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What you want to say – 15th November, 2017 November 15, 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 15, 2017

“The chair of the Housing Agency.. Conor Skehan said homelessness …. was normal.”
the head of policy and communications at the Simon Communities..
Niamh Randall said…we were in danger of normalising the homeless and housing crises….
She said… that we needed to decide if we are an economy or a society.”
https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/1113/919642-homelessness/

“Volunteers giving food to homeless ‘not helpful’…
Long-term homelessness results from years of ‘bad behaviour’, says official…
Homeless people are “quite happy to continue with the chaotic lifestyle they have”, Dublin Region Homeless Executive director Eileen Gleeson said
Volunteer groups who are handing out food and clothing on the streets to long-term homeless people are not helping them, a senior local authority officials has said.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/volunteers-giving-food-to-homeless-not-helpful-1.3292063?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fvolunteers-giving-food-to-homeless-not-helpful-1.3292063

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sonofstan - November 15, 2017

Jesus.

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makedoanmend - November 15, 2017

Sad.

I remember in my relative youth when being called a cowboy (a la Reaganesque irrational desire to turn all to gold and to hell with the consequences) was considered a sort of an insult.

Well, the cowboys and girls are firmly in control of Ranch Ireland. Their head cowpoke personifies their desires.

And who doesn’t love the cowpoke who fights off them horrible and backward injun types?

Can’t say I’m really vindictive, but I do wish just one of the numerous people who justify homeless would themselves become homeless. I wonder would they write the same opinionoid pieces given their new and natural situation?

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makedoanmend - November 15, 2017

Oh, and thanks for the links CL.

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2. fergal - November 15, 2017

This is profoundly shocking but maybe not surprising- how often as an ordinary citizen have I heard so-called public servants despise the public they serve, deride state intervention(!) and champion an obsession of the free market bordering on the psychotic. Niamh Randall is the person talking sense here. In a way the experts always know best, always..
The banks are more or less nationalised…apart from saddling the state with a huge bill has it made any difference on the ground at all?

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sonofstan - November 15, 2017

Now that the right are firmly back in control fo the agenda we’re going to see a lot more of this naked tory-ism pushing against the more traditional Irish social settlement of inadequate structural care mitigated by voluntary and church efforts. We going to start hearing about how the crash was caused by government spending rather than by the banks, and how it is ‘essential’ to keep a tight rein on the finances, based on the false equivalence between taxes and spending. But hey, recovery!

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CL - November 15, 2017

Led by middle class experts the descent into barbarism is underway.

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3. Paddy Healy - November 15, 2017

We Must Emulate the Mass Movement Against Water Charges in a New Campasign to House Our People
Decalare a National Housing Emergency https://wp.me/pKzXa-Rd
THERE IS ALMOST NOTHING HAPPENING IN SOCIAL HOUSING-It seems we are in a mad situation where the (government) strategy is not to build local authority housing at all across the country.”-Architect Mel Reynolds, Property Consultant.
“These figures are very poor,” said Mr Reynolds. “You really have to wonder is this policy. Take Kildare, which is a wealthy county, full of commuter towns to Dublin and it has almost 7,000 households on the list. The council has not built one unit since January 2016.
“This is not just one or two councils under-performing in the last few months. This is consistent, across the board, widespread and long-term. There is almost nothing happening in social housing. It seems we are in a mad situation where the strategy is not to build local authority housing at all across the country.”
Speculating as to whether there was an unspoken policy to “hope the private sector will sort it all out”, he said Dublin was “particularly severely affected”.
“The private sector is only building for the top 20 per cent of the market. Dublin is now unaffordable for the majority, to buy or rent.”-Kitty Holland, Irish Times 15/11/2017

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dublinstreams - November 16, 2017

with water cahrges people had an expectation of a charge and physical intersection element outside their house, where is the charge and physical intersection with homeless/unaffordable rents?

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Paddy Healy - November 16, 2017

From the point of view of organising mass agitation there are indeed important differences. In addition to the fact that most people are not affected by the housing crisis, there is the problem that those who are affected are often reluctant to take a stand because their family including school-going children may suffer public humiliation.
However, public disgust has now reached such a level that an appeal to human solidarity is becoming effective. ICTU has now called for declaration of a housing emergency and an urgent programme of building social housing. A housing advisory body to ICTU has recommended a national day of action on housing.

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4. Paddy Healy - November 15, 2017

Example of County Tipperary
Housing Emergency-How are You?
Co Tipperary-No Social or Affordable House Completed in the Entire County This Year!!! There will be 22 completed next year. But these were planned 5 Years Ago!!

GENERAL STRIKE, FORMAL DECLARATION OF NATIONAL HOUSING EMERGENCY BY GOVERNMENT NEEDED TO STOP EVICTIONS, REPOSSESSIONS, TERMINATION OF TENANCIES AND TO ENABLE COMPULSORY PURCHASE ORDERS FOR VACANT PROPERTIES


IT is the fault of this and the previous Fine Gael-Labour government! These Governments ensured it would take 3 years at least to take a new local authority house from planning to completion.!
Government is deliberately obstructing social housing.
Government then say there is plenty of money available and blame the local authority.
This is government lies and savage treatment of those in need of social housing

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EWI - November 15, 2017

Government is deliberately obstructing social housing.
Government then say there is plenty of money available and blame the local authority.

True.

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CL - November 15, 2017

‘ house prices are not out of line with economic fundamentals…
Irish houses are not overvalued’-ESRI.

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EWI - November 15, 2017

The very same ESRI whose director claimed in that recent Australian lecture that ‘nobody could have known’ that house prices could go down, as well as up.

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Paddy Healy - November 16, 2017

Remember Dr John “The Soft Landing” Fitzgerald
He has been canonised by the because he admitted his error!!!
There is no smell off his You No What!!!

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fergal - November 15, 2017

This is more of it isn’t it? More experts- employed by the state- to tell us what we ‘should’ know. Where oh where is the ‘social’ in the ESRI?- cos their reports read like blatant cheer-leading for the landlord/propertied class.
Continuing in the same ‘we know what’s good for you’ vein wasn’t the ‘reaction’- and reaction it was- to the Apollo House act of civic disobedience telling..many experts telling the occupiers that they didn’t know what they were doing, that they weren’t really helping. Cllr Mannix Flynn was particularly vocal on this. Yet,isn’t this phase of the housing crisis an indictment of all those involved in housing- whatever you claim to be doing ….isn’t working!
The proliferation of charities in any part of society means that the state has abdicated its social role- if there were no charities and housing was a right provided by and backed up by the state with all its laws and powers to back up this right- would we have so many homeless- now what used to be a ‘right’ is dependent on the kindness of strangers

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WorldbyStorm - November 15, 2017

+1 re point re charities. Absolutely agree (it’s not their fault as such but there’s the potential for them to relieve the state of its responsibilities by default – there’s other issues with charities too but that’s for another post).

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dublinstreams - November 16, 2017

Gov might not be able to use the off book approved housing bodies (charities) now too https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/social-housing-targets-at-risk-if-state-funding-reclassified-1.3291961

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GW - November 15, 2017

Such a campaign would really get traction, IMO, perhaps even more than the water campaign.

And expose even deeper the inability of neo-lib governance to provide the basics for their citizens.

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CL - November 16, 2017

‘SOLIDARITY TDS HAVE launched a Bill that aims to prevent the installation of anti-homeless devices or so-called ‘defensive architecture’….
TD Ruth Coppinger called such devices “disgusting, inhumane and cruel”.
What exactly does the phrase ‘defensive architecture’ mean? It means installing devices such as sprinklers to saturate a homeless person if they have the audacity to seek shelter in the doorway of an empty building. They are defending nothing, they are anti-homeless devices.’
http://www.thejournal.ie/anti-homeless-devices-solidarity-3700231-Nov2017/

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5. Paddy Healy - November 15, 2017

Fr McVerry on TodaySOR has just Exposed Taoiseach Veradkar’s shameful falsehood on Irish Homelessness being low by International Standards. https://wp.me/pKzXa-Rd
Other Countries include couch surfers, people staying with relatives etc. THE OECD REPORT SAYS THEY SHOULDN’T BE COMPARED BECAUSE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES USE DIFFERENT CRITERIA

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Paddy Healy - November 16, 2017

Veradkar! You Should Apologise To The Homeless!—Seamus Healy TD Speaking in Dáil

Listen Live https://youtu.be/nREatUQsQVI

Seamus Healy TD Transcript of Dáil Speech
The Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, must issue a public apology to homeless families, children and individuals. The Taoiseach’s dishonesty is breathtaking, and he and his Government are homelessness deniers. He deliberately and dishonestly abused an OECD report to deny and downplay the housing and homelessness emergency. The OECD report specifically states that its findings must not be used for comparison purposes. The statistics are not and never were comparable from one country to another. Into the bargain, the statistics are two years old. The Taoiseach must be called out on this issue and must do the decent thing and issue an apology.(more on voice at the link above))

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6. wolfie - November 15, 2017

I have been looking at Scottish Water and most of their contracts seem to be Permanent – Engineering Graduate/Admin.Asst./Chrtd.Town Planner/Tanker Driver. The pay does not seem good, but it is the ‘permanent’ aspect that seems odd?
The Business Admin./Cust.Serv.Advisors, are contract ‘Modern Apprentice type and Fixed Term Contract.
Are these ‘public’ companies, actually unionised?

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Michael Carley - November 15, 2017

“Permanent” doesn’t mean that much, given that dismissal by reason of redundancy is so easy. In practice, it gives slightly more security than a fixed term contract, especially one of less than two years, but not very much more.

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7. sonofstan - November 15, 2017

I’m probably much too easily impressed by some of the stuff I’m reading on big data/ AI etc at the minute, but this popped out at me just now as a pretty wow! thing to know:

To simulate the Universe in every detail since time began, the computer would have to have 10 [to the power of 90]
bits – binary digits, or devices capable of storing a 1 or a 0 – and it would have to perform 10 [to the power of 120]
manipulations of those bits. Unfortunately there are probably only around 10 [to the power of 80] elementary
particles in the Universe. (Ball [2002, June 3]).

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8. Tomboktu - November 15, 2017

Before announcing the result in Canberra last night (Irish time), the Australian Statistician (what a title!) acknowledged “the traditional custodians of the land, paying my respects to elders past and present”.

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sonofstan - November 15, 2017

That lecture I posted by Frances Ruane in Melbourne was intro’d with a similar acknowledgement. Seems to be the Australian version of the Cúpla Focail ar dtus

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sonofstan - November 15, 2017

And they do much the same in Canada, I think

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WorldbyStorm - November 15, 2017

In a weird way though it isn’t the worst thing, better than when there was no acknowledgement at all.

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Joe - November 15, 2017

That Australian Statistician, he worked his way up through the ranks. He started off as the Australian Liar. The he got promoted to the Australian Damn Liar. And finally he got promoted to the top job.

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Tomboktu - November 16, 2017
9. EWI - November 15, 2017

The noose draws ever closer for the Trumpistas:

As far back as May, intelligence professionals from the top tier of CIA have been publicly warning Congress, not merely about the danger of espionage, but about the danger of people who had committed espionage without knowing it. The former head of the CIA, John Brennan, told Congress that Russian intelligence was working to recruit spies within the Trump campaign “either in a witting or unwitting fashion.”

“Frequently,” Brennan told the House Intelligence Committee, “individuals who go along a treasonous path do not even realize they’re along that path until it gets to be a bit too late.”

Sipher said Brenann’s line “jumped out at [intelligence professionals] like a bolt from the blue. He had crafted that.”

As for the president himself, Sipher said, would probably not make a good asset. “Trump is the perfect mark in the sense that his ego is totally out of control and sleazy and willing to cut corners to make money,” Sipher said. “But you can’t control him. He doesn’t follow orders.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/manafort-page-papadopoulos-spies-like-us

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dublinstreams - November 16, 2017

surely this was apparent well before the election what did the great CIA do to stop it?

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EWI - November 18, 2017

surely this was apparent well before the election what did the great CIA do to stop it?

I think the ‘great CIA’ hoped that Trump would lose and the problem would go away. The US intelligence clearly was aware of what was going on, but now they need to gather evidence by overt means.

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10. irishelectionliterature - November 16, 2017

Exhibition about Youth Sub cultures in the Waterford area during the 80’s. Anyone been?
http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/we-are-the-mods-new-exhibition-shows-irish-youth-sub-cultures-in-1980s-462748.html

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sonofstan - November 16, 2017

Looks great. I remember Waterford in the eighties being, in odd ways, a lot more ‘urban’ than other, bigger Irish cities. Industrial, with the glass factory, a football town, and the port. One of the biker clubs used to run gigs in a venue, the name of which I’ve forgotten, at which we played despite us not being remotely the sort of thing you’d imagine an MCC would be into.

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sonofstan - November 16, 2017

“more ‘urban’ ”

And a sticky TD of course.

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11. Liberius - November 17, 2017

Twenty-three countries have declared they will participate in a new EU defense cooperation pact, part of a broader push to advance European integration, officials said Monday…

…All EU countries except Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Malta and Portugal said Monday they would sign up to the pact, which will be officially launched at a summit next month. By the time of the summit, diplomats expect only Britain, Denmark and Malta not to be involved.

Interesting that, I’ve not had a comprehensive look at all the media on this but the IT’s piece on it a few days ago framed it in terms of a decision still to be made as opposed to this which implies it is practically a fait accompli.

https://www.politico.eu/article/federica-mogherini-defense-hails-historic-eu-defense-pact-as-23-countries-sign-up/

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/greater-military-co-operation-under-pesco-presents-range-of-costs-1.3291783

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Liberius - November 17, 2017

I see RBB asked a question about it on Tuesday.

President Macron has made it clear that he supports, as do a number of other EU leaders, the move towards the creation of an EU army or military intervention force and a shared defence budget. The PESCO agreement, which they want to sign off on in December, is a step towards that. What President Macron and other European leaders think is clear. How does the suggestion that we may sign up to aspects of this agreement square with our tradition and position of military neutrality? The Taoiseach has made distinctions between a common foreign and security policy and involvement in a European military force or contributing to a defence budget. However, signing up to an agreement of this nature, a common foreign and security policy and pledges to progressively increase military expenditure hardly seem to be in line with protecting our neutrality, particularly when the architects and supporters of what is proposed are saying explicitly that it is a step towards the creation of a European army and a European common defence. Is talking about signing up to this not backdoor abandonment of our tradition of military neutrality?

Varadkar responded with this;

On PESCO, we have not yet made a decision, either as a Government and as a country, regarding whether we want to participate. We want to see the full details before we make that decision. It will require a decision at Cabinet followed by a decision of the Dáil, so there will certainly be consultation with the major Opposition parties before a decision is made. We are favourably disposed towards it. I strongly believe that countries need to work together to respond to the new security threats we face in the modern world. I refer to; international terrorism; cyber attacks, which nearly brought down health IT systems just across the water; uncontrolled mass migration; and trafficking of drugs and people. All of these things require co-operation across the Continent. They are not something that any nation state, even a big one, can manage on its own.

That isn’t consistent with what the diplomats are saying according to the Politico report.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2017-11-14a.152&s=PESCO#g164

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EWI - November 18, 2017

That isn’t consistent with what the diplomats are saying according to the Politico report.

The plan then appears to be run out the clock, and sign at the last moment.

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GW - November 20, 2017

Wanted to write about this but didn’t get time. It is imporant.

Essentially the EU is willing to engage in military Keynsianism but consistently refuses to expand social and environmental investment.

Shooting and bombing will remain the prerogative of NATO under the commander-in-chief with the dodgy hair.

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Liberius - November 23, 2017

Paul Kehoe said this on Tuesday in the Dáil;

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the important issue of PESCO. I am happy to inform the House that the Government earlier today approved for the formal notification by Ireland of our intention to participate, subject to Dáil Éireann’s approval of same. I will bring this issue to the House shortly. All of us here are fully aware that threats to international peace and security are complex, multidimensional, interrelated and transnational in nature. The ever-changing complex and intertwined nature of threats to our citizens, individual states and to international peace and security must be acknowledged. As I have stated many times in this House, no country acting alone can address such challenges. The best approach for Ireland continues to be to ensure that the countries on the borders of the EU and beyond the European neighbourhood are stable, secure and prosperous.

So the diplomats were correct then.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/debate/?id=2017-11-21a.527

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GW - November 23, 2017

Absolutely shameless.

2% of GDP for military expenditure with limited Keynesian multipliers because much of it will go into the profits of arms manufacturers.

Imagine what 2% of GDP on social housing could do for the country!

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dublinstreams - November 23, 2017

Gov keeps saying our participation in various ‘tasks’ is optional but SF says http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/47302 I read what was passed the other day but still not clear if this changes the ‘tasks’ the EU could be invoved in.

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GW - November 23, 2017

Tasks?

You can guarantee that ‘cooperation’ in massive further citizen surveillance – much of it outsourced to favoured contractors – in the name of anti-terrorism will be part of the package.

Perhaps better multipliers there – at least the cyber-Stasi will perhaps spend their wages in the local economy.

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dublinstreams - November 23, 2017

yes the ‘tasks’ Im wondering what they are going to do with the monied armies outside of the EU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petersberg_tasks

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12. Liberius - November 17, 2017

Ms O’Neill said she would support motion 144 which not only restates current policy of advocating abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, rape or sexual abuse but extends it to “where a woman’s life, health or mental health is at serious risk or in grave danger”.

“I think it’s appropriate in terms of making our policy fit for purpose,” she told The Irish News last night.

She said it was also significant that the party’s ruling executive’s motion included the development of a women’s health policy.
The Republic’s eighth amendment

The Sinn Féin northern leader also supports the unconditional repeal of the Republic’s eighth amendment, which protects the rights of the unborn child.

She said the party “isn’t in favour of abortion” and that when she explained why the more liberal policy was being adopted, people would understand.

The level of obtuse triangulation around this is fascinating.

http://www.irishnews.com/news/2017/11/17/news/michelle-o-neill-rules-out-taking-party-s-top-job-1189895/

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Alibaba - November 17, 2017

I am told there is one hour only at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis to take eight motions on Repeal the Eighth Amendment, among some other stuff. People have strongly held views on abortion that run very deeply on all sides. And ‘triangulation ‘ certainly doesn’t help. One hour: not good at all.

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13. Starkadder - November 17, 2017

Given the accusations of harassment being circulated in British and
US politics recently, it is worth pointing out that Charles Haughey was accused of sexual harassment as well:

http://www.thejournal.ie/anne-robinson-charles-haughey-634050-Oct2012/

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14. EWI - November 18, 2017

‘There’s a Digital Media Crash. But No One Will Say It’

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/theres-a-digital-media-crash-but-no-one-will-say-it

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15. Tomboktu - November 18, 2017

I just hope the new union never sets up an Italian branch…

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EWI - November 18, 2017

I just hope the new union isn’t mistaken for these guys:

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16. Tomboktu - November 19, 2017

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17. sonofstan - November 19, 2017

I was searching for something else, but came across this Dennis Skinner gem (the history might be distant for younger readers, the occasion was Roy Jenkins leaving the Labout party to form the SDP – recall that ‘Woy’ had trouble with the letter ‘R’)

Jenkins: “I leave this party without rancour”
Skinner: “I thought you were taking Marquand with you.”

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18. yourcousin - November 20, 2017

I seem to have put my last post on the wrong WYWTS thread.

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19. yourcousin - November 20, 2017

Mel Tillis has died. I doubt anyone other than myself even knew who he was let alone cares, but I liked him a lot and wooed my wife to his albums.

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CL - November 20, 2017

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20. GW - November 20, 2017

What’s going on in Germany?

I confess I was somewhat surprised that the FDP brought the negotiations for a German government to an abrupt halt. Since German internal politics has a disproportional effect on the rest of Europe, I’ve been trying to work out what the FDP are up to, and here’s my two pennyworth:

It looks like this was planned in advance by the FDP. They calculate that new elections will benefit them.

In a nutshell they plan to run as AFD-Lite and take as much of the softer xenophobic and racist vote as possible. One can understand their calculation (in a ‘know your enemy’ kind of way :-)). Considerations included:

1) Much of the core racist and xenophobic vote (which some sociologists put as high as 28% of the German voting population) have never forgiven Frau Dr. Merkel for her moment of humanity in 2015 when she let a large number of desperate refugees enter Fortress Europe. Any party that can be seen as ‘Merkel slayers’ would go down well with this group of voters.

2) The FDP has tried to outflank both the CSU and CDU on anti-immigrant rhetoric during the government negotiations. They hope that they can attract ‘respectable’ xenophobes from this cadre of voters.

3) As AFD-Lite they hope to attract some of the AfD voters to themselves. One should not forget that the FDP originally was the home of ex-Nazis after the war. They would be quite comfortable with an Orbanist neo-lib and aggressively nationalist state.

4) Perhaps most importantly they are benefiting from the disarray in other parties. The CDU was weakened in the last election and if Merkel goes their will be turmoil over succession because there is no clear successor. The CSU is already in a 3-way leadership battle. The SPD has failed to renew itself with either a younger generation or a move back to social democratic fundamentals. If the FDP can portray the Greens as ‘not fit for government’ they may even cause the Greens to come in under the 5% hurdle.

5) Also quite possibly the FDP sense in their gut that the only way to sustain the neo-lib project is through an authoritarian state supressing its growing contradictions and opposition to the neo-lib state’s inability to deliver basic social security, housing, jobs from which one can live, etc. etc. They are sailing happily into the Orbanist direction and would like to take the CDU/CSU with them. They wouldn’t have a huge problem with going into coalition with the AfD. After a great deal of soul-searching, natch 🙂

Depressingly this means that the next election in Germany will once more be fought on identitarian and xenophobic grounds. And the MSM have learned nothing and will play along with the FDP and AfD agenda, I expect.

Even more depressingly as a die Linke activist, I don’t trust the Lafontaine / Wagenknecht axis within the party not to be tempted to intervene on this turf either.

How does this affect the Brexit (non)negotiations? – I’m not sure that it will make a great deal of difference because the position of a caretaker government will remain unchanged. There’s little political ground to be gained by going soft on the Brits anywhere in the EU at this stage.

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GW - November 20, 2017

And the Süddeutsche Zeitung seem to agree with me. The tactics of the FDP stink of “Haider-isation” (after the Austrian neo-lib who used racism and islamophobia to replace the existing conservatives there.).

SZ is calling for a new Große Koalition with CDU/CSU. This would be damaging for the SPD, which is why they originally ruled out the option, but could possibly still happen. If so it positions die Linke well to pick up many disaffected SPD-voters.

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CL - November 20, 2017

A Grand Coalition would make AfD the official opposition?

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GW - November 20, 2017

Correct – a good reason for it not to happen. It doesn’t look like the SPD will budge and that will mean a caretaker govt. until the spring.

Had the FDP been serious about being in government – it now is clear that they weren’t – it might have been somewhat advantageous to the British in the Brexit process. But instead the position remains as it has been since the beginning of the process within the EU.

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CL - November 20, 2017

Looks like Merkel needs a ‘confidence and supply’ agreement with the SPD. But maybe they don’t do that in Deutschland?

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21. sonofstan - November 20, 2017

Just had a conversation with someone here -senior manager – who began a sentence with ‘when we get a Labour government’ and proceeded to launch into sustained praise of Corbyn and even more McDonnell as to how they ‘get it’ regarding the problems facing the country. This is someone who, while I would have been sure he was Labour, being northern, I would have thought would have been appalled – and probably was before the election – by the direction the party took. It really feels as if Labour have regained middle-England, and by espousing solid social- democratic values. And even two years ago, few of us would have honestly believed you could here from there.

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Joe - November 20, 2017

Yeah. I remember you coming on here SoS when Jez’s election campaign for the Labour leadership was gathering support. You said something like “He can’t really actually win it, can he?”. And then he did. And then the fantastic general election result. And then most of the internal opposition melting away. It’s an amazing turnaround. Only waiting now for the next step – victory in a general election and a Labour govt under Jez – “It can’t actually happen, can it?”

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sonofstan - November 20, 2017

Had a couple of Americans ask me a conference at the weekend if I thought JC scould actually win an election – because the Guardian had told them it was ‘impossible’. and then suddenly it wasn’t.

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GW - November 20, 2017

It just goes to show that changing the assumptions (I hate the concept ‘Overton window’) is doable.

Really remarkable when Labour becomes a preferred option for managers.

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22. EWI - November 20, 2017

A PLAN FOR the United Arab Emirates to wage financial war against its Gulf rival Qatar was found in the task folder of an email account belonging to UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef al-Otaiba and subsequently obtained by The Intercept.

The economic warfare involved an attack on Qatar’s currency using bond and derivatives manipulation. The plan, laid out in a slide deck provided to The Intercept through the group Global Leaks, was aimed at tanking Qatar’s economy, according to documents drawn up by a bank outlining the strategy.

The outline, prepared by Banque Havilland, a private Luxembourg-based bank owned by the family of controversial British financier David Rowland, laid out a scheme to drive down the value of Qatar’s bonds and increase the cost of insuring them, with the ultimate goal of creating a currency crisis that would drain the country’s cash reserves.

Leaked Documents Expose Stunning Plan to Wage Financial War on Qatar — and Steal the World Cup

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23. EWI - November 20, 2017

The start of this features the Fox News host who’s made the accusations against Democratic senator Al Franken.

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24. EWI - November 21, 2017

Hidden US funding for MI6 after WWII:

The fund seems to be largely the result of an influx of money at the end of World War Two (although the account may date back to MI6’s first chief, Sir Mansfield Cumming). The mystery though is where the money came from.

The document records that it was the result of donations from what are called “well-wishers” of the service “including a particularly large sum from an American”.

Given the emergence of the Cold War and the fact that the future of America’s own intelligence community looked uncertain in 1945, Dr Cormac believes it’s possible a well-connected individual could have looked to Britain.

“Maybe this could come from an American who was concerned about future threats and wanted to make sure MI6 were adequately funded in case of emergency.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42012380

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25. sonofstan - November 21, 2017

From John Crace’s account of proceedings at the PAC in Westminster, on preparation for the B word:
“How many contingency plans do you have?” asked Labour’s Gareth Snell.

“I don’t know,” said Karen Wheeler, the director general for border coordination at HMRC. “That’s contingent on what you call a contingency plan.”

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sonofstan - November 21, 2017

Try again:

“How many contingency plans do you have?” asked Labour’s Gareth Snell.

“I don’t know,” said Karen Wheeler, the director general for border coordination at HMRC. “That’s contingent on what you call a contingency plan.”

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26. Joe - November 21, 2017
GW - November 21, 2017

Yep.

Thank you Blair, thank you Bush, thank you Daesh, thank you Putin, thank you Assad, thank you Obama.

You’ve all contributed to making the lives of the Iraqi peoples significantly worse than they were under Saddam. Quite an achievement.

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WorldbyStorm - November 21, 2017

+1. I loathed Saddam, but this is a whole exponential level worse than his regime.

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27. Joe - November 21, 2017

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