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What you want to say – 20th March 2019 March 20, 2019

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. GW - March 20, 2019

Any British party backing a 3 month extension to the Brexshit dithering is demonstrating that it wants to restrict the options to

a) No deal
b) May’s deal

because nothing else is remotely do-able within that time.

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GW - March 20, 2019

Other than revoking Article 50, of course.

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2. Paddy Healy - March 21, 2019

IRELAND COMPLICIT IN STARVING CHILDREN THROUGH SUPPORT TO LIBYAN COAST GUARD THROUGH OPERATION SOPHIA in Mediterranean
Full Irish Times Article https://wp.me/pKzXa-Ut
Médecins Sans Frontières says children are starving in Libyan detention centres
“The fact that Europe, too, is contributing to this suffering through policies that enable people rescued at sea to be forcibly returned to inhumane detention conditions in Libya is utterly unconscionable.”-Medcins Sans Frontiere
Sally Hayden Irish Times Thursday, March 21, 2019,
Children are among those severely malnourished at a detention centre in Libya, where hundreds of refugees and migrants have been locked up, many for more than six months, after they were intercepted trying to reach Europe.

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3. CL - March 21, 2019

Some lessons from Irish history.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23HannanIrishHistory

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4. GW - March 21, 2019
5. kestrel - March 21, 2019

a most interesting comment on radio just now, (newstalk), regarding u.s. gunlaws, it was that, when the 2nd Amendment was written, most guns could only fire one round, and may only have hit within two metres.
this seems such a good point to make, as, this being so, really, is the ownership of arms, just truly the intimidation of the v.ordinary Americans, and states, not to rebel against the American empire.
should experts of Europe put this a little more forcefully to the American media, as maybe their own media does not.

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yourcousin - March 21, 2019

Can you clarify? Are you saying that the 2nd Amendment only guarantees the right to muskets?

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kestrel - March 21, 2019

it was a radio comment today. i have ever read the ‘2nd amendment’ or Amer.constitution. of course, there are bound to have been many additions and amendments since then.
But the environment in which the words were said ‘the right to bear arms’, is what should be focused on more, probably it was frenetic, bewildering, alien and the woodlands and plains were unknown.
Whereas now, there are so few areas of wilderness; although of course, there are those who are hunting, which may effectively diminish wildlife even more.
And, how effective was the rule of law at that time; compared to now.
why Europe media does not play this up is beyond me.

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yourcousin - March 21, 2019

Not trying to pick a fight, just understand what you’re saying. If I find time tomorrow I’ll respond with something more substanstive.

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yourcousin - March 23, 2019

Kestrel,
Sorry I didn’t get around to this yesterday. So here we go.

There’s couple things with the one shot musket theory.

-In the main constitutional rights are not restricted by the technology at the time of writing. We don’t restrict the first amendment only to printing presses around in the 18th century. So ditto for the 2nd Amendment. It’s more complicated than that of course, but that’s the gist.

-On the more technical point, there were repeaters (weapons able to fire multiple times without being reloaded) all the way back in the 16th century, but until machined parts came along the repeater technology was not economical enough for armies to use on a mass scale. At the time of ratification of the constitution there was in government service a rifle capable of firing 22 shots with out reloading. Again though, the leading technological edge and economic feasibility for mass production and distribution are two very different things.

On gun control. It has existed throughout American history. Often in forms far more restrictive than today.

Wyatt Earp and the shootout at the O.K. corral? About gun control. As many frontier towns had strict restrictions on having firearms in town. Unfortunately and not surprisingly many gun control laws that existed historically had racist undertones, sometimes. Sometimes they just flat out stated, this is a racist law.

The South especially restricted carrying weapons and it was mainly the states that came up with the gun control laws. Some was to crack down on dueling, but a great deal of it was to keep firearms out of the hands of African Americans.

Ditto in California which enacted gun control in order to disarm Mexican and Chinese immigrants.

In modern times too gun control had explicitly racists underpinnings with Reagan targeting the Black Panthers in while governor in California.

I think and I hope I’ve addressed most of the questions you posed. Let me know if I haven’t.

So let me move on to the line about reduced wilderness and “how hunting reduces wildlife”.

Without getting into a dissertation let me say that nothing could be further from the truth.

Going back a bit, market hunting ie trying to feed the nation on wild game game led to a serious depletion of wild game. Not only what we think of today as game, but things like song birds as well.

This being the case sportsmen rallied to not only preserve what was left, but to protect habitat and rebuild the game populations.

There were a number of things done, over the course of decades, including but not limited to;

-Creating national parks, protecting habitat from destructive development.
-Outlawing the sale of wild game, The Lacey Act.
-The Migratory Wild Bird Act, creating Federal Protection for migratory birds.
-The Pittman-Robertson Act which places an excise tax on hunting equipment and ammunition sales which all go to fund wildlife restoration.
-The Dingle-Johnson Act which does the same for fishing as the P-R Act does for hunting.
-The Land and Water Conservation Fund. Which makes Federal funds available for conserving land and protecting all across America.

These are just some of the federal laws. Written and supported by hunters. Hunters actively lobbied to tax themselves to save wildlife.

Indeed most state wildlife agencies have over half of their funding come from hunting license sales every year.

Now many of those laws and same philosophies underpin our general game management philosophy which has morphed into the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

Through this model you’ve got more white tail deer and turkeys today then you did at the time of European contact in North America. Most often the real losers in wildlife are the animals that need to actual wilderness like Sage grouse, the Prairie chicken (greater and lesser). Unfortunately most folks don’t see the prairie as “wilderness”. The culprit in whittling down wild life is human population growth and development.

And none of this mentions all of the hunter groups like Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever, Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation etc amongst others who not only donate money for wildlife preservation but also do a lot of boots on the ground work for habitat improvement. All this done preserve and bolster game populations.

Sorry for the diatribe.

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yourcousin - March 23, 2019

Should clarify that “modern gun control” was meant to refer to Reagan’s actions. Not anything past that. A poor choice of words on my part.

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Random - March 24, 2019

Isn’t that 2 meter part patently false. Ridiculously false actually.
Early 1790s soldiers has weapons during at an effective range of 2 meters.

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6. makedoanmend - March 21, 2019

Class Struggle at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

https://jacobinmag.com/2019/03/chicago-symphony-orchestra-strike-cultural-labor

“…A great collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in one orchestra can influence how other orchestras committees think and imagine their work life to be. Every detail of how to live one’s laboring life affects the quality of life in general…”

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7. GW - March 22, 2019

I don’t know whether this gained any resonance in Ireland, or whether there will demos there on Saturday. But here it is anyhow:

Pledge to vote against all MEPs who support content upload filters in the EU.

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8. Tomboktu - March 23, 2019

FF gets two new councillors on South Dublin County Council. One left SF a short while ago, the other was an independent.

https://www.fiannafail.ie/ff-welcomes-two-new-councillors-in-south-dublin/

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9. Alibaba - March 23, 2019

The team of Muck McCrappy delivered a win in Gibraltar and John Delaney put himself beyond the reach of PAC because he is no longer a member of the FAI Board. Jeez, can Delaney get away with this? Discuss.

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Tomboktu - March 23, 2019

Surely if he was a post-holder at the relevant time (and if the Dáil does actually have the power to require him to give evidence), then today’s change of status does not remove him from the reach of enquiry.

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Alibaba - March 24, 2019

You have a fair point. Now we are told: ‘Delaney will lead the association’s delegation to a meeting with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport as planned’ and his salary “is substantially less than the salary he previously received as CEO”.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0324/1038261-john-delaney-fai/

Well, I doubt he has legal responsibility to give evidence in his new role. It could be argued that there is a lot that can’t be put in the public domain because it is subject to non-disclosure arrangements that are legally tight. It might also be said that as Delaney is no longer the FAI head incumbent, all matters have to be referred back to the CEO or President. In sum, no answers will be given to pertinent questions and the Committee will be left in the dark.

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10. makedoanmend - March 24, 2019

The entrails divine that May’s days are numbered as Taoiseach of the UK.

Could she possibly give the ERG a good kicking by revoking Article 50 if & before she is ousted?

If so, she would have done all of Europe a favour despite her obvious limitations. One can only hope. (But party and her class come above their country, and definitely above the well being of anyone else outside of the UK – so it’s a forlorn hope.) But

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WorldbyStorm - March 24, 2019

I wonder if she would give them a kicking. She seems obsessed (perhaps understandably) by party unity. But I can’t hep thinking she wants to be the one who ‘delivers’ Brexit on whatever terms.

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11. CL - March 25, 2019

““The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.-
Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election.

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WorldbyStorm - March 25, 2019

And so he’ll be able to claim he’s clear, which he is of that charge. And on it goes.

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CL - March 25, 2019

Trump can now say “Fake News” with some justification; he has increased power to shape political reality.

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12. Starkadder - March 25, 2019
WorldbyStorm - March 25, 2019

The amount of bands I like who say they are influenced by him… it does say something about his own work.

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13. Joe - March 26, 2019

If I could get my act together I’d like to post a sort of diary of the local election in Cabra Glasnevin. Some quick notes: I mentioned earlier on here two young male indo candidates who launched their campaigns with pub quizzes. My facebook tells me the WP are running a young male candidate also. (Apols to all three, I’ve forgotten their names for now).

Leaflets in the door so far:
Very glossy SF generic Dublin Central leaflet with pics of Mary Lou and all their councillors. SF hegemony in DC, the WPs wet dream of the 1980s writ large. An impressive leaftlet with the Housing issue nationally as the main story and then lots of local stuff. And along with the glossy a one pager announcing their new Cabra-based candidate. Name forgotten for now also but an impressive CV of community activism. I’ve seen the fruits of some of his labours for ‘Cabra for Youth’ on my dog walks on the Royal Canal (haven’t seen any ‘youth’ involved but there you go). He’s apparently a community worker since the mid-noughties. There’s lots and lots of his like in the six counties so I’d assume he was, how shall I put it, ‘active in the republican movement’ before then. I’d vote for him except he’s SF!
Glossy as well from the independent cllr from Cabra (orginally Red Action (?) then Working Class Action, now just independent and again, sorry, name forgotten for now). Leaflet was a list of developments and achievements in the constituency, no politics that I could discern. Could have been from Paschal Donohue – as I said no politics, just list of things that have happened or are about to happen or might happen and claiming a bit of credit for some of them, Phibsboro shops, Dalymount Park and the like.
Lastly a one page hello from our new SocDem candidate, the chap who has moved out from Nth Inner City and is also standing for them in the Euros in Dublin (and again his name has momentarily gone from my busy brain). Anyway, his letter tells us that he has made representations about the cycle lane up the Finglas Road past the cemetery. But the Corpo told him they won’t be doing much with it pending, I think, Bus Connects developments – that’s an excuse which they can get great mileage out of in the next ten years!
Not a leaflet, but Labour’s Marie Sherlock is holding a public meeting about housing in Phibsboro any day now.

That’s it for now. No idea who the FF, FG candidates are. Or the others, far left, indo, Catholic right whatever. Must check also how many seats there are and what the constituency boundaries are.

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WorldbyStorm - March 26, 2019

That’s very handy – thanks Joe – one of those every few weeks during the campaign would be great – in a different part of the constituency had zero election material so far that I can think of

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Joe - March 26, 2019

You would be Nth Inner City Ward? Yes? Must check the electoral map and work out all the boundaries…

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Joe - March 26, 2019

Here’s Wiki with current lists of candidates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Dublin_City_Council_election. Needs updating as candidates get confirmed.

Turns out local election constituency boundaries have changed since the last time out. Me and my neighbours have breathed a sigh of relief that we are now in Cabra Glasnevin and not Cabra Finglas :).

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Joe - March 26, 2019

Update. Adrian Kavanagh has Mary Fitzpatrick and Hannah Lemass as the FF candidates. Lemass! FG going for the Royal vote by putting up Colm O’Rourke. WP’s young candidate is Cormac Newton, a first cousin I understand of Newton Emerson, much beloved on this site. And finally Micheál Kelliher is apparently running under the Independents4Change banner.
No more updates now for a few weeks until there’s more exciting developments to report.

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Joe - March 26, 2019

Final update. Adrian Kavanagh has Mary Fitzpatrick and Hannah Lemass as the FF candidates. Lemass! FG going for the Royal vote by putting up Colm O’Rourke. The WP candidate Cormac Newton has denied that he’s a first cousin of Newton Emerson, much beloved of this site. And Micheál Kelliher is running under the Independents4Change banner.
Polling day is Friday 24 May.

No more updates now for a few weeks until further exciting developments develop.

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14. CL - March 26, 2019

“Since 2013, Ireland has been up for sale. Facilitated by the Fine Gael and Labour government in power at the time, Nama and the banks began offloading their loan books in large bundles and at huge discounts….
They have been bought mainly by US vulture funds, including firms such as Lone Star, Blackstone, Oaktree, Starwood, CarVal, Deutsche Bank and Cerberus and their subsidiaries.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/mick-wallace-vulture-funds-are-cheating-us-all-1.3076969

“The UN’s housing advisor has accused private equity firms and one of the world’s largest corporate residential landlords, Blackstone Group, of exploiting tenants, “wreaking havoc” in communities and helping to fuel a global housing crisis.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/26/blackstone-group-accused-global-housing-crisis-un

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15. Paddy Healy - March 26, 2019

The Jailed Shannon 2, the United States Veterans for Peace, Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers will be in the Clover Hill Court, Cloverhill Drive,,Clondalkin, Dublin 22,
for their Bail Appeal Case. https://wp.me/pKzXa-Ut
The Court opens at 10.00am. Dr Ed Horgan has said the case is at 11.am
I urge all those that support Tarak & Ken to be at the Court House at 10.00am on Thursday 28 March
GOVERNMENT Has JAILED TWO US WAR VETERANS FOR ATTEMPTING TO INSPECT a US MILITARY PLANE AT SHANNON AIRPORTt

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