The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are the federal police for Canada.  As many local law enforcement communities have refused to move against their own citizens, the Canadian government is now deploying the RCMP against the Alberta trucker blockade.

The border crossing between Coutts, Alberta (CA) and Sweet Grass, Montana (USA) continues to be blocked as truckers allied against COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine passports are united.  The Alberta protests are in support of the larger trucker protest taking place in Ottawa.

Tensions are increasing as the truckers are refusing to move, but the RCMP has vowed to get rid of the blockade.  Supporters for the truckers are working through freezing temperatures to keep them supplied with food and fuel to keep the blockade in place. Even farm tractors have joined the effort.

The standoff continues as the RCMP have been reluctant to forcibly arrest the rather hardened and burly truckers.  There is also a legal defense fund established to assist the truckers against any criminal charges. [SEE HERE]

Canadian state media, aka the CBC, are trying to frame the protesting truckers as villains and violent fringe extremists.  However, after calling the essential working truckers heroes previously, the majority of the Canadian people, specifically the people in/around the Alberta province, are not buying the nonsense from the CBC as supported by the leftist government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

(Via CBC) – RCMP have approached a blockade of vehicles that has jammed traffic for days at a Canada-U.S. border crossing in Alberta after warning that those participating in the protest may be subject to arrest Tuesday afternoon.

[…] RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters confirmed to CBC News that enforcement has begun, although it is unclear what that will entail. (more)

Rebel News has journalists embedded with the trucker blockade in Alberta and has been tweeting about the standoff.

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An interesting study from Johns Hopkins University [DATA HERE] shows the 2021 government lockdown did virtually nothing to stem death from the pandemic, but likely created more adverse “social ills” and long-term negative health outcomes.

WASHINGTON – […] The lockdowns during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by about 0.2%, said the broad review of multiple scientific studies.

“We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality,” the researchers wrote. But the research paper said lockdowns did have “devastating effects” on the economy and contributed to numerous social ills.

“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” the report said.

“Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument,” the paper concluded. (read more)

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The latest BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLT) report [DATA HERE] reflects a headline of 4.3 million U.S. workers quitting in December.  However, that number is 161,000 fewer quits than November. The job openings are starting to fill up.

While there is evidence the mandatory vaccine requirements are still working through the job market, we are still about another month away before the fog clears from the private sector employment data.

This Friday we will see the unemployment data from December, but in the interim this JOLT’s report is tracking with CTH expectations.

The primary driver of the quits rate has been inflation.  Workers seeking higher wages in an effort to deal with inflation can get faster paycheck results by switching jobs rather than asking current employers for more money.

We have been watching this trend for several months.  However, the rate of job-jumping is slowing down as the available jobs to jump into are fewer, and the vaccine mandate impact is settling down.

Despite the number of job openings, blue collar workers are starting to see job vacancies decreasing.  The service industries around accommodation, food services and basic dirty fingernail positions still have many vacancies; this is the epicenter of where the job jumping takes place. Employment in durable goods manufacturing is at that phase where things are about to get sketchy for tradespeople and union workers.

The white collar jobs are static and/or slightly downsizing.  The total number of hires was 6.3 million for December, a drop of 333,000 from prior month.  The number of people hired in professional and business services dropped by 159,000.

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Many people were wondering who it was that preempted Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer making the announcement of his stepping down from the court.  That answer comes today.

White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, was the one who leaked the Breyer retirement, likely in an effort to change the narrative of negative stories that continue to overwhelm the Biden team.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s chief of staff leaked Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s plan to retire to “a limited group” on Wednesday, a top Democrat told reporters.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin told reporters he received a “surprise” call on Wednesday morning from White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who “said that President Biden wanted [Durbin] to know that Stephen Breyer was about to announce his retirement from the court.”

Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said Klain told him to keep the news a secret and that Breyer planned to make an official announcement on Thursday. (read more)

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

(more…)

One of the lesser discussed BIG PICTURE stories being missed within the people’s revolt against totalitarian government under the guise of this pandemic, is the abject void of pragmatic conservative leadership in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

As the working class Canadians rally behind their blue collar truck drivers, the invisibility of strong, opposing voices to the leftist government they are challenging is brutally obvious.

It is almost painful to watch this play out.

Where are the men of courage?  And, that question has nothing to do with gender.

I generally try to stay out of the issue of questioning representative government in other nations; however, when you see the people of Canada crying for freedom, trying desperately to take back their individual liberty, there comes a time when all the free people of the world have no more tongue to bite.

The voice of Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre is what many people point toward when identifying a “conservative‘ within the parliamentary system of Canada.  Forgive my criticisms, but if this is the strongest representative voice of middle Canada, this too is pathetic.  WATCH:

What the hell kind of high school nonsense is this?  A debate about tone, sensibilities, portrayals?  If the goal was to miss the entire moment, skip the point, talk in circles as if the media was the audience, and put on a performance focused on the totally irrelevant; then, mission accomplished.

As a patient and frustrated pragmatist would say, (deep breath) … “When you’re done with all that, can you please address the central need of the voices assembled a few meters away shouting at you?”  Good grief, and this guy is presumably ‘strong‘ compared to Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole.

There comes a time when you need to channel the raw frustration of your constituents – put them into articulate voice and focus – not pontificate about their delicate humanism in your arguments.

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In a rather remarkable doubling-down against his own people, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to the microphones today to denounce the protest group that threatens the institutions of his government. [Video Below] Trudeau said the group does not represent truckers or responsible Canadians.

Introducing his position against the truckers and the Convoy for Freedom, who have demanded the government remove COVID-19 mandates and forced vaccinations, the Canadian prime minister portrayed the movement as an irresponsible minority of angry protestors who have defiled monuments in the capital.

Trudeau said he would not meet with the group, because they do not represent “true Canadians,” and are not worthy of recognition.  Trudeau contrasted his prior support for the Black Lives Matter protestors and cast the Freedom Convoy as filled with “hateful rhetoric.”  He further stated they were attempting to “incite violence” and said the movement did not deserve support.  WATCH:

The smug and condescending tone in the delivery of his official position toward the protest was quite remarkable. The prime minister also warned politicians not to support this group and demanded that all supporters of the convoy reflect on their association, as the protest group is viewed by the government as hateful and without concern for the greater good of Canadian society.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

(more…)