MaxRedline

Time To Break Out The Pepper-Spray And Rubber Bullets

We're being invaded by foreign nationals.

No Worries, Eh. Gov. Moonbeam's Out To Catch Up To Vancouver

Want to fill up in Vancouver, British Columbia? It’ll cost you — a lot.

Gas prices surged to $1.609 a liter Sunday morning — almost $8 a gallon in USD.

In the real world, that's $1.61 per liter. 1 L = 0.264172052 gal US. And actually, the cost is closer to $6 USD per gallon, though it'll hit $8 soon enough. Still, if you have a ten-gallon tank in your vehicle, a fill-up will run you about $60 now.

Former Liberal Member of Parliament Dan McTeague, who now heads the petroleum industry watchdog GasBuddy.com, told CBC News that Vancouver has the dubious honor of having the highest gas prices anywhere in North America, from Alaska to Mexico. Vancouver was one of the first cities in Canada to proudly unveil a carbon tax that has continued to escalate year after year. 

But as noted here yesterday, Gov. Moonbeam is doing his best to play catch-up by increasing vehicle registration fees and increasing fuel taxes, and vows to fight any attempts to reject the increases through the initiative process.

Carbon taxes! They have no effect upon the environment, much less the climate - but plenty of impact on your wallet.

 

Glyphosate In Your Granola - And Lots Of Other Foods

US government scientists have detected a weedkiller linked to cancer in an array of commonly consumed foods, emails obtained through a freedom of information request show. “I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and corn meal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” FDA chemist Richard Thompson wrote to colleagues in an email last year regarding glyphosate.

Farmers who grow corn and soybeans are big users of the stuff - in the Midwest, the space between cornrows is often planted in soy. But it's also used on wheat and oats, among other crops. Each year, farmers around the USA use some 200 million pounds of the weedkiller.

Other findings detailed in the FDA documents show that in 2016 Chamkasem found glyphosate in numerous samples of honey. Chamkasem also found glyphosate in oatmeal products. The FDA temporarily suspended testing after those findings, and Chamkasem’s lab was “reassigned to other programs”, the FDA documents show. The FDA has said those tests were not part of its official glyphosate residue assignment.

Monsanto is currently in litigation, fighting claims that its products cause cancer.

 

Not Something You See Every Day

Photographer Doc Jon was  doing some shooting along Florida's Gulf Coast last month when he focused on an osprey flying overhead. In the bird's talons was a small shark. And in the shark's mouth was a smaller fish.

Unbelievable.

 

Italy Doesn't Want Your Money

Over the Sardinia Day holiday this weekend Venice installed metal barriers to divert tourists down less populated alleyways so workers and locals didn’t have to continuously dodge tour groups and visitors with bulky suitcases. They had been installed overnight but furious locals tore them down.

The Island of Capri wants to follow Venice in bringing in crowd control measures, which saw the installation of check points in some of the most congested parts.

And Lake Garda is likewise looking to limit the number of visitors. As to why Venetians tore down the barriers meant to divert tourists, it seems that the locals believed that they would be diverted as well. They demand complete freedom to move about their city.

But it's easy enough to see why the locals are upset - these aren't cities, after all; they're villages and towns. Venice has a resident population of about 55,000 yet currently receives 25 million visitors per year, meaning that on some days, visitors outnumber residents 3 to 1. That's got to be brutal.

But it seems that if they really want to reduce the volume, the smart move would be to limit the number of lodging spaces. Voila! Fewer of those pesky folks with their bulky suitcases!

 

A Fool And His Money...

A Seattle man who recently sought to end his monthly donation to a Hillary Clinton nonprofit group ran into a small roadblock: There was no way to cancel his contribution, according to a report.

Corey Koscielniak, 29, wanted to stop his $10.48 recurring tithe to Onward Together, the political action organization Clinton formed after her 2016 election defeat, because the group disclosed little information on how it spent the money, he told the Seattle Times. 

Koscielniak, who began contributing in May 2017, has spent weeks on a mission to keep that $10 and change in his bank account, the Seattle Times reported.

Nick Merrill, communications director for Clinton, told the paper that Koscielniak’s situation has since been “rectified” and they “will make sure this doesn’t happen again, with anybody, in the future.”

Koscielniak seems really stupid. But then, he's been donating to the Clintons, so there's that.

 

California Democratics Are Upset

Dave Gilliard, consultant for Give Voters a Voice, said the campaign plans to go above and beyond in submitting petitions next week for a ballot measure to repeal the vehicle-fee and fuel-tax increases signed into law last year by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

The repeal effort has gathered nearly 900,000 signatures, far more than the 585,407 valid signatures required to qualify for the November 2018 ballot — and the deadline isn’t until May 21.

The repeal’s opponents, including Democrats, labor unions and municipalities, have countered with Proposition 69, an initiative on the June 5 ballot that would put the additional revenue in a “lockbox” reserved for “transportation purposes.”

In other words, "high-speed rail" - Moonbeam's pet project, along with other fixed-rail projects. Nothing to roads and bridges. That's what they've been doing for years, and with Democratics in charge, they're going to keep doing what they always do: divert the money away from road and bridge repairs.

Democrats have lined up against the repeal, led by Mr. Brown, who in his State of the State address in January declared, “I will do anything in my power to defeat any repeal effort that gets on the ballot, you can depend on that.”

Of course you can depend on that; Moonbeam's record makes that a given. California raked in $5.7 Billion in gas taxes in 2015. That should have fixed a lot of roads. Nope, didn't fix squat. California Democratics don't have a money problem - they have a priority problem. And there's finally a revolt underway.

 

 

Also In Britain:

Schools are removing analogue clocks from examination halls because teenagers are unable to tell the time, a head teachers’ union has said.

Teachers are now installing digital devices after pupils sitting their GCSE and A-level exams complained that they were struggling to read the correct time on an analogue clock.

It seems that kids have gotten so used to seeing digital readouts on their phones and computers that they can't deal with traditional clocks, and having an analog clock in the room could induce unnecessary stress on the little darlings. The kids also have trouble holding pencils and pens:

Earlier this year, a senior paediatric doctor warned that children are increasingly finding it hard to hold pens and pencils because of an excessive use of technology. Sally Payne, the head paediatric occupational therapist at the Heart of England foundation NHS Trust, said that when children are given a pencil at school, they are increasingly unable to hold it.

Math will likely be impossible for them as well, absent the calculator function on their phones.

Should it really be necessary to explain to students preparing for university "Now when the big hand is on the 12, and the little hand is on the 2..."

Most of us learned that stuff before we started elementary school. It's curious that so much money is spent attempting to educate students who are so stupid that they can't tell time when looking at a standard clock.

Welcome to the future.

 

 

Beeswax

In a satirical story titled “Planned Parenthood Defends Bill Cosby: ‘Sexual Assault Is Only 3% Of What He Does,'” the publisher mocked the abortion provider over its oft-made claim that only three percent of the services it provides involve killing babies.

Based on that egregious logic, Cosby deserves a break since he spent most of his life making people laugh versus raping women.

In related news, Babylon Bee also reported that UK Prime Minister Theresa May issued a helpful reminder to parents over there:

LONDON—Upon the news of a high court ordering life support removed from 2-year-old Alfie Evans, English Prime Minister Theresa May issued a brief, friendly reminder to citizens of the U.K. that the all-powerful state actually owns their children. In a video circulated online, May informed parents who were “getting a little too attached” to their children that they need to keep in mind that the United Kingdom is the actual legal parent, and the kids are simply on loan to them until the State decides it’s time for them to die.

So there you have it. Just stay in your place.

 

The Invasion Of America

“Somos Resistencia…” Just what we need — foreign nationals who say they’re dissatisified with their culture to come here and “resist” ours. The world has seen the raised fist before and it’s never stood for American freedom. (Pueblos Sin Fronteras/Facebook)

I wonder if any of them are MS-13 members? But, as long as they stay in California, No Problemo - the politicians and others there seem hell-bent on turning the state into a third-world "country", so here's hoping they enjoy the fruits of their "resistance".

And how weird is it getting down there? Try this one on for size:

A Los Angeles police officer has been accused of sneaking in two illegal aliens into the United States earlier this week.

An officer by the name of Mambasse Koulabalo Patara was arrested on federal charges for allegedly violating immigration laws. The officer was apprehended at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Pine Valley.

Mambasse Koulabalo Patara - isn't that an Amish name?

In any case,

Patara told the Border Patrol agents that the two men were U.S. citizens. He informed Border Patrol agents that he was off duty and showed them his badge. Eventually the two men admitted they were illegal aliens.

So the 42 year-old cop transports two illegal aliens and lies to Border Patrol. While it's likely that many in California will laud his bravery in defying the feds, it seems doubtful that the federal court will see it that way. In all probability, he defied his way out of a police job, as well.

It's an odd place: police won't enforce federal laws regarding illegal aliens "because they aren't ICE agents" - but they're not ATF either, yet they enforce gun laws. They're not DEA, but they enforce drug-trafficking laws. Exactly what exempts  them from enforcing immigration laws? Forget the wall across the Mexican-US border - build a wall between California and the rest of the states.