Last Week Today Episode 149 Show Notes for Monday, May 6th, 2024
Canadians are Getting Poorer, The Deep State Opposed a Sitting US President, Palestinian Protests on Canadian Campuses, Arrests Made in Hardeep Singh Nijjar case, AI Propaganda & Bear Food.
Canadians are Getting Poorer, According to Statistics Canada
Our top story tonight centers around the April 26th, 2024 release from Statistics Canada, of their 2022 Canadian Income Survey, and the overviews slowly percolating into both the legacy and new media.
The key takeaways are pretty obvious. According to the report:
The median after-tax income of Canadian families and unattached individuals was $70,500 in 2022, a decrease from $73,000 in 2021 (-3.4%), adjusted for inflation.
Despite market income remaining relatively stable, median government transfers declined in 2022, as benefits related to the COVID-19 pandemic were discontinued and pandemic-related modifications to the Employment Insurance (EI) program were removed during the year.
The annual inflation rate in 2022 was 6.8%, which also contributed to the decline in income from the previous year. Dollar amounts in this analysis are expressed in constant 2022 values. Canada's official poverty rate was 9.9% in 2022, increasing by 2.5 percentage points from 7.4% in 2021 and approaching the 2019 pre-pandemic rate of 10.3%.
In essence, and as outlined in stories like the May 6th, 2024 the Maple post, “The Latest Income Survey Is a Story Of Declining Fortunes,” we’re all getting poorer, except for the very, very rich, which is something we’ve all known about for a long time.
Other stories from across the country, such as the April 26th, 2024 Lethbridge Alberta News Now post, “Alberta incomes fell slightly from 2018-2022, but prices rose,” and the May 1st, 2024 CityNews Halifax post, “ ‘Alarming’ rates of poverty, food insecurity in Nova Scotia,” suggest that the problem is systematic and occurring across the country.
But legacy and union focused publications like the Maple are essentially without context, believing that the any problem is always solved by government control and new subsidies.
They want “enhanced social spending to create a strong floor of protection,” or perhaps even a “universal basic income,” which is a silly request to a government which ran out of money during the Covid-19 pandemic and is currently beholding to their bond-holders and bankers.
As noted in the May 1st, 2024 UD Canada on YouTube post, “Liberals raising canada's Debt Ceiling with $295 billion more,“ the Canadian government doesn’t have enough money to pay its existing bills.
To compensate, the Trudeau Liberals plan to raise the current debt ceiling (the total amount the government is allowed to owe to banks and bondholders), by an extra $295Bln Cdn in the current budget.
So new government spending isn’t going to happen unless the bond markets are convinced that Canada is putting its economic house in order, which probably won’t happen if the Trudeau Liberals and their NDP enablers keep needing to go further into debt.
The banksters and government bondholders, if convinced, will signal their acceptance of new spending by dropping interest rates.
Or they won’t.
Here’s a quick two minute overview from a BC based mortgage broker outlining what he thinks is going to happen over the next little while.
It’s the May 4th, 2024 BC Commercial Mortgage on TikToc post, “the latest insights from Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem on Canadian economic forecasts and inflation strategies for 2024.”
Also in the News this Week
The Deep State Opposed a Sitting US President
In what would once be considered a bombshell revelation, independent media investigative reporter James O’Keefe has released a story claiming that the CIA and other US intelligence agencies, colluded during the Trump presidency to keep details of US intelligence operations secret from the sitting US president.
The post, published initially on Elon Musk’s “X” platform on May 1st, 2024, goes on to note that:
… intel agencies not only kept intelligence information from a sitting United States President and Commander-In-Chief, they also used FISA () to spy on @realDonaldTrump and his team and are still monitoring President Trump (as he runs in the 2024 presidential election).
The core of the story is an undercover interview with a CIA cyber operations project manager. When the story broke, the CIA project operations manager was fired.
When the CIA was asked for comment, O'Keefe received an exclusive, unusual and on the record statement from a CIA spokesperson calling the accusations “absolutely false and ridiculous.”
CIA is a resolutely apolitical institution that provides intelligence support to policymakers including the President of the United States, irrespective of who occupies the office. We are a foreign intelligence focused Agency and do not monitor the former President.
The individual making these allegations is a former contractor who does not represent CIA.
The CIA normally doesn’t publish on the record responses to anything, so you know they must have been pissed at the story.
The only downside to the revelation was that pretty much everyone on both sides of the political divide in the US already pretty well knew what was going on.
While O’Keefe deserves kudo’s for uncovering corroborating documentation, the impact of his story seems to be blunted by the widespread perception that these sorts of things were were going on.
Few if any legacy media outlets are reprinting or commenting on the story..
The May 5th, 2024 vivafrei on Rumble post, “James O'keefe CIA Exposé Confirms the Shocking Corruption We Already Knew!” goes into a little more detail about what’s going on and about what this means for the future.
But be careful. Even independent, new media sources like Viva Frei have their own biases.
More Palestinian Protests on Canadian Campuses.
Canadian universities continue to be targeted by pro-Palestinian protests, with many of the protests explicitly funded and supported by outside groups.
In Toronto and as outlined in the May 5th, 2024 National post story, “Union leaders pledge support for U of T anti-Israel encampment, urge 'consequences' for dissenters,” members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario and three local chapters released a “solidarity statement,” promising their “unwavering support” for the anti-Israel encampment established at the University of Toronto last week.
According to the National Post:
Footage circulating on social media late Thursday showed CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn, whose organization represents nearly 300,000 public sector employees in the province, shaking hands with anti-Israel protesters while clutching union flags and wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian garb adopted as a political symbol.
Back in January, as outlined in the January 12th, 2024 National Post story, “FIRST READING: The evidence for paid protesters in the Canadian anti-Israel camp,” the National Post first noticed that “paid protesters” could be padding the ranks of anti-Israeli protests in Victoria.
More recently, and as outlined in the May 4th, 2024 Toronto Sun post, “Healthcare company CEO 'eager' to hire anti-Israel student protesters,” some companies have offered to support anti-Israel student protesters disciplined by their schools over the protests, by offering to hire them as employees.
Protests in Canada against Israeli actions in Gaza have been growing over the past week, following along the path of the increasingly strident US campus protests.
The campus protests come with lots of disturbing subtext, connections and context.
For example, it’s generally conceded that the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to annex Gaza, offering Palestinian’s living there only the option of leaving now or dying where they stand.
So the Israeli government isn’t the hero in this situation and the protesters have good reason to believe in the morality of their cause.
Israeli citizens know this.
As outlined in the May 5th, 2024 Associated Press post, “Thousands of Israelis take to streets of Tel Aviv to demand cease-fire and Netanyahu’s resignation,” the Israeli government has been battered by almost constant protests against the Netanyahu government since the current war began in October 2023.
On the other hand the active support for Canadian pro-Palestinian campus protests from local unions and other organizations suggests the campus protesters could, at some point be harnessed for other more explicitly political aims.
An election is expected in Canada over the next eighteen months. A small army of well funded and hardened protesters would be a useful tool in almost any riding to sway voters.
As for our current government, as outlined in the May 5th, 2024 CBC New post, “Trudeau visits Toronto Holocaust Museum as Jewish Canadians mark Yom HaShoah,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent yesterday visiting the Toronto Holocaust Museum to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Everyone is taking a side.
Indian Nationals Arrested for the Murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Three Indian nationals have been arrested in the investigation into the murder of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, something we’ve talked about in this forum before,
Here’s the May 5th, 2024 CBC News post, “Arrests in Nijjar killing push Canada-India tensions to new high,” with more on the topic.
AI Propaganda
According to the May 2nd, 2024 Activist post, “The Last Human Election,” the last human election will occur this year.
After that, the world changes, although no one seems sure of the specifics.
And if that’s not enough for you, here’s the February 11th, 2024 Beeyond Ideas on Youtube post, “How AI-Quantum Will Make 2024 the "Final Human-Led Election.”
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is attempting to take steps to control this new technology, or at least controlling and regulating its use.
As outlined in their May 3rd, 2024 The Logic post, “OSC to crack down faster and harder on emerging technologies,” the OSC want to make sure that no one is able to bypass OSC regulations and controls.
On the other hand, there’s a lot of propaganda embedded in the pieces cited above.
AI is only a tool, a better hammer looking to define every problem of our current society as a nail needing to be pounded into a block of wood to solve the problem.
Who’s right? Who knows.
Just be cautious of self-proclaimed “experts” pushing content with high production values but few independently verifiable citations
Bears Don’t Eat Processed Food
We’re going to wind up tonight with an interesting video of a bear refusing to eat meat offered by a human.
We’re then going to have a short discussion on processed food, additives and the requirements of healthy living.
Who says bears are stupid?
We begin with the May 6th, 2024 Mongo Minds on Bitchute post, “Bear Won’t Eat Meat.”
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https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662
Federal, State Officials Aiding Criminal Misconduct, Corruption, Injustice and Sexual Abuse "Under Color of Law"
Eighty traffic stops in four years. Five robberies. Home invasion and death threats by armed Sheriff Deputies with AR-15s and shotguns pointed at my head and at my dog "Boomer's" head while two young children were mere feet away on a second floor. False arrest. False imprisonment. Actionable evidence including recordings, documents, hundreds of witnesses contact information with no conflicts of interest esp. regarding crimes against children involving rape and abuse.
Only EXTERNAL demands might drive long-overdue official accountability, investigation, oversight, an end to abuses, brutality, crimes of a community & local, State & Federal corruption that would shock most Americans. It sounds unbelievable, but is very much real in Wilmington N.C.
Though provided irrefutable almost certainly admissible evidence of criminal activities involving:
U.S. Department of Justice & F.B.I. involvement in extensive criminal misconduct by Corrupt North Carolina officials including sexual abuses of children, theft of Federal funds, lynching's, retaliatory murders, torture, violence & retribution against child victims, families & the few who have dared discuss horrific abuses suffered & retaliation by officials, prosecutors & bribed media.
This "Culture of Corruption," once pursued, is now Assisted, Protected by the U.S. DOJ, FBI USAO despite vast evidence & growing #s of victims of violent criminal acts that any remotely moral person would conclude:
CONGRESS MUST HOLD THESE FEDERAL OFFICIALS AND THE STATE AND LOCAL SADISTIC CRIMINALS OFFICIALLY PROTECTED TO ACCOUNT.
NO OFFICIAL WHO ENGAGES IN SUCH EVIL SHOULD EVER BE MAINTAINED OR SUPPORTED IN OR ALLOWED TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE OR PRACTICE LAW EVER.
https://justice4all.substack.com/p/federal-state-officials-aiding-criminal-662