Source: SFGate
“President-elect Donald Trump was joking when he suggested Canada become the 51st U.S. state during a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Tuesday. Fox News reported that Trump made the comment in response to Trudeau raising concerns that Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canada would damage Canada’s economy. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the Friday dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, said Trump’s comments were in jest. ‘The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment,’ LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa.” (12/03/24)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/trudeau-to-meet-with-canadian-opposition-leaders-19955588.php
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“It’s good when the latest horrific loot-and-pillage ideas of the latest horrific mayor of your city keep getting shot down. The people of Chicago must hope that this continues. But it would be better to have a mayor who doesn’t make it necessary. Chicago’s city council recently met in a special session to consider Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal to hike property taxes by $300 million to help balance the budget. Councilmen defeated the idea 50-0. In pitching his plan, Johnson had said that the only alternative was major cuts to the numbers of police officers and fire fighters. There would also be fewer trash pickups, less tree trimming, more rats. Off the table? Any reductions in public school spending.” (12/03/24)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2024/12/03/somebody-different-chicago/
Source: Common Dreams
by James Zogby
“This past week, Israeli, Lebanese, and U.S. leaders were busy patting themselves on the back announcing the completion of an Israeli/Lebanese cease-fire agreement. The Israeli prime minister crowed about Israel victorious and now the unquestioned dominant force throughout the Middle East. Hezbollah declared a ‘divine victory’ greater than the one they achieved in 2006. Meanwhile, U.S. leaders were congratulating themselves for their leadership in a settlement they hoped would ‘advance broader peace and prosperity in the region.’ To say I’m skeptical about all of this is an understatement. At least for now, the Lebanese will have some respite from Israel’s relentless bombings. And Israeli forces will begin to withdraw from the south of the country. Nevertheless, I’m not uncorking the champagne to celebrate.” (12/03/24)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-lebanon-cease-fire
Source: ABC News
“Swiss prosecutors said a right-to-die activist was released Monday after more than two months in police custody over the reported first use of a so-called ‘suicide capsule,’ after they ruled out the possibility of an intentional homicide. Florian Willet, head of advocacy group The Last Resort, was released by authorities in the northern Schaffhausen region, where a 64-year-old U.S. woman in late September was said to be the first user of the Sarco suicide capsule, a sealed chamber that releases gas at the press of a button. Authorities detained four people, but initially only released three of them — holding Willet on suspicion that the woman, who was not identified, might not have committed suicide but could have been killed.” (12/03/24)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/swiss-authorities-release-die-activist-after-ruling-homicide-116372543
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Justin Zuckerman on lobbyists who push for “fair wages” and are opposed by workers.” (12/03/24)
https://rumble.com/v5vhuse-ff-243-justin-zuckerman-on-lobbyists-who-push-for-fair-wages-and-are-oppose.html
Source: Washington Post
by Marc A Thiessen
“As the bloodiest century in human history drew to a close, Americans looked back at the catastrophic mistakes that paved the way for World War II and the Cold War. Chief among them: the 1938 Munich agreement, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s misguided effort to appease Adolf Hitler, and the disastrous 1945 Yalta agreement that partitioned Europe and left the world teetering on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. At the start of a hopeful new century came a new axiom of U.S. foreign policy: No more Munichs, no more Yaltas. To which we must add: No more Budapests. On Dec. 5, the world will mark the 30th anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum of Security Assurances …. As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to negotiate an end to that struggle, he should heed the lessons of Budapest — so he does not repeat them.” (12/03/24)
https://archive.is/PaTYe
Source: Reuters
“Russian presidential aircraft and funds were used in a program that took children from occupied Ukrainian territories, stripped them of Ukrainian identity and placed them with Russian families, according to a report by Yale’s School of Public Health. The U.S. State Department-backed research, published on Tuesday, identified 314 Ukrainian children taken to Russia in the early months of the war in Ukraine as part of what it says was a systematic, Kremlin-funded program to ‘Russify’ them. Reuters was unable to confirm the report’s findings independently. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his child rights’ commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children. At the time, Lvova-Belova said her commission acted on humanitarian grounds to protect children in an area of military hostilities.” (12/03/24)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-controlled-aircraft-deported-ukrainian-children-us-backed-research-alleges-2024-12-03/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Joseph D Terwilliger
“Recent history tells us that when the US threatens regime change, it often delivers when the military balance of power makes that a feasible option. Saddam Hussein and Moammar Qaddafi would testify to that if we hadn’t killed them. The DPRK is right to suggest they have tried diplomacy over and over again with the United States, and nothing ever changes. Whether or not the Koreans comply with the terms of the agreement, as soon as the American administration changes, these agreements get broken by the US side. Attempts to prevent North Korea from developing a nuclear weapons program through military pressure and economic sanctions have failed spectacularly, and it is obvious to anyone that continued sanctions pressure and military provocations are not going to alter that calculus. In last week’s speech, Kim Jong Un laid out the problem.” (12/03/24)
https://original.antiwar.com/joseph_terwilliger/2024/12/02/no-kim-jong-un-did-not-close-the-door-to-diplomacy-with-the-us/
Source: Axios
“President-elect Trump on Monday night reaffirmed his pledge to stop Nippon Steel’s planned $15 billion purchase of U.S. Steel. It’s the first time he’s commented on the proposed takeover by Japan’s largest steelmaker since being reelected president on Nov. 5. Although Trump had previously pledged to block the deal, the New York Times notes that it was expected ‘there could be a way forward for the deal after the political pressure subsided.’ Some had hoped mergers and acquisitions would surge under a light-touch regulatory Trump administration. … With the deal expected to close before Inauguration Day, it could complicate Trump’s efforts to roll it back if it were to proceed.” (12/03/24)
https://www.axios.com/2024/12/03/trump-nippon-us-steel-block-tariffs-tax-incentives
Source: Antiwar.com
“Hezbollah Fires Back After Days of Israeli Strikes, US Won’t ‘Cry’ About HTS Offensive, and More.” (12/03/24)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM54d-wdOzM
