The world has been spared horrific terrorist attacks for the past couple of months. That peace ended today in Barcelona when a truck mowed down people in a busy tourist area. It appears there were multiple attacks beginning last night. The driver of the truck is still at large. At least 13 people were brutally murdered, dozens gravely injured.
While everyone says we should not feel like we are being held hostage by isis, it’s getting harder and harder to believe that. As we have said on more than one occasion, Europe is closing in.
When the world will wake up and take heed from the tiny country of Israel, who have lived with terrorism since 1948, we will all be safer. Until then, we wish everyone good luck when traveling the world.
Over the past few days, we, as many other thinking, decent and moral people have had our faith in leaders tested.
Trump erred when he did not call out the kkk and white supremacists. Why he balked is anyone’s guess. Given that, one wonders had he indeed called them out on Friday night or Saturday would people have found something else to dump on him? Nothing he does is ever right.
It is pretty obvious that there are those in the US who want him out of office and are doing everything in their power to bait him, knowing that his weakness lies in his inability to control his mouth. This seems to be systemic, stemming from social media and media in general.
Blanche’s take on this never-ending story: Over our long and often painful history, we have learned that as Jews we do not put our hope in a person. Rather, as a people we have figured out long ago that there is a G-d in the world and He has the blueprint. We have survived much worse than what is going on in the United States today.
No matter what he says or who he supports, Donald Trump will not change the minds of neo-nazis, white supremists or their ilk. Nor will he change the minds of the far left, who by the way also are not lovers of Jews.
Sane, decent people have to live moral lives, not deviate for a moment from our convictions and stay well above the fray and noise. The chips will fall where they are supposed to.
Steve Bannon gave an interview yesterday that he thought was off the record. Spare us. Bannon knows very well that he if calls a journalist to ‘talk’, instituting the conversation, his words will be recorded and then published.
It’s also not a secret that his position in the White House is tenuous. After his remarks yesterday, could be he knows something more than he’s letting on.
Bannon called Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of the American Prospect, a leftwing political magazine. Among his remarks: ‘In Kim, Trump has met his match. The risk of two arrogant fools blundering into a nuclear exchange is more serious than at any time since October 1962.’
He openly contradicted Trump on North Korea: “There’s no military solution [to North Korea’s nuclear threats], forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”
Our guess is that Bannon will be gone by the weekend. He’s obviously taunting Trump and pushing the envelope as far as he can.
In the midst of all this drama, an even bigger drama is unfolding which could have real ramifications on our lives. We are referring to the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) negotiations now taking place in Washington.
What’s on the table that can make a difference in your life? Mostly getting rid of the dairy quota aka Canada’s dairy supply-management system. While this is not on the official list of contentions, it appears that America is going to ask to eliminate “non-tariff barriers to U.S. agricultural exports,” which could refer to dairy or to Mexico’s domestic sugar subsidies.
We certainly hope this happens which will the borders to dairy imports from the US resulting in a significant drop our grossly inflated prices, made to ‘protect’ dairy farmers who need no protection.
Canada made the top stories of the Drudge Report today. Why you ask? Because over 3,800 migrants crossed illegally into Quebec in the first two weeks of August. Got that?
It took a few weeks for Trudeau and his cast of missives to wake up. Both provincial and federal officials are concerned that misinformation about Canada’s refugee system is being propagated through social media, helping fuel the influx. Really?
Wait, it gets better. They have now stated that asking for asylum in Canada is not a guarantee for permanent residence in Canada. Good morning.
In case you didn’t know why mostly Haitians are coming, here’s your answer: In May Trump announced that the US would end the programme that extended temporary protection from deportation to Haitian citizens after the devastating 2010 earthquake. That protection is due to expire in January 2018.
He woke up and we went to sleep.
We wrote about the solar eclipse last week. Well, ladies and gents, it’s this Monday night. The main information piece about this eclipse is not to look at it without special glasses. Seriously, it could blind you.
Now for some more tidbits of information: Don’t look at the eclipse while driving. Sounds sane but lotsa nutty people out there.
Tons of pedestrians will be walking and looking up. Don’t run them over.
During a total solar eclipse, the moon is literally blocking the sun, turning day into night. So some extra visibility is probably in order: don’t rely on your vehicle’s automatic lights and position your sun visor to block your view of the Sun.
It’s going to be a mess on the roads, so if you want to get to a good viewing spot, do it early. If you live in the path of totality and don’t have to be on the road during the eclipse, put the keys down and chill out.
And were exactly can this eclipse be seen? In Montreal, the eclipse starts at 1:21 pm and continues until 3:50 pm. The maximum eclipse is at 2:38 pm.
Kansas City, Missouri and Charleston, South Carolina, fall in line with the eclipse’s path of totality. These areas will see nearly a 100% obscuration of the sun, weather permitting. In cities like San Antonio, Texas and Los Angeles, California, the moon will block between 60% and 70% of the sun.
In the rest of Canada, the best views will happen in and around Victoria, where as much as 90 per cent of the sun will be blacked out. Vancouver and Calgary will both enjoy over 80 per cent coverage, while a host of other cities, including Toronto, Regina, London, Edmonton and Thunder Bay will see the moon occlude more than 70 per cent of the sun.
Good Shabbos We’ll talk…