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What you want to say – 8th November, 2017 November 8, 2017

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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1. CL - November 8, 2017

Bill de Blasio re-elected Mayor of New York City.

“He is the anti-Trump, a self-styled progressive who is mayor of the president’s hometown and a prominent voice in the Democratic resistance to the White House..”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-york-mayor-election-20171107-story.html

“One in every 10 public school students was homeless at some point during the 2016-17 school year”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/nyregion/one-in-10-new-york-city-public-school-students-are-homeless.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=0230CAEA540D69449A6F937D25070F59&gwt=pay

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sonofstan - November 8, 2017

According to Shelter, 1/200 of UK population is homeless at any one time, rising to 1/59 in London and close to that in many parts of the SE. Anecdotal, but the amount of people I see here in Wycombe sleeping on the streets dwarfs what I see in Dublin.

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2. Paddy Healy - November 8, 2017

SR. STAN CALLS FOR STREET MASS MARCHES FOR THE HOMELESS

Read More https://wp.me/pKzXa-wc

“People ‘should be marching’ to protest at homelessness ”
Irish Examiner, Monday, November 06, By Caroline O’Doherty
“A leading campaigner on homelessness has said the plight of children growing up without homes is an evil that the public should be on the streets marching to oppose.”-IRISH EXAMINER

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3. Alibaba - November 8, 2017

Stuff I didn’t know about violation of human rights in relation to abortion where there is a fatal foetal abnormality diagnosis. Still, it strikes me as absurd that a woman denied abortion in this extreme situation still has to jump through all the hoops to get this settlement.

http://www.thejournal.ie/siobhan-whelan-compensation-payout-3685092-Nov2017/

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4. Paddy Healy - November 8, 2017

NEW WORSE FEMPI 2017 ANTI_UNION LAW OUT TODAY
Union Members will be Punished (increment freezes etc) unless THEIR UNION GIVES A POSITIVE UNDERTAKING TO ABIDE BY THE AGREEMENT to Government or ICTU
Under FEMPI 2015 one was only required to refrain from industrial action or from refraining from carrying out duties!!
OF COURSE THE ACT IS NOT AN AGREEMENT, It is an ACT. IT IS AN ACT THAT COERCES TRADE UNIONISTS BY LAW- AN ANTI-UNION ACT
THE ACT CONTINUES CONFISCATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IN PENSION for Pensions above 34,000 per annum
This includes Special Duties, Assistant Principal, Lecturers with full service

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Alibaba - November 8, 2017

Well said Paddy. As I understand it, previous FEMPI provisions in relation to pensions for public servants have hidden and dangerous prospects too.

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Paddy Healy - November 8, 2017

This is correct. I advisedly use the words above: “THE ACT CONTINUES CONFISCATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IN PENSION for Pensions above 34,000 per Annum”
“Confiscation” is the operative word. All of Pension entitlement is deferred pay in law. This includes the employer contribution which is temporarily witheld pay which has already been earned and therefore owned by the employee.
FEMPI HOWLIN Agreed with Seamus Healy in the Dáil that Pension “contributions to the emergency”(reductions) could not be imposed without the Financial Emergency declared in the FEMPI ACTS. This Emergency is re-declared before June 30 each year. This is required to enable “the exigency of the Common Good” to supersede the right to private property in the Irish Constitution.
While government declares such an emergency in the case of Pension, It refuses to formally declare a national housing emergency in order to enable “the exigency of the common good” to supersede the protection of private property in housing.
As a result the following anti-human incongruity exists in Irish Housing Law: A landlord owning more than ten rental properties can only offer vacan possession of a dwelling on sale of the dwelling if the landlord can secure a price of 20% above that to be secured with a sitting tenant. This was enacted Last December in The Planning , Development and Residential Tenancies Act.
Is Ireland a civilised Country? Incidentally the DemocraticProgramme of the First Dail positively put the right to human well being above the right to private property unlike the two more recent constitutions.

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O'Connor Lysaght - November 8, 2017

The trouble was that the Democratic Programme did not have the authority of a Constitution (nor, indeed, of a real programme) It was merely a gesture offered to Labour in exchange for getting international social democrat support for DE. The Dáil’s real social & economic programme had been passed at Sinn fein’s Convention in October 1917; it was quite in keeping with the subsequent Constitutions.

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Paddy Healy - November 8, 2017

Thanks Rayner So the Labour Fakers Got only a worthless Piece of Script????

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O'Connor Lysaght - November 8, 2017

Yes, Paddy. Actually tom Johnson’s original stressed a positive encouragement of co-operation, but this was edited out of the draft ratifies by DE.

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5. CL - November 8, 2017
6. sonofstan - November 8, 2017

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/nov/08/priti-patel-secret-israel-meetings-politics-live

International Development secretary ‘not really aware’ of sensitivities over Golan Heights and doesn’t bother to check with FO. Right.

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irishelectionliterature - November 8, 2017

An incredible shambles. Looks like May could be in trouble over this too.

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Michael Carley - November 8, 2017

And she proposed to give international development aid to the Israeli army.

I got 3/1 with Paddy Power on Patel being next out of the cabinet.

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crocodileshoes - November 8, 2017

She’s offered a ‘fulsome’ apology. I bet she has.

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EWI - November 8, 2017

She’s offered a ‘fulsome’ apology. I bet she has.

She’s the former deputy leader of ‘Conservatives for Israel’, so she can’t claim that the Golan Heights issues are a mystery to her.

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sonofstan - November 8, 2017

I expect Boris’ letter of resignation will be free of such solecisms. There’ll probably be some latin too.

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Michael Carley - November 8, 2017

“Habeas corpus” and “sub judice” with any luck.

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sonofstan - November 9, 2017

I’m not a vindictive man, but the thought of Boris being led away in handcuffs is enormously cheering.

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7. Michael Carley - November 9, 2017

Watching Gary Younge’s programme about white America on Channel 4: Richard Spencer is terrifying.

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8. Starkadder - November 9, 2017

Fascinating article about how L. Ron Hubbard created Scientology here:

Xenu’s Paradox: The Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard and the Making of Scientology

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9. CL - November 10, 2017

‘It is “likely” EU leaders will give the green light for Brexit talks to focus on trade, at their meeting next month, the Irish prime minister has said….
He said it would not be possible to settle the question of the border with Northern Ireland until the shape of the future EU-UK relationship emerges.’
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41917200

That was yesterday. And today..

‘The EU is demanding Britain accept that Northern Ireland may need to remain inside the European customs union and single market after Brexit in order to avoid “a hard border on the island of Ireland”….
The explicit mention of an “all-island” approach by Dublin and Brussels directly contradicts the UK position and will infuriate the Democratic Unionist party,…
The commission stance on the potential need for an all-island regulatory solution reflects the hardening position in Dublin over border issues as the Brexit divorce negotiations enter a critical phase…
One senior EU official said the Irish felt they were reaching a point of “maximum leverage” and were “really worried” by the UK position, which insists the Irish border questions can only be fully addressed through a UK-EU trade deal.’
https://www.ft.com/content/9e11bdcc-c585-11e7-b2bb-322b2cb39656

This report from the commission directly contradicts Varadkar’s statement. Varadkar is stating what the EU is describing as the ‘UK position’.. So ‘the Irish’, according to the EU official are ‘really worried’ by Varadkar’s, and the UK’s, position. Clarification is needed.

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10. Michael Carley - November 10, 2017

I’ve just discovered my Hitler number is equal to my Erdos number.

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FergusD - November 10, 2017

OK, I have looked up “Erdos number”, I guess mine is infinity. But what is a “Hitler number”?

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Michael Carley - November 10, 2017

Number of people on a string of direct contacts from me to Hitler …

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11. sonofstan - November 10, 2017

According to the IT, Irish unis are to be allowed break the PS salary cap and go to up to 250k for ‘top academics’. Obviously a hostile brexit move, but salaries in the sector in Ireland are already appreciably higher than in the UK and in most US institutions: what needs to improve is the research culture and consequent reputation of the Irish universities. Very easy to see how this will translate into an argument for higher fees.

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Michael Carley - November 10, 2017

I reckon that won’t be the cap for “top academics” but for “university leaders”. You might have noticed my union branch has been causing trouble about university executives’ pay for a while now (speech in the Commons and everything) because top pay in the UK is filthily high.

Academic pay in Ireland is quite high compared to the UK (though you need to look at rates of casualization as well) but the heads of institutions are paid much less than their UK equivalents and not significantly more than the top academics. The Provost of Trinity is on 199k euro; my boss in Bath is on just short of 500k pounds.

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sonofstan - November 10, 2017

And our boss, in a failing institution is on way more than the bould Paddy Prendergast as well – though not as eyewatering as in your place.

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Michael Carley - November 10, 2017

Things here are now so embarrassing that last night the local Council, Tory-led, passed a motion expressing its dismay at the massive inequality at the university.

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sonofstan - November 10, 2017

Cognitive dissonance, wha’?

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sonofstan - November 19, 2017
12. GW - November 10, 2017

An EC paper is apparently echoing SF’s special status proposals for the North:

… a leaked European Commission paper proposes an all-island approach to Brexit to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Under the proposals, Northern Ireland would remain inside the customs union and regulatory framework of the European Union, which would mean there would be no border on the island of Ireland, and would instead be one in the Irish sea.

Which could well work, and the article notes that most people in the UK wouldn’t have a problem with it.

But it won’t happen. Because it’s Brexit and the workable is a priori excluded, and because DUP.

Instead let’s rely on magical invisible borders where customs and immigration pixies sprinkle bad things with sparkly ‘no-problem’ dust as they pass through.

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CL - November 10, 2017

A peculiarity of this report is that the position taken by the ‘Irish’ mentioned in it is different from Varadkar’s most recent position.
‘It is “likely” EU leaders will give the green light for Brexit talks to focus on trade, at their meeting next month, the Irish prime minister has said.’
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41917200

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CL - November 10, 2017

‘While Ireland backed the EU’s stance, Varadkar set out on Friday a more nuanced proposal, suggesting Northern Ireland could play by the same rules as the Republic of Ireland, even if it left Europe’s customs union as the U.K. intends’
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-10/brexit-dilemma-hurtles-toward-ireland-to-veto-or-not-to-veto

Looks like they’re inching towards some kind of resolution, and will announce ‘sufficient progress’ has been made and proceed to phase two. Time is running out.

‘The Prime Minister announced plans to amend the EU Withdrawal Bill to make it absolutely clear that Britain’s exit will come at 11pm on Friday 29 March 2019.’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-news-theresa-may-eu-withdrawal-bill-date-time-law-march-2019-government-talks-a8047661.html

Since its not in anyone’s interest for the UK to crash out without a deal a way will most likely be found to proceed.

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Not a bit Hegel - November 10, 2017

Hm – I’m not so sure – I tend to subscribe to the 80% cockup and 20% conspiracy theory of politics.

The room for cock-up here is enormous. And there’s very little time.

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13. Starkadder - November 10, 2017

Shame on Leo Varadkar for violating the Dail’s ban on political symbols by wearing that Symbol of British Empire militarism, the red Poppy:

http://www.thejournal.ie/leo-varadkar-poppy-shamrock-3684354-Nov2017/

You’d don’t have to have any Republican sympathies to find what Varadkar did disgraceful. Imagine what would happen if someone in the Dail wore a “Repeal the Eight” badge!

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CL - November 10, 2017

‘Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been praised by unionist politicians in the North for wearing a ‘shamrock poppy’ in recognition of the Irish soldiers who fought and died in World War I….
Addressing his decision to wear the badge, the Taoiseach posted on Twitter: “History is the study of the future”
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/unionists-praise-taoiseach-for-shamrock-poppy-36303437.html

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makedoanmend - November 10, 2017

“History is a study of the future.”

So brave working class people will once again get the opportunity to be needlessly sacrificed and slaughtered for colonial capital? Some future. Some PR twaddle from a self promoting PR specialist.

They glory in gore. I’m sure those slaughtered wouldn’t be so appreciative that they’ve been turned into cheap political capital either.

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makedoanmend - November 10, 2017

“Eugene V. Debs delivered the speech that landed him in jail 99 years ago today. We reprint it here in full.”

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/06/eugene-debs-world-war-i-jail-canton

“The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose — especially their lives.”

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EWI - November 11, 2017

I’m sure those slaughtered wouldn’t be so appreciative that they’ve been turned into cheap political capital either.

It’s notable that this revisionism of WWI – poppy fascism and all – only really got started after Harry Patch, the last surviving British soldier, had safely died.

When the war ended, I don’t know if I was more relieved that we’d won or that I didn’t have to go back. Passchendaele was a disastrous battle – thousands and thousands of young lives were lost. It makes me angry. Earlier this year, I went back to Ypres to shake the hand of Charles Kuentz, Germany’s only surviving veteran from the war. It was emotional. He is 107. We’ve had 87 years to think what war is. To me, it’s a licence to go out and murder. Why should the British government call me up and take me out to a battlefield to shoot a man I never knew, whose language I couldn’t speak? All those lives lost for a war finished over a table. Now what is the sense in that?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article500239.ece

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14. ar scáth a chéile - November 10, 2017

Softest of softball interviews with Samantha Power on Late Late Show. Missed the start but don’t expect there were any questions on Libya or obama’s drone assassination programme

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15. Michael Carley - November 11, 2017

From the department of “ah now really?”:

In an ‘all island’ solution, Leo Varadkar is now insisting Ulster remain part of the single market and customs union while the rest of Britain leaves it.

Ministers have told The Sun that the Irish PM has only been forced to adopt the stand under heavy political pressure from Gerry Adams’ Sinn Fein.

His Republican party are set to make big gains in new elections to the Dail, which could some soon if Mr Varadkar’s weak Fine Gael government collapses.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4889870/iras-political-wing-sinn-fein-to-blame-for-new-brexit-stand-off-over-northern-ireland-border-ministers-say/

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makedoanmend - November 11, 2017

but,but…but it’s the Sun – it only prints the truth – Murdoch says so

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sonofstan - November 11, 2017

It’s because you can only explain the unknown – politics in ‘southern’ Ireland – by reference to the known: i.e. Gerry. I’m surprised Bono or Graham Norton wasn’t wheeled in to complete the set of things the Sun reader knows about Ireland.

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WorldbyStorm - November 11, 2017

+1 SOS

That has to be the most deceitful analysis in the Sun of contemporary Irish politics I’ve ever seen.

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16. Starkadder - November 11, 2017

Clip of Ronan Mullen asking for money for the anti-abortion movement in the US:

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O'Connor Lysaght - November 11, 2017

/Users/imac/Desktop/Kevin McMahon Memorial Lecture – 17th November 2017.pdf

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17. ivorthorne - November 11, 2017

Did the Irish Sun carry the silly story about SF being responsible for the government’s stance on the border?

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WorldbyStorm - November 11, 2017

Great question.

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18. CL - November 12, 2017

“Tens of thousands of people joined nationalist marchers waving flags and burning flares in Warsaw on Saturday during protests held on Poland’s independence day.
Protesters carried banners that read “White Europe, Europe must be white,” and “Pray for an Islamic Holocaust.”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/12/europe/poland-warsaw-nationalist-march/index.html

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CL - November 12, 2017

Meanwhile in Indonesia:

” bowing to international outrage, the museum has removed one historical wax figure from its menagerie of selfie-ready celebrity statues: Adolf Hitler.
Particularly, a gallantly posed fuhrer standing in front of a backdrop of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The picture, seen in an uncountable number of selfies with De MATA’s grinning visitors, contains the infamous sign above the camp’s front gate: “Arbeit Macht Frei” — “work sets you free.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/museum-didn-t-think-hitler-statue-problem-until-selfies-indonesia-asia-latest-a8050551.html

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19. CL - November 12, 2017

“A Derry woman and her American husband have won their appeal against the UK Home Office’s decision to reject their visa application after the woman refused to call herself British….
Under the Belfast Agreement people born in Northern Ireland can choose to be British citizens, Irish citizens or have dual citizenship.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/couple-wins-appeal-for-visa-after-derry-wife-refuses-to-identify-as-british-1.3288670

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20. Joe - November 12, 2017

Labour has come up with a plan to save itself … by saving everything else. Three posters from Labour ex TDs in Dublin over the last few weeks: Save Donaghmede Library; Save Phibsboro Post Office; Save St Anne’s Park.

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sonofstan - November 13, 2017

So I went a-googling to find out what it was that St. Anne’s was thretened with and discovered in passing that it was the last redoubt of the red squirrel in Dublin, but that the russet creature had been all but replaced by its grey cousin since the arrival of same in the late ’90s. There’s a strained metaphor regarding the LP in there somewhere……

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EWI - November 13, 2017

Well, they’ve entirely failed to save the (red) Rabbette and Stagg, so little hope for the red squirrel…

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makedoanmend - November 13, 2017

“There’s a strained metaphor regarding the LP in there somewhere…”

Could be clouding the issue, but I remember having a good chuckle when a friend watching a squirrel in Central Park said that squirrels were really just rats with good PR.

Is that it?

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Joe - November 13, 2017

Don’t know if you found it on google SoS but bits of St Anne’s are being sold off and built on – houses. The bits that are being sold belong to the priests that own the St Paul’s school I think.

On squirrels – when the young lad moved to Toronto, we used to beg him for a bit of news or sca. All we’d get was ‘things are fine, place is cool, job is going ok’. Then one day at the end of an email, we got some news: ‘Oh, I have some news, squirrels are black here’.

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21. sonofstan - November 13, 2017

Is the general hostility to grey squirrels xenophobic?

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Joe - November 13, 2017

Depends whether you want the Christian Brothers history or the revisionist one. The CB history people hate the greys cos they were introduced here from Protestant America by some Anglo-Irish planter aristocrat, released into a garden in Longford as a present for his wife on her birthday or some such. The grey interloper proceeded to outcompete our lovely, cuddly, gaelic speaking, Catholic red.
The revisionists then come out with one rat with a furry tail is the same as the next.
It’s a great media story though, keeps on cropping up. One of the latest things I’ve read is that the red is making a comeback since the pine marten was made a protected species and made their own comeback. The theory is that the grey, being a wee bit heavier than the red, is getting gobbled up by the pine marten. The red escapes cos he can go onto tiny light branches that the grey and the pine marten can’t reach.
Btw, the black squirrel in Canada is just a grey with a black coat if you follow. For some reason, the coat becomes black somewhere near the US/Canada border.

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sonofstan - November 13, 2017

The greys are similarly dominant here in Godless Albion. I walk through a park on my way to work every morning and see – or saw until recently, since I assume they’re by now hibernating – the greys doing their tree rat thing. Have yet to see a red one……

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Joe - November 13, 2017
sonofstan - November 13, 2017

“However, in winter they are far less active, sleeping for long periods, sometimes several days at a time, and they are less frequently spotted during this season”

I don’t blame them. It’s freezing here today. I blame the EU – come the glorious day we’ll take back control fo the thermostat

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GW - November 14, 2017

Both species are a pleasure to observe, but I have a preference for the red on purely aesthetic grounds.

We’ve a pair that often visit the the trees at the back of our block of flats. I don’t know to what extent they are ‘urbanised’ and live of human food that’s dropped and to what extent of nuts etc.

I vaguely recall newer research that suggests they can’t remember where they’ve buried their nuts and end up digging up each others. A kind of commanage.

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22. Tomboktu - November 13, 2017

Short notice, but I think some people here might be interested

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23. Tomboktu - November 13, 2017

Michael Taft’s blog is back today, and very welcome it is.

http://notesonthefront.typepad.com/politicaleconomy/2017/11/early-rising.html

(I notice it no longer has the Unite tagline.)

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Alibaba - November 13, 2017

Thanks for the heads up on that.

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WorldbyStorm - November 13, 2017

That is great news.

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GW - November 14, 2017

That’s great – I just headed over and thanks for the heads-up.

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24. Tomboktu - November 13, 2017

BBC Radio 4 news making play of the fact that the Lord Mayor of Dublin is a Sinn Fein councillor in the story about Bob Geldof handing back his freedom of the city.

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CL - November 13, 2017

“Councillor Micheal Mac Donncha said it was “ironic” that Geldof was keeping his honorary knighthood despite the UK’s “shameful record” of imperialism.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41974180

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EWI - November 13, 2017

‘Sir’ Bob getting a rough time of it on Irish social media today.

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CL - November 13, 2017

‘On Saturday, Dublin paid tribute to the struggle for human rights and home-grown rock music by bestowing the freedom of the city on the band (U2) and Burmese (Myanmar) democratic opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi….
There are reports that Bono and fellow Irish rocker Bob Geldof may be in the running for a Nobel peace prize next year for their work in highlighting the campaign to cancel Third World debt.” March 2000
http://www.u2france.com/actu/Irish-Echo-Bono-and-the-Boys-Get,31408.html

‘“Wasn’t professional tax avoider Bono issued the Freedom of Dublin City on the exact same day as Aung San Suu Kyi, ,,, Did Bob include that in his statement, just curious like?”
asked an annoyingly inquisitive member of the public interviewed by WWN, who clearly wasn’t getting the significance of whatever the fuck Geldof was trying to do.
http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2017/11/13/bob-geldof-returns-his-freedom-of-who-the-fuck-cares/

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Tomboktu - November 13, 2017
25. CL - November 14, 2017

“Democratic Socialism Is Having a Very Good Year at the Ballot Box
They’re singing “Solidarity Forever” and winning elections in states across the country.”
“Carter said of the party establishment: “I’m to the left of them on economic policy. I am unabashedly pro-union, pro-worker. I’m openly fighting against the large corporate interests.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/democratic-socialism-is-having-a-very-good-year-at-the-ballot-box/

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26. Michael Carley - November 14, 2017

Review of Malachi O’Doherty’s biography of Gerry Adams (sub or registration needed to read it all):

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n22/owen-bennett-jones/i-only-want-to-keep-my-hand-in

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CL - November 14, 2017

Roy Foster’s take:

‘I once made the faux pas of trying to explain to a Park Avenue matron that her recent guest Mr Adams was not exactly Nelson Mandela and received very short shrift indeed.
O’Doherty has conducted many penetrating interviews, and used to good effect the controversial recordings of participants made by Boston College, where people said more than they might have, under the mistaken impression that their confidences were embargoed….
Sinn Fein are stealing the clothes of the Irish Labour Party as they stole those of the SDLP. ‘
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/gerry-adams-from-jail-to-the-dail/

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EWI - November 14, 2017

Roy Foster’s take:

MI5 getting their money’s worth again, I see.

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27. FergusD - November 14, 2017

Saw a headline on the print version of the Daily Telegraph today, “Global warming means fewer (elderly?) will die in the winter”. That’s good of course. So global warming is a good thing, for the UK.

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sonofstan - November 14, 2017

They know their readers

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CL - November 14, 2017

And to those sleeping outside this winter:

Remember its colder on Mars.

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28. Dr. X - November 14, 2017

Strong reports (and images) of military on the streets in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. Who has ordered or organized this one, or what the outcomes will be, is anyone’s guess at this point.

This is all part of the last act of the Mugabe era, but whether it’s quite the final curtain is not yet clear. The background is the factionalisation of ZANU-PF, which led last week to the hurried exile of Mugabe’s deputy, Emmerson Mnangawana, at the behest of eminence gris (and likely next president, until today) Grace Mugabe. General Chiwenga of the ZDF made a speech yesterday talking about the need to ‘defend the revolution’ (i.e. defend it from the likes of Grace M.), with all that that implies. . .

This one has the potential to turn bad very quickly, and bad for ordinary people most of all. Watch this space. . .

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CL - November 14, 2017

‘For most investors around the world, bitcoin is a volatile and highly speculative bet. For Zimbabweans, however, the cryptocurrency seems to offer rare protection from the onset of hyperinflation and financial implosion.’
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zimbabwe-bitcoin/think-bitcoins-getting-expensive-try-zimbabwe-idUSKBN1DD0NF

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29. Roger Irrelevant - November 14, 2017

Does anyone have a link to the Christian Aid report to the new form of corporate ‘single malt’ tax avoidance being developed as a successor to the ‘Double Irish’ as mentioned in this Irish Times article which solipsistically only links to, you’ve guessed it, the Irish Times site.

Boy are the IT desperate, in many senses of the word.

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30. sonofstan - November 14, 2017

Scum remain scum.
Apparently the tories in Kensington and Chelsea have been surveying residents to find out how important certain issues are to them, on a scale of one to ten. Including Grenfell and its aftermath – from ‘not important at all’ to ‘very important’

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31. EWI - November 14, 2017

Trump’s resident Klansman at the US DOJ has been busy:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was not aware of the largely-white extremist group “sovereign citizens” targeting law enforcement officials, but said that he believed black extremist groups had, even though he couldn’t name one such group off the top of his head during a House Judiciary hearing Tuesday.

Sessions was being grilled by Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) about an internal report the Justice Department issued in August in which the FBI said “black identity extremists” had engaged in “in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement.” She asked him if he considered Black Lives Matter an extremist group.

“I’m not able to comment on that. I have not so declared it,” Sessions said.

Sessions said he had not read the Justice Department report and he was not sure who ordered it. He did say he knew of “some of the alleged targeting of officers by certain groups.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/sessions-black-lives-matter-extremist-group

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32. yourcousin - November 19, 2017

“Don’t mourn, organise.”

Joe Hill

Think he might have been onto something 🤔

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