On Wednesday, Mark kept his fortnightly date with John Oakley on Toronto's Global News Radio 640. The conversation ranged from President Trump's plans to buy Greenland from Denmark and the United Kingdom's generous gift of Jihadi Jack to Canada all the way to anti-Chick-Fil-A and pro-Commie protests in Toronto. Click below to listen:
We had a grand turnout from Canadians on last year's sold-out maiden voyage of the Mark Steyn Cruise, and for our second cruise, also sold out, which sails next month from Vancouver to Alaska. So we hope more than a few Oakley listeners will want to join us on next year's third voyage, around the Mediterranean with the recently Trump-pardoned Conrad Black, the fearless Douglas Murray and other special guests. But don't leave it too late: as with most travel and accommodations, the prices are more favorable the earlier you book.
If you're one of that small, brave band who prefer Steyn on camera, he'll be back on TV tomorrow evening, Thursday, south of the border with Tucker Carlson, live at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific, with a rerun at midnight. On the other hand, if you find Mark easier to take in non-visual formats, next week will be one not to miss. Oh, and as to audio entertainment more generally, don't forget to join us daily around noon Eastern - that's 4pm GMT - for the latest episode in what's proving a highly popular serialization of Climate Change: The Facts, a special presentation for Mark Steyn Club members.
For more information on The Mark Steyn Club and becoming a member, please see here - and, for friends and relatives, our special Gift Membership. As our third Steyn Club season cranks into gear, we are grateful for the support of all our pals around the world, and look forward to welcoming many more in the years ahead.
Comment on this item (members only)
Submission of reader comments is restricted to Mark Steyn Club members only. If you are not yet a member, please click here to join. If you are already a member, please log in here:
Member Login
50 Member Comments
The problem is not that Trump wants to buy Greenland but the way he handles it, You don't buy territory of a foreign country by announcing it on tweeter. It should have been bought or partially bought by secret negotiation. Even a deal for buying Real estate to set up another Trump tower does not start by announcing it on tweeter. Add to it insulting publicly the PM of Denmark because she does no ready to sell .It is clear that Trump is losing his mind, an unhinged megalomaniac He will not be elected because he is the biggest enemy of himself. He is now not an asset to the republicans but a liability. Anyone that will vote against impeachment and is subject to reelection will be in difficult situation. Letting him be impeached Pence president Pelosi VP. The best solution would be not let him to win the nomination and get Mitt Romney he does not have any of the baggage that Trump has no women no Russia, no China , He understands that international diplomacy is not handled by personal friendship but national interest. Tax return posted on the internet, good businessmen , Good infrastructure experience What can the Dem throw at him? The trade war with China can be settled as Xi Jinping suggested a win win agreement, I am thinking writing a letter to Mitt Romney if he wants save US from a possible civil war he should throw his hat in the ring. The biggest mistake that Trump made beside selecting Senator Jeff Session AG is not selecting Mitt Romney as secretary of the state
You left something off your list of things about Romney: no balls.
But you may be right. Romney might be able to win the presidency if he ever had the Republican nomination. If only he could get that.... hey, wait.
Down to fifteen links to go!! Doing much better than last week! It's hard to know what to open next! Starting to think of these links as precious eggs. Which is the ostrich egg and which is a bitty finch egg? Lost a zebra finch today and sobbed briefly. Does this make me a snowflake? No. Zorba gets funeral rights on par with an Icelandic glacier's. Ooh, that still frosts me.
fit for a regal glacier!
Oh, sorry to hear that. The little bird is better than a block of ice - that melts into the sea, then is evaporated up and snowed down again, one big water cycle. A bird, that one had a spirit and personality and gave delight.
Has Trumpie gone troppo? What's he worrying about Greenland for? Does he want to relocate all the lefties there? after all they want a cold climate.
He got us to look at the place... and hooh-boy, even a cursury glance of the blandest of publically-available reporting, raises all sorts of red flags -- start with it has uranium, amongst other highly coveted rare minerals and metals, and has reportedly a creepy unusually high level of child abuse (1/3 of all children ?!!? Whaa??) ... like, who has any idea what the hell is going on there? It's far easier for the innocent northern hemisphere public to get to Zambia or Congo to stroll around, which have the same wildly coveted minerals yet better child stats than that, than to Greenland for a walkabout. Out of sight, out of mind. With chilling stats like that, it could be Epstein Island on steroids.
Apparently it's China: "China Wants 'Foothold in Greenland' Next to 'Our Ballistic Missile Defense System'".
So, President Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he tweeted out? China's one coveter of many. Apparently, quite a bit of traffic went by and visited Epstein's island, so quite a lot of people and organizations were aware of all sorts of creepy things about it, and said nothing. So far, it's rolling like a James Bond movie, islands, girls, tunnels, girl pilots, girl submarine operators, bikinis, disappearances, smuggling, trafficking, meglomania global schemes, murders...the imagination quails considering how bad it could be in a bigger place, even more isolated from the mainstream.
Did anyone see the clip of the weirdly blinking FB-I top official telling Tucker that the FB-I is aware that President Trump uses gematria code in his tweets? Tucker's expression was priceless... hung between the creepy visuals of a real, top government official looking like a robot with a stuck turn signal and the astonishing concept that those supposedly silly tweets are absolutely packed with info if one knows how to read them. Since it was FB-I top level revealing this tidbit on a national platform, blinking like a POW sending a protest message while reading a forced statement, then what does that infer about all those like Com-ey's and Bren-nen's odd tweet subjects and how they word them? How about the ostensibly nonsensical or banal tweets media and hollywood critters put out all the time? A code war being conducted in the open, right in everyone's faces? It's not like this stuff has never been done, the surprise is who's been doing it and using all mass media platforms. Don't know whether to dive for cover under the bed quivering in fear or relax, pull out the lawn chair and the popcorn to watch the pros poste and riposte.
Gematria code? I don't think so. More like he just got a twitch in the eye and the agent didn't have anything better to do. Just wild imaginings. 'Them ווו'
Well, if he was a retired employee, who knows what they say? Currently employed -- they aren't allowed to say just anything on public TV, and they're carefully picked as to who speaks. Did you actually watch the clip? Maybe it was POW Morse code... it wasn't any twitch. Don't take anyone's word for it - look it up and see for oneself. (It's worth it just to see M. Tucker's expression) That thing said the agency is fully aware that the President is doing this... badge-wearing experts in this sort of stuff. If this is the case, then consider the narrative pushed by the media that we all should scoff at anything President Trump says... and then that subject would tie in with the M. Tucker and M. Mark discussion up there about using words and 'head fakes.' How much more fascinating is ALL of this if it's far deeper than what the media wants us to think? After all, it's the media that reported 'Pedo Island' and the 'Lolita Express' for years! about Epstein --- but NEVER the logical conclusion - criminality and victims. Logic: They knew. So what do they know about Greenland they all ain't been telling? President Trump just threw it into the public square, to get some light shining on it. With statistics coming from Save the Children and UNICEF of ranges of 30-43% of all Greenland children having been sexually molested, those are appalling numbers. Something awful is going on there and there's been little reporting about it, and plainly little if anything done to stop it. With President Trump's Executive Order to seize assets of anyone/any organization engaged in crimes against humanity, maybe it will be revealed that the People of Greenland have been victimized for years and will find relief at last, beneficiaries of this profound action for justice and true rule of law.
Meanwhile, the Gilets Jaunes in France are past week 40, having racked up casualities and deaths among the nicest and most average of people, young and old, while they simply demand their rights as citizens, and they persist, still in the streets. Hong Kong protesters flood the streets. It's a global theme problem of oppression. They're all saying the same complaints in a multitude of languages. Canadians have an election coming up and an entire political party isn't being allowed to be 'seen or 'heard.' Hmm!!
Just sayin'! :D
The basic rule is: "Don't feed the beast." Don't support the beast. Don't fund the beast. Demonetise the beast. Don't slide \ creep with the beast. The fight is the same whether it's in Apocalypse \ Revelations, Dante's Inferno, or a myriad of other texts. The beast has been creeping things for decades - abortion -> euthanasia -> | -> nights of the long knives -> genocide. It's always the same and the aim of the beast is total destruction of us and by us. Feudalism is the beast. Destruction of personal and societal capital and the values that produce that capital is what the beast does, and gets us to do, to destroy us. That people are standing up is good. But there is a huge amount more that needs to be done. Open and complete and detailed communications between ourselves is essential. That means rejigging our Internet access. And securing the payment systems is also very important.
Don't go on Facebook or any of the other like social media platforms. Don't pay Google or give it any accurate information. Don't buy Hollywood or watch the MSM. Don't buy any products from woke companies. Avoid anything and anyone with the mark of the beast - rainbow colours, LGBTQWERTY, pink ribbons etc. Don't feed the beast!!!
Five percent of Australian and Canadian citizens identify as being "of Chinese descent" (1.2 million and 1.8 million respectively). Looking at the aggressive "pro-China" presence at pro-democracy/HK rallies in these countries in recent days, is it "racist" to question where their loyalties lie as Beijing becomes increasingly belligerent?
Absolutely, K. And homophobic, bigoted and sexist to boot. And you're a climate-denier, deplorable-in-a-basket, fascist MAGA hat-wearer and a Russian secret operative too, quite obviously. Where have you been? We never let a good point such as yours get in the way of the standard spray of invective. In fact, count on a double-dose.
Never mind, at least it's warm in here under the cow-manure, and there's plenty of room. Good company, too.
I can't believe you left out my Islamophobia and transphobia.
Disappointed.
No getting past you, K.
To get the acme service, which also includes accusations to the effect that you are an old white male, have organised gang-rapes of the perjurer in question, are insufficiently enthusiastic about social detritus using the pavements as lavatories and other tried and trusted free goodies, you need to subscribe to the platinum membership scheme.
Is it just me, or is the world going mad?
"Is it just me, or is the world going mad?"
Amazing coincidence, as that's the title of a YouTube video just recommended on the "War of Words" piece.
John Oakley, the guy that makes Mark Steyn laugh.
Have John, Mark, and sports broadcaster Cam Stewart ever appeared in the same room at the same time or was insurance coverage always impossible to obtain ?
I for one, would be delighted to see Welcome Back, Khadrs-The Musical, staged on Broadway, catered by Chick Fil-A and emceed by Jihadi Jack. It could include a little note in the Playbill telling people not to clap, but to just use their nice Jazz Hands. There could be a little FGM clinic set up in the lobby for quick snips. Perhaps a henna stand to dye the beards of some of the excitable People With Multiple Passports. Maybe Meaghan and Harry could attend, and then they could donate the carbon credits to Climate Pippy's educational fund. True diversity, it's such a beautiful thing!
Welcome back, Khadr - The Musical. That's brilliant! Now playing in all education camps, er... schools.
Can Travolta still dance? I can see his little sandals struttin as the curtain rises. Cue music!
Mark, I think you're onto something, this group you've identified, these excitable "People With Multiple Passports" being responsible for all the trouble in the world. Do they have anything else in common, other than the multiple passport thingy? Do they use the same shampoo? Secret handshake? Anything?
I'm appalled. Not only is Chick-fil-A openly homophobic, their insistence on cooking everything in peanut oil makes it clearly transphobic as well. Jessica Yaniv will take these guys down in nothing flat (or is it fat?).
Very funny! Maybe if they still have the stones to do it!
Transphobic. I love it!
I think that everyone misses the point concerning Chick-fil-A and the never-ending campaign against them by the LGBTQWERTY community. (Hereinafter referred to as "the community.") I am willing to bet that the latter doesn't give a damn about Chick-fil-A or their owner. However both Chick-fil-A and it's owner provides a useful "object lesson" for OTHER large companies and businesses who might still be hesitant to adopt the excruciatingly no-deviations-allowed doctrinal line laid down by "the community." It's like where the mob whacks some small businessman who refuses to pay protection - The rest of the neighborhood then swings into line. I am sure that the "war" on Chick-fil-A has caused other companies to adopt "community-friendly" policies to avoid the time, hassle and legal fees that comes with fighting these zealots.
Also the protests may backfire on the community, John. After there was a rash of minute community protests around here, it brought it to the attention of the non-community community that there was even a Chick-Fil-A here (it was tucked away in the dying mall) and suddenly business was booming and they opened another one near in the main drag and then another one by the university. Now that one is booming especially because Fall term has begun and they brought back the Mac and Cheese dish the same week! (I wish they would expand on the Mac and Cheese and have bacon and broccoli options). I'm also very upset they took the carrot and raisin salad off their menu. I used to eat that like a dessert. The Chick-Fil-A chicken soup is very good. The servers are diverse from what I can see, not that I care about things like that, and they're super friendly and polite every time I stop there. I really don't know where's their beef. If you don't like the food, flock somewhere else to dine. They do what they want with their menu without always consulting us, so the community can do with their sexual lives what they want and leave the restaurants to food service. Don't interfere in other people's eating choices and we won't interfere in your sexual choices. That could be their new billboard slogan, instead of cows mooing "eat more chicken."
Right John - This is exactly what is taking place. Giving in to a seemingly harmless demand may come at little cost initially but other more strident demands are sure to follow. Major Corporations decide it's more prudent in the short term to join a boycott against Tucker Carlson rather than face negative publicity. The left plays the long game and they are far ahead. Corrupting Corporate America looks like a significant victory to me. Your point on Chick-fil-A is dead on. They are just making an example of one small enterprise and to those claiming that it isn't effective I'd suggest taking a quick look at all the major companies boycotting Hannity and Tucker Carlson for a start. Some refuse to advertise at all on Fox News.
The people doing the protests are probably not their customers so it would back fire as a lot of their customers would demonetise them. I always check for "signs of the beast" before buying and if present avoid doing so.
I never did go for homophobic chicken (I like just the hint of pink), but if you've never had Islamophobic baloney, you're missing out. I'd like to make myself an Islamophobic baloney hero right now. With relish.
That's very funny, J. Still, we're all in prospect of being called "Islamophobic" in the near future when we patronise shops which sell anything not branded "halaal". I set out thinking to attempt a witty reply, but watch this space. The Islamic community has learnt that successful invasion not only need not, but should not, be preceded by fire and sword when rag-tag supplicants will do. The fire and sword can follow; political correctness will lay down the preliminary bombardments. Is it a conspiracy theory or a prediction in which I have just engaged, or merely the certainty of more of what has already befallen parts of Europe, a little of Minnesota and all of Britain? I wish I could answer that.
You are overlooking one sure sign of the creeping take-over, the ubiquitous "Indian" restaurant which keeps to the sunni side. Whatever happened to the resort city of Dearborn?
Grief, yes: Dearborn. Forgot about that. Well, add Michigan to the list. It is sure to grow longer.
Mark,
Regarding the former Danish West Indies, have you thought of doing anything by Henry S Whitehead (d. 1932)? A lot of his stories are set there, and it might serve to remind people of that forgotten corner of history, and add some context to the Donald's suggestion to purchase Greenland.
After The Wendigo, of course .....
That's what I get for commenting before listening to the entire audio, LOL -- anticipated Mark's "China's after Greenland" joke. I am learning, fellow club members, can't beat Mark!
"the Chinese are basically buying up everything they want around the world"....hmmmmm, suppose they're after Greenland? When global warming really kicks in, that'll be a very nice piece of real estate. Perhaps the Danish PM calling the idea of a US purchase "absurd" is a negotiating tactic....let the bidding begin!
Regarding the scam that is "refugee" resettlement, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is the poster child. (This is **aside** from her across-the-board vileness.)
See the second half of my VDARE blog entry "The 116th Congress: Ocasio-Cortez Elected From Rotten Borough, 'Refugee' Ilhan Omar Visits Somalia": https://vdare.com/posts/the-116th-congress-ocasio-cortez-elected-from-rotten-borough-refugee-ilhan-omar-visits-somalia
The data you quote pretty much confirms that the Somali refugee admittance policy is a crock and should be drastically reduced.
I suspect that any such humanitarian policy once begun requires strong force to curtail it since there are colonies of ancillary parasites resistant to any reduction in flow such as the untold legions of government bureaucrats, lawyers and NGOs sucking sustenance from the policy which feeds and enriches them. The more refugees admitted, the richer the parasites get. And it's wonderfully woke work because they can appear to be rescuing "refugees".
Mark, speaking of the UK, they seem ever more deeply implicated in the coup attempt on President Trump. What's our recourse here? I stopped taking them seriously with the rape gangs run amok and more recently the Robinson case. I'd have said just leaving them to their own leadership and the royal family would have been punishment enough a year ago, but with their subversive behavior against me and my President, I'm pretty damned pissed. Please advise.
When people casually mention the UK government, they are not referring to the puppets dancing in front of you, but rather the comrades who have full control. One such is Comrade Serwotka who runs the "Civil Service" responsible for so much. At a distance they resemble the English-speaking arm of the Dems.
You can still vote but it really doesn't matter.
Having achieved a record of free-trade accomplishments, in 1986 President Reagan said, "Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets." He also linked it far beyond economics and added, "I recognize ... the inescapable conclusion that all of history has taught: The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations."
The year the Berlin Wall fell, Francis Fukuyama's essay, "The End of History?" was published and three years later Fukuyama answered his own question with The End of History and the Last Man, saying that liberal democracy had won out, bringing a conclusive end to history, when defined as a series of battles/wars over the alternatives. In 1992 Nafta was created and by the end of the Nineties an echo of Fukuyama could be heard in the "New Economy", a mirage in which the business cycle was vanquished and full employment permanently reached. A short while later the dotcom bubble burst and the new economy hasn't been heard of since.
By threatening the existence of nation-states like the US, the Soviet Union kept nations it didn't devour, nations. After the dissolution of the USSR, a time period George Will has called our "holiday from history", the implementation of Reagan's vision was enthusiastically attempted via a series of free-trade agreements. During the rather uncritical evolution of free trade, the assumptions Reagan must have had about the sovereignty and indissolubity of the United States went missing. This has made even Reagan Republicans effectively globalists. China hasn't stopped being a nation. It is operating its own national interests methodically while we are making a foreign country out of ourselves.
I was in kindergarten when Reagan won his first presidential election in '80. He was very popular in my extended family, so of course, I admired him. In '88, my southern Republican classmates and I were far more enamored of Pat Buchanan than the future Bush-41 and supported the former's primary campaign versus the later in '92. By the time I could vote in '94, I was solidly an anti-Nafta, anti-interventionist Buchanan Republican.
Suffice it to say that I inherited a lot of Reagan's anti-Communist crusaderism, though. We should diverge our trade away from the ChiComs as quickly as possible, even if it swings a fair amount of it to communist Vietnam, a country who isn't very warm with their Maoist cousins to their north. We didn't conduct much trade with the Soviets, and there is no reason we should do so, or ever done so, with China. Giving them entrance to the WTO and an MFN trading relationship was the greatest blunder of the Bush-Clinton-Bush years.
As an interesting aside, a former grad school classmate of mine is up at the New York Fed. I think she was an author on that article claiming the end of the business cycle. She's now heading up something called the Applied Critical Thinking Function, which basically functions to tell the rest of the Fed that business cycles still exist. The fact that they need something like that is akin to the Government needing an ethics function.
Therein lies the trap of academia, which the Fed system basically is. As smart as she and a lot of those folks are, they are completely detached from reality when it comes to the economy and the Country in general. I think my old chum has been up there for over 20 years, never having held an actual job in the private sector. The place is loaded with people like that, either unable to make it in the private sector or unwilling to try. Same thing goes for every other think tank and foundation out there handing out advice. Trying to run the Country from a textbook. That may be why so many of them are freaked out by Trump. He's like the kid that never studies, seems to do everything wrong in the classroom and makes fun of the teacher. Yet he succeeds where the smart kids fail,
When JY was head of the Fed, interest rates were as close to zero as it was polite to go. Chairman Powell is doing the Dems' dirty work by needlessly raising rates in the hope of punishing the disposables who voted wrongly. In passing, the raised rates allowed the big US banks to get some back-door assistance, not that they really need it.
Sol, I fully agree with you both regarding US and China. Not only that I believe Xi Jinping the current leader of China policies are Pantheistic just listen to what is he saying and doing. I expect great future for China once they find way to correct the mistake of one child policy. I believe that correction of this mistake is possible the traditional way of changing behavior using the carrot and stick method. I find the declaration of President Trump that he is the chosen one to take on China on trade and will continue with it even if it will cause recession in the US as an another guarantee that he will not occupy the WH in 2021. He suffers from a full scale megalomania.
Great insert: thanks. What *I*S* it with Trudeau, anyway? How bad does it have to be before somebody responsible has him quarantined?
Segnes, You don't have to wait long only to the next election 2 month from now. As much as I hope the same as you, I think it will not get better just worse.
Thanks A. My frail little mind boggles.
Perhaps when he greets Jihad Jack at Trudeau Multicultural Airport, old Jack will self detonate, leaving Jack Squat.
Personally, I think Canadians should hold a contest to rename him. Not Trudeau (Fluffy Bunny) - but Jihad Jack. My choice is JJ. That way, when he runs for leader of the Liberal party against Omar he can be introduced as, "Please welcome, JJ." At which point all his political supporters can all jump up, and clap once, and yell, "Kid Dynomite!"
Clap? Jazz hands please.
Are you sure that JJ is really germane?
Mein Gott! :)
Well,... no. But without that, the end of my good times.