period is it not the height of hypocrisy for Hillary to blame the Russians and their ties to the Trump Campaign as one of the major reasons for her election loss?  The woman has no shame. 

And how is it that the Meuller Special Prosecutory  Commission was allowed to form to investigate the non-existent Trump - Russia connection when these senior FBI / DOJ officials knew all along that the real culprit in this sorry mix was Dear Hillary?

Talk about being in the bag for one candidate over the other.

Long time readers will know that I jokingly say that you can be sure a politician is lying as soon as their lips start to move.  Sadly this is more often true than not.

But at least you get an opportunity every 4 years to vote the most notorious out of office.

What can you do though in the case of faceless senior enforcement officers who try to influence the outcome of our democratic elections.

More on that another time.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher' 

IT IS A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS WHEN YOU CANNOT TRUST THE COPS !

As in the Senior Cops like the FBI and the Justice Department.

In that regard, we are waiting breathlessly for the release of a memo which will chronicle efforts by both of the above to discredit Donald Trump.

As an aside, I can say that even in my home Province and Country the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police..have been caught out from time to time giving succor to one party or the other...usually in support of the Liberals.

The same thing has happened in America especially during the 8 year tenure of Barack Obama.

Permit me to list but a few of the most egregious:

• The Black Panthers were never charged even though they intimidated voters from voting against Obama in 2008.
• The Internal Revenue Agency launched a campaign to specifically to audit Conservative Non-Profits Organizations. Again, no one was charged.
• The ATF's program named Fast and Furious which put guns in the hands of Mexican Drug Cartels resulted in an agent's death. The White House blocked all attempts to get to the bottom of it.
•  In the Benghazi fiasco Hillary Clinton and her senior officials in the State Department tried to blame it on some obscure video when they knew all along it was a pre-planned terrorist attack and when they had all along turned a deaf ear to their Ambassador's request for greater security.  Again no inquiry.
• Then there was Hillary's use of insecure servers even though she was the second most powerful person in the Obama Administration.  Again no follow-up.
• And in regard to Hillary again.  Senior Officials in the Democratic Party were actively working for her against her main competitor Bernie Sanders.  Little was done to rectify this certainly nothing was done for poor Bernie.
• And to get back to the infamous memo about to be released, it will confirm that it was one and the same Hillary who had her campaign pay the Russians for dirt on Trump.  

And all the while Hillary was accusing Trump of working hand and glove with the Ruskies.  

Why it even led to the Meuller Special Prosecutor's investigation of how Trump et al worked with Russia to turn the last Election in his favour.

It wasn't Trump who was doing it...again it was dear Hillary.

But you would never know it from the Left Wing Media.  Silence.

I have said from the get-go that Trump was not working with the Russians or any other country for that matter in his victory over the Dems.  

But I cannot comprehend how Meuller did not come to realize that early on in his investigation.  He should have at least expanded it to include malfeasance on the part of Hillary and her Campaign Team.

So why is this so important?  Why is it not just interesting reading?

I will tell you why.  A Democracy without the Rule of Law is not worth the Constitution it is written on.

And in order to have Rule of Law, a country needs Impartial Enforcement.

This has been lacking in the United States for too long and if that state of affairs continues, the net effect of that is just too dangerous to contemplate regardless of who calls the White House home.    

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

IT'S ALL IN THE NAME.

It must be or how else can you explain why the first two candidates out of the gate to replace the hapless Patrick Brown are a brother of a deceased Mayor and a daughter of a former Prime Minister.

Yes, I am speaking of course about Doug Ford and Caroline Mulroney.   The former's brother was Mayor of the City of Toronto... the infamous Rob Ford and, the latter's father is the humble Brian Mulroney.

This is Star Power at its worst and will certainly not work for Ford and hopefully not for C.M. either.

I say hopefully, since Justin Trudeau's status as the offspring of the late great Pierre Elliott certainly launched him into the Prime Ministership of Canada with little more than drama teacher experience. And not much of that.

Ford's biggest problem is that he lacks the charisma possessed by his more popular brother.  He could have benefited from the sympathy vote for his late brother had he run for the leadership in 2014. Now, 4 years later, that sympathy vote has evaporated with time. 

With respect to Caroline whatever happened to earning your stripes so to speak?  It borders on arrogant to think you can just opt for the top job without moving up through the ranks.

She will have her famous father beating the hustings for her but these will be Ontario hustings...not that of Quebec, so his help will be muted at best. Voters here in Ontario still remember that it was the big BM who added greatly to the National Debt during his 8 years in power.  After 14+ years of the Liberals, the last thing we  need are more big spenders.

There is though one man in the PC Ranks who has more than earned his stripes....proprietor of his own Marketing Business, former Mayor of North Bay, Member of the Provincial Legislature since 2011, in recent years Critic for Finance and today the Interim Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.

I am speaking of course about Vic Fedeli but he has announced he will not seek the permanent leadership.

Pity.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

IT'S JOHN BAIRD'S IF HE WANTS IT.

And that is the question...Does He Want It.

For those Readers who have no clue who John Baird is, permit me to enlighten you.

Baird was the second senior Minister next only to Prime Minister Stephen Harper during the Conservative Government of Canada from 2005 to 2015.

Baird resigned his Ministry unexpectedly during the dying days of Harpers Administration for which I have never received an adequate explanation.

If it was just because Baird sensed the good Ship Harper was going down and simply got out when the going was good, he would not be too blemished should he decide to go for the Leadership of the Conservative Party in Ontario in the wake of the recent resignation of Patrick Brown. 

And should he do so, he would win a landslide victory in the coming Ontario Election which by law must be held this Spring. 

The Liberal Party, which ruined the economy of our Province over the course of its 14+ years in power, will be left as nothing but a rump.

There will be lots of interest in the coming Leadership Race, but when the dust settles it will be Baird who stands victorious.

That is of course, should he decide to run.

As I See It...

K.D. Galagher