Acting in the Best Interests of Shareholders -- Lying to Canadians

"The period between 2010 and 2024 has been economically remarkable."

"For most of the period, interest rates were at their lowest level in history[ but] earnings grew at their slowest rate in, probably, more than 200 years."

"At the heart of it all was a period of abysmal growth in productivity, and with it, living standards."

London Institute of Fiscal Studies

 

"The most common feedback we hear from investors encourages us to position [Brookfield Asset Management] for inclusion in some of the most widely followed global large cap stock indices, including in the U.S." 

Mark Carney December 1 letter to shareholders

Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, who's running for the leadership of the federal Liberal Party, speaks to the media following the candidates' English-language debate, in Montreal on Tuesday. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)

"Anybody who knows anything about business knows that boards have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders."

"At the end of the day, [Carney's] job as chairman of the board was to act in the best interests of shareholders."

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson

With the resignation of Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the hastily-called Liberal leadership campaign set to roll up on March 7, when the winner of the campaign will then inherit the prime ministership of Canada for as long as it take for the re-convening of Parliament and an inevitable election to take place with Canada's other official political parties all expressing their non-confidence in the Liberal party that has led the country astray for a decade, the leading candidates appear to be the past finance minister in this government, Chrystia Freeland and international banker Mark Carney.

 

Both pledge to take Canada in a different direction, to haul it out of the nonfunctioning status that Justin Trudeau had worked so assiduously to bring to fruition, from his dedication to environmental issues, deliberately hamstringing the exploitation of Canada's energy resources, admitting an unsupportable number of immigrants, refugees, foreign students, farm workers and illegal migrants whose presence burdened the faltering universal health care system, the housing market and led to toxic divisions between provinces and various elements of the population.

 

Never mind that Chrystia Freeland had been an enthusiastic promoter of Trudeau's ruinous reign, or that Mark Carney had been an adviser to the Liberal government, and his own oft-stated priorities mirror those of the man he is now campaigning to replace. The one-time Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor, environmental activist and elite board member of numerous institutions is now portraying  himself, just as Trudeau before him did, as the only one who can pull Canada out of its economic doldrums and unite Canadians against the imminent threat of U.S. President Trump's ruinous tariff threats.

 

He portrays himself at campaign stops, in interviews and debates as someone he is not. The "formal decision of the board" of Brookfield Investment of which he was chairman  to expatriate its head office was a decision made after he left the board to run for Liberal leader, he claims. While the opposition Conservatives claim Carney "sold out Canada" by overseeing the Canadian investment house move to New York, a December memo has been unveiled that puts the lie to Carney's claim of innocence. 

During the Liberal English-language debate for the leadership he referred to his tenure at the Department of Finance: "It was my privilege to work with Paul Martin when he balanced the books -- and kept the books balanced", he boasted. Except for the fact that his Finance Department presence was in 2004, a full decade after Paul Martin's 1995 budget led to the 1998 book balancing.

 

During an interview on The Daily Show, he boasted of avoiding a U.S.-type banking crisis in 2008-09: "We didn't let our banks do things that they didn't understand just because all the other banks were doing them", referring to complex financial products like subprime mortgages during the U.S. meltdown. "As Governor of the Bank of Canada during the 2008 financial crisis, Mark guided Canada through one of the most turbulent economic periods in modern history" his LinkedIn bio reads to credit him with "protecting jobs and helping ensure that Canada came out stronger". It was, in fact, the banks themselves credit is due to.

 

"I have helped manage multiple crises and saved two economies" he said in referring to his seven years as governor of the Bank of England, when Britain's economy stuttered from bad to worse when he was at the helm, and since, nosediving from 2020, when he left. Yet another Trudeau, one whom, yet again, the Liberal Party of Canada, which has brought the country to a state of 'post-nationalism', mired in Critical Race Theory and DEI, one where Muslim mobs parade through the streets celebrating the Hamas 'victory' over Israel, is prepared to carry on.

 

Canada can do better, much better than that. With the intention to leave the Liberal Party out of contention and return a rational, common-sense Conservative Party and its leader, Pierre Poilievre to preserve what is left of Canada and guide it intelligently back to its original proud state and get on with the job of correcting all the malfeasances of its predecessor. 

"I always tell my clients that rule number one of communications is don't lie."

"The truth is going to come out eventually, lying only worsens the blow."

Hannah Thibedeau Communications professional

On The Cusp of Another Mandate to Govern

"Benny Gantz does not deserve to be prime minister, he is weak, he has the most dictatorial party in the Knesset. I go to the citizens of Israel with a huge democratic majority. They hide his collaboration with Tibi [Joint List Israeli-Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi] from the public."
"I make the most cautious decisions and do not go to unnecessary wars. If we have no choice, we’ll hit Hamas in Gaza. I’m very, very careful before going to war because it’s a last resort."
"Since I am in charge of security, I decide on everything and take responsibility for it."
"Israel will do whatever it must do to defend ourselves and secure out future. I guarantee you, as long as I’m prime minister, Iran will never have nuclear weapons."
“I actually have faith in the Israeli courts, but the state’s witnesses against me have been blackmailed by threats."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

"I understand that people are sick of this [negative campaign] slime. … I intend to lead them on a new path."
"People understand that they cannot take the risk that Netanyahu will remain in power."
"I really hope the election result will be one that will allow me to form a unity government. This is the preferred alternative because this is what this society needs. Society is divided and needs healing."
"We will not establish a government with the Joint List or with its support — we have no agreement with anyone."
Benny Ganz, Leader, Blue & White party

The results of the exit polls are shown on a screen at Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party headquarters, following Israel’s parliamentary election, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sept. 17, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Amir Cohen

"There is no sense of the end of times for Netanyahu -- he is fighting like someone who is still hungry."
"Wearing my academic's hat, I can tell you this: he is the best politician Israel has seen for a long time now."
Tamar Hermann, director, Guttmann Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research

"He's always been a political animal, and he has always fought tooth and nail for every possible vote."
"But he seems more motivated now -- with a real fire in his belly, perhaps because of his legal situation."
Dahlia Scheindlin, public opinion expert

He has served Israel well, in every Cabinet position he has ever held. Bearing in mind what a critically difficult task it is to steer and lead a country highly identifiable as different in a geography known for its prickly unrest, its monarchies and its tyrants, its sheikdoms and its plutocratic draw and its theocracies. Above all a geography held in thrall to Islam, tribal antipathies, sectarianism, ancient feuds, violence and jealousies and hatreds. And there is no discounting the fact that no other nation on Earth is faced with the double existential risk of Palestinian jihad.

Somehow, through four Likud administrations led by Benjamin Netanyahu he has managed to play his hand well on Israel's behalf; politically, socially, economically. Doing whatever has been necessary to ensure that the United States remains the power broker that Israel hugely depends upon at the United Nations yet brokering influence with Russia in maintaining a balance between the two world powers with their consuming interests in Middle Eastern and South Asian affairs.

He was to the campaign trail born, a challenge to whet his appetite for the balancing act of reaching out to hostile neighbours and not averse to any methods that prove useful, even while recognizing the dangers inherent in seeking peace with the Arab ruling class who themselves continue to foment hatred of Israel and Jews among their populations. He is dead-set determined to serve a fifth term as prime minister of Israel. Just as determined is the 20 percent of Israelis that are Arab, in removing him from office.

Accused of racism, of denigrating Israel's non-Jewish population, he is simply delivering an obvious message; although the country has accepted and given full equality under the law to non-Jews as Israeli citizens, Israel is by definition and intent, in reflection of its heritage and its modern history, a Jewish state. It represents a haven for Jews wherever they live; in Israel or within the vast diaspora. Knowing of Israel's existence assures Jews that another Holocaust cannot so easily re-occur.

 Trump and Netanyahu  Jan. 28, 2020, Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Its enemies speak of it as an 'apartheid' state, but nowhere in the Middle East are Jews welcome to live among Arab Muslims; their heritage as Arab Jews was worthless when they were exiled by the Arab nations where they were born, lived and worked for a thousand years, only to return by forced necessity to their ancestral home in Israel. The Middle East, outside Israel, is Judenrein. But Israel, a Jewish state, has accepted non-Jews as citizens; the absolute and utter antithesis of apartheid.

Steps Netanyahu took through the Israeli Supreme Court to pass legislation to re-emphasize Israel's status in reality and intent as a Jewish state, is just one of many irritants to its Arab communities, and the Joint List -- comprised primarily of Arab-Israeli political parties joined by the Israel-Jewish left, both of which empathize more with the perceived needs of Palestinians than with Israel's security -- plot to remove him from power.

Yet speak to Palestinian Israelis of trading land with the Palestinians to give them Palestinian status and they're quick to assert continued Israeli status despite espousing Palestinian victimhood accusing Israel of 'occupation' resulting from ongoing Palestinian intent to destroy Israel. Palestinian Arab MKs have not been averse to conspiring on occasion with and supporting Hamas and Fatah, both of whose focus is on violently displacing Israel and killing Jews.

At age 70, Netanyahu has many good years of experience and intelligent moves to make on behalf of Israel. The criminal charges against him reflect poor judgement in some areas of his personal life linked to government, but look no further than Canada, or France, or Britain, and instances of criminal misdemeanor on the part of the ruling elite place them in questionable odour. Yet it is only in Israel where the law is applied with equal distinction at all levels of society that includes the head of government.

In the words of one member of Netanyahuy['s central committee of Likud, his "mood is exuberant -- bring another election, it's fine. At least  he lives to fight for another day", and Israel is the beneficiary. Israelis are understandably tired of elections; Tuesday's will be the third in the space of a year where the results left no clear winner and the excruciatingly difficult politics of building political alliances failed. In a way, this is in and of itself typical of Jewish individualism; quarrelsome and steeped in disagreement over sundry and all matters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks from Israel via video link at the annual AIPAC conference in Washington on March 26, 2019. (Jim Watson/AFP)

Whither Canada?

"I am convinced Canadians prefer that taxpayer dollars don't go to hostile regimes and regimes who use Canadian money to support governments."
"It's time for Canada to put our money where our mouth is and only use foreign aid to support the Canadian values we hold dear."
"At a time when Canadians are working harder than ever, [Liberal Leader Justin] Trudeau is using their hard-earned tax dollars to support anti-Semitic organizations and prop up foreign dictatorships."
“Canadians now can see the choice between sending more of their hard earned tax dollars to countries that rank relatively high on the development index — countries like Italy, like Brazil, like Turkey, and hostile governments like Iran."
"These types of groups [sexual and reproductive health rights] will not be affected by this announcement [cutting back foreign aid]."
"It's more important to me that I help Canadians get ahead than curry favour at the United Nations."
"[Canadians] deserve a prime minister who will do everything within their power to return Canada to a place of honour and leadership around the world, while doing more to help hard-working families right here at home get ahead."
"Justin Trudeau has spent the last four years humiliating himself and all Canadians on the world stage with his weak, unprincipled leadership." 
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, 2019 election campaign

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer addresses the media during a morning announcement in Toronto, Tuesday, October 1, 2019. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

It's an election campaign. How else would one expect the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons to address his adversary's record? All the more so since it's all true and even more egregious than a brief statement could encapsulate with accuracy. Canada has, in the highest office in the land, a prime minister in Justin Trudeau who has, repeatedly embarrassed Canadians both at home and abroad. None of Justin Trudeau's illegal manipulations and clownish behaviour has embarrassed him personally because this is a man whose ego is so flamboyantly robust he truly believes that nothing he does can be offputting to anyone, much less an insult to the office he holds.

He is a thespian to the very core. Someone in old British parlance who was called a 'cut-up', a larger-than-life personality, an individual who wants all eyes on him, all the time. He does believe he is quite unique, very special, a one-of-a-kind, and he is quite correct in that estimation. The trouble is that what he thinks of himself and what others have come to realize of him is that his larger-than-life personality and penchant for headlines and admiration from all quarters, and his readiness to portray himself in colours different than his own to curry favour and votes have become all too transparent.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, daughter, Ella-Grace, and son, Xavier, visit Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, India. (Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images)

His admiration for dictators and for wealth and celebrity had him taking financial favours from wealthy world figures that lobby government and were clearly illegal. His double-dipping as a member of Parliament, taking his salary and topping it up with speaking engagements to charitable institutions partially funded by tax dollars, a peculiar choice for a personal millionaire, which he is. Portraying himself as anti-racist, pro-woman, he manhandled a woman reporter, groping her, then protested that men and women perceive such matters differently. Evidence popping up through old photographs and videos of his penchant for dressing and clowning about in blackface is less than endearing.

His hounding and persecution of the second in command of the Canadian military, suspecting him of countermanding his initiative to set aside a signed contract for a naval supply ship in favour of giving the contract to a Liberal-favoured competitor, his undermining of his cabinet's Attorney General and Minister of Justice over a prosecution of a Quebec-based engineering firm with tentacles in the Liberal party, a direct and unlawful interference in Canadian justice. His trip to India where his love of costumery was in full, glittery display, complete with cozy relations with a Canadian Sikh convicted of attempted murder of an Indian diplomat, destroying a relationship with India.

 2001 “Arabian Nights”-themed party, West Point Grey Academy Time.com

The controversies that emerge under this man who never appears to have emerged into full maturity, stuck in the fun-and-games chronological age of arrested juvenile development are simply too many and too egregious to recount. But the way he and his cronies have conducted this election campaign by making every effort to personally smear their political competitors, attributing to them the worst attitudes that 'progressives' despise, demeans both the office he holds and the campaign itself.

So the official leader of the Parliamentary opposition, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer offers an alternative, a most palatable one.  He is perfectly right when he states that Canadians' tax dollars are misused supporting "repressive regimes" like Iran and North Korea, "hostile" to Canadian values and interests. As for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at every campaign stop throughout the country in a busy schedule to convince as many voters as possible that he deserves another four years in control, promises galore are being flaunted, and the government, already deep in fiscal disrepair, is bringing Canada ever more into a situation of tens of billions in deficits.

Justin Trudeau | Instagram Justin Trudeau | Twitter  October 2019

He is most generous buying votes with Canadians' own tax money. Offering legs-up for families with children, encouraging greater numbers of refugees, a larger immigration influx annually, though the last several years have added an additional third of a million new immigrants year by year. There is no avenue of public and private life in the country where Justin Trudeau cannot see an opportunity to offer tax relief targeted at voting blocs. It is time, and past time, for this episode of governance with the traditionally corrupt Liberal Party of Canada headed by the juicily insouciant Justin Trudeau to come to a clanging end.

From left to right: Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, moderator Pierre Bruneau of TVA, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pose for a photo before the French-language debate for the 2019 federal election at TVA studios in Montreal Wednesday. (Joel Lemay/POOL/Agence QMI)

Critiquing Justin Trudeau's "Canada is Back!"

"Canada had, in fact, not gone anywhere. And the profound arrogance of Mr. Trudeau's words foreshadowed how the new prime minister would conduct Canada's foreign affairs: with style over substance."
"[Trudeau's India trip last year was] the most disastrous [ever by any Canadian prime minister]."
"In the 21st Century, some politicians want Canada to be the referee. I want Canada to be the quarterback."
"I said that we [a new Conservative-led government] would recognize Jerusalem as the capital. That obviously would include making sure that Canada's representation there is in Jerusalem and we'd work with the government of Israel to accomplish those types of things."
Leader of the Official Opposition, Andrew Scheer, Conservative Party of Canada

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer addresses the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, May 7, 2019 in Montreal. Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press

Mr. Scheer is a reasoned and reasonable man, a thoughtful man who lacks the impetuous egocentricity of the man currently leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and just incidentally prime minister. An election is looming, however, and in October Canadians will be given the opportunity to cast their ballot for federal leader, reflecting the collective opinion of the three-year-performance of the first term of a man many thought had style along with substance.

The years since 2015 when he took office as prime minister appears to have given ample indication that the man has neither style nor substance. When an old news report of his having manhandled a female reporter came to light, this feminist shrugged off the incident with the phrase that people experience things differently; it was the woman's perception of his behaviour that was at fault, and he had done nothing wrong.

Justin Trudeau is not a man capable of overlooking anything that he perceives as a slight. He conducted a years-long vendetta against none other than the second-in-command of the Canadian Armed Forces, charging Vice-Admiral Mark Norman of unauthorized airing of secret cabinet decision making, a leak that embarrassed Justin Trudeau by informing the public that he was about to cancel a supply ship contract signed with a Quebec shipbuilder in favour of granting it to an East Coast rival, preparing to pay a hefty $96 million penalty.

There is that about Liberals and about Justin Trudeau in particular; they go out of their way to service the pecuniary interests of Liberal supporters like Quebec-based SNC-Lavalin to the point where extreme political pressure was applied to the former Liberal attorney general and Minister of Justice to place pressure on the Public Prosecution service to offer it a settlement to avoid a criminal trial for bribery of Libyan officials. The extent to which Trudeau and his cronies harassed the former minister expressed the kind of corruption that reflects Liberal values.

Since it was alleged last week that the Prime Minister's Office had pressured then attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to allow SNC-Lavalin to sidestep prosecution, few federal politicians have been willing to stick their necks out for the company. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Mr. Scheer, as leader of the official opposition, spoke before a business audience a day ago on a wide-ranging foreign-policy speech, validating a pledge made a year earlier that a government led by him would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a rational and timely decision given that any nation has the right to declare where its capital would be, a decision which in Israel's case, the international community is leery of committing to, citing the Palestinian claim to Jerusalem as the capital of a nation which does not exist.

The foreign policy failings of the Trudeau government is so profoundly off kilter, Mr. Scheer had ample fodder for his own message. As far as Mr. Scheer is concerned, Canada has failed to be cognizant of and take remedial measures as required to recognize the importance to Canada of its continental trade, energy and security relationship with the United States; that the partnership "transcends the personalities of those who occupy each respective office".

As prime minister post-October federal election, he pledged to "reinvigorate" the role Canada plays in alliances with multilateral allies; the Five Eyes, Commonwealth and NATO groups in particular. That he planned to "relentlessly pursue new efforts to increase trade and find new markets for Canadian goods in fast-growing economies like those found in Asia", and he would presumably, do so without shoving feminism down his trading counterparts' unwilling throats.

In view of the contretemps Canada has been subjected to with the Chinese government as a result of the Huawei incident with the arrest of its CFO in recognition of a warrant issued by the U.S. government for extradition over sanctioned business dealings with Iran, where U.S. financial institutions were deliberately misled, Mr. Scheer said he would freeze Canada's efforts in negotiating free trade with China. Given that China has maliciously and criminally arrested Canadian citizens, frozen agricultural contracts of long standing under spurious pest concerns, a move badly needed.

A conservative government in Parliament would revoke its investment in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, increase Ukraine support, and finally place the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity on Canada's proscribed list. Negotiations would proceed with the United States to join its ballistic missile defence program. Funding for new icebreakers, fighter jets and submarines would be forthcoming.

And under a new Conservative-led government the isolation of Alberta and Saskatchewan that has frozen development of their petroleum natural resources leading to anger and resentment by the Western provinces against an Eastern-focused government would come to a badly-deserved end. Canada would be free to develop its immense fossil-fuel resources responsibly and efficiently to end its reliance on imported oil from democratically-hostile sources.

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman and Justicen Trudeau

"I wanted it [a later trial date] at a time where the disclosure motion and the other motion will be heard. So that's why it's spaced out the way that it is."
"I don't know [whether the dynamics of the ongoing trial will effect the November 2019 federal election], you'll have to ask the prime minister about that."
"The privilege [secrecy in government documents] rests with the government to waive the cabinet confidence, not just the ones that they would like us to know about."
"And it's quite an extraordinary prosecution where really the complainant's deciding what we get to look at, what's important and what's not."
Marie Henein, lawyer for Vice-Admiral Mark Norman

"This has been a really difficult time, and it's going to continue to be a real challenge, and I just want everybody to know how much that support [from the public on the abrupt and unjust removal of Vice-Admiral Norman from his position as second-in-command, chief of defence staff for the Canadian military] means to me and my family."
Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, Ottawa

In this photo from earlier this year, Vice Admiral Mark Norman, left, arrives at an Ottawa court with his lawyer, Marie Henein, for his first appearance after being charged with one count of breach of trust. Darren Brown / Postmedia

The impending criminal trial of Vice-Admiral Norman smacks of political vendetta; a prime minister angry at being embarrassed when his interference in military procurement was revealed as he intervened to disrupt a contract already in process by switching it to another shipyard whose owners were supporters of the Liberals. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was furious when the public became aware of fishy dealing on his part in having work done to convert a commercial ship as a much-needed Royal Canadian Navy supply ship.

This was a temporary measure to fill a gap in the Royal Canadian Navy's fleet and effectiveness, until such time as work could commence on commissioning purpose-built supply ships. In the interim the converted supply ship would answer to the navy's needs. The contract had been assigned to the winning bidder, Quebec firm Davie Shipbuilding. Until an East Coast rival, Irving Shipbuilding complained, and the influential Irving family with its close ties to Justin Trudeau convinced the federal cabinet to delay what was termed "Project Resolve".

As the Naval official delegated to oversee the project, Vice-Admiral Norman, given the urgent need of the Navy for a supply ship, exchanged messages with the Davie Shipbuilding executives, as per normal procedure, so that when the delay in the final commissioning of the urgent project was announced it seems some inside source leaked details to the press. When the situation was reported in the press, the government and particularly Justin Trudeau suffered some embarrassment for their interference, reacting by dispatching the RCMP to investigate.

From the outset, Trudeau was convinced that Vice-Admiral Norman had interfered with Trudeau's own interference in the matter and he was livid, transmitting his displeasure to Chief of the Defence Staff Jonathan Vance who reacted by swiftly informing Norman that he was 'temporarily' removed from duty, even  as the RCMP raided Norman's home, confiscating computers and files and thumb drives, anything that might implicate him to validate the charges being brought against him. Only there were no charges; for over a year Vice-Admiral Norman was kept in limbo.

When it became obvious that he needed to defend himself, he applied for routine legal support ordinarily applicable to Navy personnel and funded by the Navy, and his request was unaccountably denied. Colleagues and high-ranking Naval officials, some retired, were aghast and swift to come to Norman's defence that he had done nothing wrong, that he was being railroaded by a vindictive head of government. Finally, his trial is being scheduled, his lead lawyer a Toronto legend as a clever professional whose practise in defence of her clients is known to be formidable.

That Marie Henein has chosen a trial date to commence at a time when the next federal election will be in full swing is predicated on opportunity, one that will most certainly impinge on the public's perception of just how fair and above criticism this government has been, led by a man whose celebrated 'sunny ways' were to have contrasted with the public persona of his predecessor -- a man of inflexible rectitude and veracity -- and who has himself managed to fail on just about every index of honourable, reasonable behaviour.

That old adage of one's chickens coming home to roost will never be more apt than the proceedings in the defence of Mark Norman against the false accusations levelled against him by a vain and egotistical bully who positions himself famously as a "progressive's progressive".

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman listens as his lawyer Marie Henein speaks to reporters as they leave the courthouse in Ottawa following his first appearance for his trial for breach of trust, on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)

Ontario Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips ruled in April of 2017 that prosecutors attempting to prove that Norman divulged any cabinet confidences or sensitive information from a cabinet meeting would face a challenge proving their case. Even the RCMP feel another federal employee was responsible for leaking the information. Judge Phillips ruled there was nothing unusual in the vice-admiral communicating with Davie Shipyard on the shipbuilding project; that no evidence exists the communications were anything but in the interests of the Navy to secure delivery of a badly-required naval vessel.

An Uncertain Germany, An Enfeebled Government

"This is a great night. We did it. We are in parliament."
We will change this country. We will hunt Merkel, and reclaim our country and our people."

Alexander Gauland, chancellor candidate, Alternative for  Germany party [AfD]

"Today we must be open that there is internal dissent within the AfD,"
"We must not be silent about this. The community needs to know that we have controversial debates."
Frauke Petry AfD chairwoman

"We lost the election. We are the bulwark of democracy."
"Mrs. Merkel fought a scandalous campaign. She ducked away from debate, and prevented any contrast between the democratic left and the democratic right. This systematic refusal of political debate created a vacuum that the AfD was able to fill. I believe Mrs. Merkel bears a great responsibility for this."
Martin Schulz, Social Democrats party [SPD]

"It was a bad night for Schulz and the Socialists, but also for Mrs Merkel and the Christian Democrats. She still heads the largest party, but she enters these coalition negotiations with a weakened hand."
Christian Odendahl, Centre for European Reform, Berlin

"Forming a three-party government is going to be very difficult."
"The Greens and the FDP will feel emboldened by the result and given their traditional animosity it's in no way certain that the three parties will be able to strike a coalition agreement."
Dan Hough, professor of politics, University of Sussex

Angela Merkel addresses supporters in Berlin Sunday night   CNN

Chancellor Merkel fought an uphill battle, but her popularity with the German voting public remained strong, as a tough leader who took Germany through years of EU destabilization as a result of its faltering economy and financial failures of some of its members. She took the lead in communicating with and standing against Russian President Vladimir Putin when the EU censured Russia for its seizure of the Crimea and support of ethnic Russian Ukrainians revolting in eastern Ukraine.

She has been the equal of any world leader and has indeed surpassed most with the steadfastness of her vision of the new Germany and its place in the world order of democratic nations. Her stumble came when she responded, as the daughter of a Lutheran minister who had lived under Communist rule and before that had experienced Nazi fascism, which led her to open Germany's borders to a million refugees and economic migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.

The flood of foreigners into a Germany, united and prosperous, willing according to the government and able, to share with outsiders what made the country a beacon of freedom and stability, was first welcomed by the German population -- which had already absorbed about four million Muslims through immigration -- and then second thoughts intruded as many of the newcomers were unattached young men, unruly and with a penchant for unlawful behaviour trending toward violence. Her popularity plummeted, but saw resurrection with the election call.

Those who remained disaffected responded to the siren call of nationalism, wanting to ensure that their beloved Germany would not fall victim to Islamization, its heritage and culture strained beyond endurance by the massive foreign influx. The party that arose  in response to their alarmed discomfiture in the presence of so many strangers whose customs, values and religion ensured that integration would be problematical, attracted those who resented their presence.

Now, the Alternative for Germany's chairwoman, an energetic and determined young woman struggling to make certain that her party did not descend to the fascistic past in the presence among its leaders of those promoting pride in Nazi Germany's wartime military, has decided to leave the party, to sit in the Bundestag, but not with her party, until and unless it sheds its shift hard right and re-centers itself. Her failure to remove a regional AfD leader who had disparaged a Holocaust memorial spurred her to action.

Mrs. Merkel is prepared to make the sacrifices she sees ahead as her diminished party attempts to form a government with one or two of the also-rans. Her Social Democrats partners in the past government have refused to rejoin the CDU in its "Grand Coalition". "Her "biggest challenge", she stated, was to win back those who decided to back the nationalist challengers on their anti-immigration, nationalist party.

"We have a mandate to form a government. And no one can form a government against us", she assured her supporters.

"Until now, I had hoped this wasn't going to happen", said a neurology student, who had voted for the Christian Democrats. "But we are here and the extreme right is back", she mourned, among the hundreds of protesters, mostly young people in their 20s, who gathered in Berlin once initial results were announced, outside the AfD headquarters.



.

The Creeping Anti-Semitism 

"Elements of the Labour movement are institutionally anti-Semitic. [Corbyn's] leadership, or lack of it has created what might be referred to as a 'safe space' for those with vile attitudes towards Jewish people."
British Parliamentary Committee report

 The Labour leader is a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign

"The [U-turn from the Conservatives over social care, unprecedented in an election campaign, helped to deflate Theresa May's 'strong and stable' bubble somewhat, if not burst it completely."
"[Conservatives] still enjoy a substantial lead on issues such as security, the economy, and Brexit, while Therese May is more favoured, by some distance, over Jeremy Corbyn when it comes to who the public think would make the best prime minister."
"These factors have been hugely important in pointing to previous election victories, including in 2015, and the same may well be true this time around."
Joe Twyman, head, political and social research for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, YouGov

When Theresa May decided to call an election on short notice to give herself and her party a majority stamp going into critical Brexit negotiations with the European Union, she did so because and on the basis of her party being substantially ahead in the polls with a 24 percent margin over the Labour Party, anticipating the election would result in a historic majority for the Conservatives. That old adage that nothing can be taken for granted in the electorate has no doubt shocked Ms. May with the realization that her solid lead has now shrunk to 7 percent.

The message of "strong and stable leadership" has been undercut by a Conservative proposal whereby the elderly receiving home care  would be required to pay for it themselves banking on the value of their property to be sold after death. That proposal, in fact, sounded the death knell of the Conservative party in the opinion of far too many voters, even though its poor reception caused it to be dropped like the proverbial hot potato -- but once the damage had been done.

The Labour Party, since the ascension of Jeremy Corbyn to its leadership, has undergone an unfortunate metamorphosis; his election and his statements and sympathies have encouraged the darker elements of the party's pathological haters to be emboldened, and anti-Semitism has accordingly crept into resurgent public view. This is a man who has admitted to admiring the terrorist group Hamas. This is a man who has befriended Holocaust-deniers.

And when Mr. Corbyn was hard pressed to explain how his party, if it was given voter assent to govern, intended to pay for its social welfare programs, particularly its proposed childcare program on the Woman's Hour interview conducted by Emma Barnett, she was later subjected to reams of online anti-Semitic abuse from Corbynites. Who feel perfectly at home expressing their racist views given that their leader has referred to Hamas and Hezbollah representatives as his "friends".

When the Church of England disciplined vicar Stephen Sizer, a man convinced that the 9/11 atrocities were planned and carried out by Israel, Corbyn launched his complaint that the poor misunderstood vicar "dared to speak out against Zionism" and thus had drawn himself into a haze of persecution, unwarranted and unfair. Mr. Corby has further distinguished himself through praising jihadist Raed Salah, categorizing the hate preacher as an "honoured citizen", inviting him to tea in Parliament.

That Salah speaks of that old blood libel that Jews use the blood of gentiles -- preferably innocent babies -- to make matzoh with and that the ancient Jewish capital of Jerusalem would make a perfect capital for a global Islamic caliphate, is evidently irrelevant to the man's honoured citizenship. The Labour party leader denies, denies, denies that under his mentorship the Labour party has become outwardly anti-Semitic.

While he has himself donated to a Palestinian-solidarity organization operated by Holocaust denier Paul Eisen. Jews, who traditionally vote Labour have mostly given it a pass this time around, with a poll commissioned by the Jewish Chronicle releasing data showing that merely 13 percent of British Jews plan to cast their vote for Labour in next Thursday's election.

Tom Suarez (left) promoted his book on Israel at an event in Portsmouth organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which the Labour leader (right) is a patron 

 

Acculturated France

"I will fight with all my strength against the division that is undermining and defeating us. For the next five years, I will serve on your behalf with humility, devotion and determination."
"France has won! Everyone said it was impossible. But they do not know France!"
"Globalization can be a great opportunity."
"There is no such thing as French culture. There is culture in France, and it is diverse."
French president-elect Emmanuel Macon

Triumph on he Champs Elysees : CNN

Is it even remotely possible for a 39-year-old who has just succeeded in being elected to the highest political post in his troubled country, a self-admittedly determined personality who never takes dissent for an answer, to be modest? And the devotion to his vision of the country whose best interests he will now apply himself selflessly, will it truly be in that country's best interests? He has, as the old adage goes, his work cut out for him. Oh, and the death knell for French culture, proclaimed so casually; interesting. No sacrifice too great? Wait for more!

"It's entirely unprecedented in the Fifth Republic. It's extraordinarily unusual, the way he has broken through the system -- coming from nowhere."
Francois Heisbourg, French defence expert, Macron adviser

"There is huge uncertainty regarding the parliamentary elections to come, because France's main political forces were largely absent in the second round -- the traditional right wing, the Socialists and the far left."
"Now they are frustrated, and they are ready to take their revenge in the legislative elections."
"You might have higher mobilization for the parliamentary elections than usual, which, given turnout in the presidential election, could mean a higher legitimacy for the parliament than for the presidency."
Patrick Weil, French legal scholar, historian

The Socialist government of the departing Francois Hollande has exhausted itself. Or perhaps it is that the social pressures targeting, threatening and destabilizing France have exhausted the capacity of that long-governing party to cope meaningfully and give assurances to the French that all is not as unstable as it seems. Nicholas Sarkozy was poised to reverse all that.

But there are diversions. The French public, at the very least, has been right royally entertained with the antics of its leading public figures in the political sphere. The spectacles provided by one politician after another in their turn, of mistresses, illegitimate offspring, menage a trois, musical chairs with wives and casual sleep-ins-and-overs, betrayals and embarrassing published memoirs and accusations; in all a quite lively scene of boudoirs and indiscretions and tabloid revelations.

They inject a badly needed note of hilarity from time to time to deflect attention from personal mismanagement of love affairs to trepidation and fear of the threats of violence that roil the nation now and again.

Marine Le Pen's National Front did not succeed in persuading voters that she and her party had the solution to the presence and threat of Islamist violence, but nor is the new president-elect's casual assurance that there is no French culture dreadfully reassuring. Many within the country may have felt that to be wince-inducing, given the French love affair with itself, its heritage and its values, its culture so admired throughout the rest of the world.

But of course, Mr. Macon is perfectly correct, there is no French culture any longer in the sense that it is rapidly dissolving, and while not quite "diverse", there is the polarized 'cultures' of France's past and the culture that speaks of the presence of the banlieus and its disaffected, surly and violent inhabitants out of which emerge those discontented and prepped-for-action jihadis responding to Islamist incitement to present France with the ultimatum of surrender.

But it isn't just the jihadis even though their vicious lethal attacks exploiting their infiltration within the country. Those monstrous attacks on French citizenry with the obvious message of spurning French laws and values and culture tell only the most obviously shocking exposure of the imposition of Islamist 'values' over those of the indigenous French. The other portion is the use of France as a way station on the route to Europe's disintegration as it becomes a colony of Islamist outreach.

Perhaps this is destiny's way of demonstrating that France's colonialist past has come back to haunt it; the exotic peoples whom France conquered and dominated, leaving with them its language and laws have turned the tide to conquer and dominate France, bringing with them their language, culture, heritage and religion which exhorts the faithful to spurn the kuffars and their laws. Offering their own in a spirit of Islamist generosity.

Choice, You Say?! Heaven Forfend....

"I'm sure a lot of you may be asking what this new email story is about, and why in the world the FBI would decide to jump into an election with no evidence of wrongdoing. That's a good question [with election day coming in short order]."
"I understand. And as I've said, I'm not making any excuses [for private email system]. I've said it was a mistake and I regret it."
"There is no case. Now, what people are focused on is choosing the next president and commander in chief of the United States of America."
"I'm running against a man who says he doesn't understand why we can't use nuclear weapons. He wants more countries to have nuclear weapons."
"And if you're telling yourself he's going to surround himself with smart people to stop these crazy ideas, remember this: He was asked who he consults on foreign policy. Donald Trump said he doesn't need to consult because, and I quote: 'I have a very good brain'."
"[Vladimir Putin] knows he can use flattery to get into Donald's head, to make Donald the Kremlin's puppet, and it seems to be working. Donald has signalled to Putin that he will let Russia do whatever it wants."
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Presidential contender

"Hillary is the one who sent and received classified information on an insecure server, putting the safety of the American people under threat."
"Hillary is the one who lied to Congress under oath. Hillary is the one who lied on so many different occasions to the FBI."
Donald J. Trump, U.S. Presidential contender

Mrs. Clinton asks her supporters to ask themselves and possibly challenge supporters of her nemesis:
(a) Can the candidate be trusted to command the American nuclear arsenal? (b) How does the candidate handle a crisis? (d) Do  you know the difference between our allies and our adversaries? Needless to say, the very same questions could be put to her. Of course, Mrs. Clinton represents a Democratic administration that sat back when it should have taken action and instead permitted Mr. Putin do whatever he wanted, manipulating the U.S. to the point of emasculation.

Smoothly glossing over the fact that a candidate for the presidency, while acting in a key cabinet position committing to an egregiously serious lack of judgement potentially imperilling the very security of the country that she pledges to uphold and protect doesn't cover herself in glory by magnanimously stating she erred, she regrets that, and has learned from the situation. The presidency is not a learning opportunity. Augmented by her lack of commitment to the position of Secretary of State, willing to sell access to high bidders to enrich the Clinton estate, augers ill.

When FBI Director James Comey released his little bombshell last Friday over the agency's ongoing probe of Mrs. Clinton's private email server, citing the discovery of another immense cache of previously unknown emails many of which could be incriminating in nature, betraying the open house that the State Department had become, offering entree through the Clinton Family Charitable Trust, it served to shock additional members of the voting public into confused disarray.

It was all fodder for political groupies and pundits assessing the outcome of these damning revelations as polling day galloped closer. What should have alarmed the Democrats is that the Trump campaign had already, before the thuddingly surprising revelation, been profiting from her downgraded reputation. Donald Trump was steadily gaining on the elevated support numbers of the Clinton campaign. ABC, which had Clinton with a 12-point lead a sneeze-event earlier placed Trump slightly ahead of her just before Director Comey's regrettable statement.

Attributable by those taking the rising temperature of the American public over news of an amazing premium increase in Obamacare, it was clear to many that this was what the reaction amounted to; a ditching of Clinton support and a switch to Trump. There's more of a sour whiff of Hillary Clinton's efforts to bring universal health care to the United States when her husband was president and gave her that job, presumptuously ugly in the minds of those who preferred to limp along without universal coverage, to remind them of yet another reason why they balked at this political establishment.

The Clinton campaign team spent lavishly on television advertising, pointedly taking well-deserved shots at the fact that a nasty egotist whose faith in his own intelligence supports his animus toward anyone who isn't like him, and an utter ignoramus on international affairs could conceivably become the next President of the United States, an event too horrible to contemplate for any thinking individual. This, while practically nothing was spent by the Trump campaign on election advertising and public relations.

Now, with scarcely  time left to blink before November 8 arrives, Republican election adverts of stunning negativity are hitting the Democratic candidate in a double whammy of Trump and Comey. Revelations of tens of millions of dollars ushered toward Bill Clinton personally in the pay-for-play playlist is all delectable fodder for Clinton dynasty haters. The reality of continued FBI scrutiny of the reported staggering 650,000 additional emails discovered on Huma Abedin's husband's computer is a backdrop too far; a candidate for the American presidency under examination by the FBI for wrong-doing?

And then there is the Clinton Foundation and the fact that it too is and has been under investigation by the FBI, irrespective of the Justice Department opposing any such investigation. As matters proceed, things could get worse and worse still for Hillary Clinton's aspirations. As matters continue to proceed, the outcome could be disastrous for the United States in the potential prospect of the next president succeeding the current one to bring in the Trump administration; an outcome too sordid and frightening to allow the mind too long to linger upon.

Political Realities in Israel

"Today, I'm asking Arabs to take part in our society in droves. I am proud of the role that Arabs play in Israel's success. I want you to play an even greater role ... Respecting minorities isn't just the right thing to do: it's critical to our progress."
"My vision is that young Arab boys and girls grow up knowing they can achieve anything in Israel."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Ronen Zvulun)

"If [Netanyahu] said this seven years ago, when he became prime minister again, you could say, here he's started with good intentions."
"But after seven years of incitement and delegitimization of the Arab population, how do you expect me to believe this person?"
Aymen Odeh, parliamentary member of Knesset

"This message clarifies what he's said to Arab citizens in a direct way:'This government is committed to the goal of a radical change in Arab Jewish relations and in the living conditions of the Arab community."
Ofir Gendelman, Arab-language spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel is a state like none other. It has absorbed tribal Arabs who remained while others fled when Israel was declared a Jewish state in 1948. Those Arab Palestinians who remained have become Israeli citizens, bestowing on them the full rights of citizenship and all that falls to them as a result. They are able to elect their own members of parliament in the Knesset to speak on their behalf, and Palestinian Arabs have reached elite rankings in the judiciary and elsewhere in Israeli government circles.

There are always disagreements over whether full equality, legal, political and social is a reality in this country where Arabs and Jews, Druze and Kurds, Christians, Muslims, and Jews and Baha'i live together in a semblance of harmony. But there is constant incitement over access to the Temple Mount, the most sacred vestige of Judaism's faith in god, and the Muslims who regard it as the Noble Sanctuary, third holiest place in Islam which Muslims would like to see forbidden to Jews.

The Palestinian Authority incites its people to 'resistance' against the 'occupying forces' of the IDF, whose presence has been proven necessary to tamp down violence against Israeli Jews from Palestinian Arabs, both from without the State of Israel and from within. Provocations to violence are constant, and Palestinians who mount attacks against Jews are venerated, taught from childhood that this is their duty, to free all of 'Palestine' from the presence of Israel.

When, during the final days of the last election campaign, Mr. Netanyahu indulged in scare tactics to urge Israelis to vote him back into the Prime Ministership, Arabs were offended that he referred to them as a danger in the country. While many Palestinian Israelis are loyal citizens, others are clearly not. Among other issues that accompanied the assurance by the Prime Minister that Israeli Arabs are appreciated and valued as citizens, was the mention that he had received appeals from Arab citizens to increase police presence in Arab towns.

They have every right to the same type of security and protection as any other part of Israel populated by majority Jewish citizens. Law enforcement stepped up in those towns has a dual purpose, one of which is to uphold the law on possession of firearms, in towns that are known to authorities where some residents are in possession of such weapons, leading to a situation where tens of thousands of illegal firearms are in the hands of some Palestinian Israelis.

The cynicism expressed by Arab Israeli lawyer and politician Aymen Odeh, leader of the Hadash party, and head of the Joint List, a coalition of four Arab-dominated parties, handily overlooks the fact that some elected Arab-Israeli Knesset members actively agitate against the State they are supposed to serve, and find common cause with and reason to support Hamas, an acknowledged terrorist group ruling Gaza whose fundamental purpose is the destruction of the State of Israel.

Israel's parliament passed a law permitting a majority in the Knesset to dismiss any legislator expressing support for Israel's avowed enemies. Admittedly, those legislators have always been Arab Israelis, and so of necessity that law would target any such Knesset members who plan to ally themselves with Hamas; to do so is clearly treachery by those who have been democratically elected who plan to aid and abet a terrorist group in its intention to destroy a legitimate state.

Arab Israelis view with alarm a bill the government sponsored that would crack down on Arab towns where houses are illegally built, without permits. Since the government cracks down on Jewish settlers and others who build illegally, a double standard persists which clearly requires attention. "Nobody fools themselves and thinks that now the Arabs will be big Netanyahu fans", observed a former spokesman for the prime minister. "It's a right-wing coalition and a right-wing leader, and he has priorities that he was elected on."

Just like any other democracy. 

And, as it happens, this is not the first time Mr. Netanyahu has apologized for that piece of Realpolitik. Back in March of last year he had made a similar apology, right after the election, for having stated: "The right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls. Left-wing organizations are busing them out."

He took that opportunity to clarify that Israel's 1.7-million Arab citizens had the right to vote and he had no quarrel with 20 percent of the Israeli population exercising their franchise as they should. It was, he said, outside interference from foreign governments whom he felt were funding leftist nongovernmental organizations that he was concerned with. 

Something akin to the current mad dysfunction taking place during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections where the Democratic Party is all afire over allegations that Russian governmental interests are intervening hoping to influence the outcome of that election....? 

Political Bumf and More Bumf

CNN Politics -- Clinton and Barack Obama wave to DNC crowd on Wednesday, post-Obama speech

"Even in the middle of crisis, she listens to people, and keeps her cool, and treats everybody with respect. And no matter how daunting the odds, no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits."
"I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman -- not me, not Bill, nobody -- more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America."
"Nothing truly prepares you for the demands of the Oval Office. You can read about it. You can study it. Until you've sat at that desk, you don't know what it's like to manage a global crisis, or send young people to war. But Hillary's been in the room; she's been part of those decisions."
U.S. President Barack Obama

That's my man! Your truth, dignity and grace reminds us what real leadership looks like. I am always proud of our @POTUS. -mo            (who might've guessed?)

Love-ins are great feel-good events, where everyone involved pulls together with their focus on responding to the public weal and the need to selflessly offer to guide the country through domestic civil affairs and external threats, to uphold the rule of law and see that justice works equally for all, and that citizens who work hard and lead decent lives and care for their families will find employment; health care will be available when needed, and children will be well educated and borders will be protected from unsanctioned egress, while enemies of the state from abroad will be confronted and neutralized.

The Democrats with their well-funded public relations and their celebrity-faction support, their charm offensive and passionate promises to perform beyond reproach to respond to all of America's challenges while keeping the country great, as the sole great-power nation on the planet, do have a bit of a problem among the demographic that, though responding to their appeal, feel ignored. That large segment that views the establishment, corporate interests, the moneyed class and the social elite hogging privilege and leaving them dregs, have not made for an entirely sanguine, harmonious campaign or convention.

Which reminds us of that poutingly disparaging remark by Michelle Obama away back in 2006 that should her husband not attain the position of Democratic presidential candidate she would be "ashamed" of America. She hasn't been ashamed for eight years running, now. And for someone who claims that Hillary Clinton is more suited to the presidency than was he himself, Barack Obama is clearly writing a fairy tale for the gullible, since he edged her out of the candidacy and the White House away back when he was convinced he was the better "man" for the job. So which is it?

Oh, America, how polarized and how mawkishly patriotic you can be, how given to facade and celebrity, to lionizing yourselves as symbols of power, strength, capability, endurance and trust. Indeed, "In God We Trust", not the greenback with a church on every block while worshipping those with personal wealth beyond count, and at the same time resenting that one percent that scoops up gold bullion and leaves copper dregs for the 99%. On the other hand, if American isn't great why is the rest of the world so emulative of its culture?

There is an alternative to the Democrats. There WAS an alternative. There is always the putative Republican candidate whose skills as a marketer of dreams (his own) to the ignorant, wretched masses who feel so left behind that regard a crude ignoramus as the answer to their demands that the establishment be swept aside and a genuine man-of-the-people who just happens to be a sterling example of the moneyed-class-through-capitalist-excess replace those they loathe. And where will this 'populist' lead America?

To greatness! To isolation! To trade security! To Xenophobic gratification through exclusion. The poem on the Statue of Liberty will, of course, require a change in declarative purpose and intent. That's all, folks, absorption of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free has completed its mission. Donald Trump for president. And, as president, he will restore to America something that it never was, but that he feels it should be.

Seriously now, folks!

Finding much in common with another showman who portrays himself as invincible and all-knowing, he is willing to move aside a bit, to make room on the world stage for two super-powers once again, seeing little untoward in democracy sliding into autocratic reform with Soviet panache. "I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly but there's nothing that I can think of that I'd rather do than have Russia friendly as opposed to the way they are right now so that we can go and knock out ISIS together with other people and with other countries.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along, as an example, with Russia? I'm all for it and let's go get ISIS because we have to get ISIS and we have to get them fast. Right now, we don't have a good relationship. Putin has said things over the last year that are really bad things. OK? He mentioned the "N" word. You know what the "N" word is, right? He mentioned it. I was shocked. He has a total lack of respect for President Obama. No 1, he doesn't like him. And No.2, he doesn't respect him. I think he's going to respect your president if I'm elected. And I hope he likes me."

Well, things can't be all that bad if Trump is shocked to hear that Putin spoke dirty in re-invoking that disgraceful word that blacks used to be called. Oh, it wasn't that? Nuclear, was it? You're confused over his statements, they sound contradictory to  you? Well, fella, join the club and get used to hearing strange statements erupting out of this man's uncouth and untutored mouth in reflection of a man whose mind is so engaged with his own perfection there's no room for serious thought about anything else.

So, Americans, how're you voting come November?