No big fan of Moran but the man is at least a cut above other politicians in being able to understand an issue from a policy perspective rather than the "this will stop people shouting at me" level of analysis at which most of them stop.

Palantir was founded to assist the surveillance state and the war machine. Its earliest and largest contracts were with, and still are with, US intelligence and defence departments. Side gigs don't change that no more than for the likes of Raytheon. Mad that the SocDems would let such a man run.

Please don't talk about my deeply held cultural views

Get Lenihan on more panels; he can't help but say the quiet part out loud. He thinks Sinn Féin loses votes by tagging affordable housing at €330k because people don't actually want cheap homes. FF/FG won't give it to them. Their job is to promise while winking at landowners. #ge24

Assumption from Lenihan on RTÉ suggesting that being in Government naturally loses you votes is very telling. Assumes that you can only ever do stuff that pisses people off. Those with a positive view of what government can accomplish wouldn't have such an outlook.

If they can manage it: SF and broad soft left minority government in C&S with FF. Need is for a few small wins and back to the country, SD/LAB/Green in coalition means no outflanking. Isolate FG, create a real division & choice and find cassus belli with FF within 24 months.

Capitalism and Democracy: The Market is Far More Flexible than Christopher Caldwell Imagines (thread)

The problem with this account is that, at least in the United States there is no evidence that capitalists were sacrificing profit. Here’s after-tax corporate profits as a share of GDP since World War II. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W273R...

1/ Wealth has raced ahead of earnings, creating a new caste society Tax is only part of the answer: we also need a new political economy that differentiates good & bad wealth My major new @ippr.bsky.social report: Earning Vs Owning ippr-org.files.svdcdn.com/production/D...

If he's checked then why can he not say yes or no? Excellent questioning though. #ge24

This is why we need to legislate to ban no-fault evictions. Every time you ask your landlord to do the bare minimum, you're risking them finding some excuse to kick you out. Tenants shouldn't have to live in fear just to get basic repairs done. Section 34 grounds undermine all other rights #ge24

Some interesting election posters around Ennis today. @electionlit.bsky.social

Maybe your local Independent Ireland TD will be a Minister, angrily shaking his head while he votes for a few Climate Action Plan anyway? Climate issues aren't going away. The only difference is, the left want to actually plan for the future. #GE24

It's gonna get dark as fuck. Fascism is capital's last breath-a grotesque alliance of the privileged trying to hang on by scapegoating anyone but themselves. "Look over there". Climate migrants are the next easy target for the genocide, and everyone's being prepped for it right now.

Once you've sold off all the shiny state assets—like the choo-choo trains—you've got no choice but to privatise the soul-crushing grind of policy design and implementation. And guess what? The private sector will be just as shit at that, maybe even worse.

a toddler’s incessant need to ask “why” will really have you out here like “well bud time is linear, we experience things in order”

Whatever this decision was for Fingal West, it’s bad. Have seen people south in the catchment area on the Aontú candidate’s (Finglas) side saying that because they’re being lumped in with Lusk and Skerries why on earth would they vote for those candidates when they’re nowhere near them #GE24

Mentioned it here before but years back a very pro FG journalist (settle petals!) blocked me & called me "vile" cause after waxing lyrical about Simon Harris barely sleeping cause he's so energetic & busy, I asked "ok but apart from his lack of sleep can you point to anything he's achieved?"

This would require Irish politicians to engage with notions of "capital" and "geopolitics". They can't do that. The electorate wants a person to fill out forms for them and, if they're ministerial material, micromanage civil servants. The last time someone did that it was the 50s and by accident.

A huge chunk of the Irish electorate loves neoliberalism but hates how it turns out FF/FG let you vent at the government without asking why it deserved it. Now that they're one big blob, the rage just flows to indos spouting the same stuff but who were too mental to get selected by the blob #ge24

#ge24 "There'll be no random and inexplicable €1,000 for infants then"

Another similarity, if you're arguing that what you're at is "not technically" racism/genocide you are guaranteed to be a fucking monster.

I keep an archive of Irish election manifestos at pidgeon.ie/manifestos So far for #GE24 I have: FF, FG, SF, Green, Lab, PBP, Soc Dems, Ind Ireland, Solidarity, and Aontú. Any others? Have any of the fringe-ier right wing parties have bothered to put together a manifesto?

FG members only worried about how this looks because they know they cannot stand over their record on this. It's not about whether their #GE24 campaign has been too presidential or isn't polished enough. It's about the material conditions that people have to live with.

Hard to read coverage like this and then take seriously the hand wringing of the Irish Times and co about "Sinn Féin's past". Gleeful to promote a convicted criminal if they think it might hurt the left.

“Why wouldn’t I vote for the alleged head of an organised crime syndicate” #GE24 www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

When I was 5, I loved science, which I took to be planets and magnets and chemicals and shit. Soon I realized science was a collective human activity, and these were just the objects of its attention. Anyway, whenever I read an OpEd on how science isn't political, I think "Are you 5 years old?"

Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile

A few months before #ge24, when he knew this was coming, McGregor decided to take a turn at spewing right wing bile. He did it, like others with "allegations" have, because they know the right wing always protect rapists and pedos. Worth reminding them when they claim to "protect women & kids".

moving over here... more difficult hits to come

still suffering through the search-engine pain of democrats naming their largest climate bill with the same acronym as a near-ubiquitous retirement account and the Irish Republican Army

Asking people to listen to this collection of ghouls on their commute home is a public safety issue.

The Irish Freedom Party councillor got owned so hard by a bunch of primary school children that he's threatening to call the cops lmaoooo

The problem with the #UpFront debate was that there weren’t enough leaders on stage. I think we should have all 160 TDs in three times a week for debates. Perhaps in some kind of chamber

We should all get used to hearing from the CJEU and the U.K. Supreme Court, as the US Supreme Court has been lost. Rule of law exists only if the courts offer a check on arbitrary interpretation of the law to suit executive power. US Supreme Court has sold that pass.

Yep

A funny thing about Aontú is they always break out "we were the only party to support/oppose XYZ" and frequently that's not true, but they don't want to admit that they other parties who agreed with them are literal nazis

How privatisation works (and Thames Water is just the latest example). 1. A government takes a national asset built up with taxpayers' money and the work of public servants over many years, and hands it, for a fraction of its value, to a private company. 2. In doing so, it creates a monopoly. 🧵

Amazing footage of an octopus stretching its tentacles to form a huge balloon, filmed at a depth of around 1,600 meters (5,250 feet). Video credit: EVNautilus

The cost of governing in Ireland: changes in vote shares for government parties combined. With the exception of 2002 and 1965, government parties failed to gain substantial levels of support in all elections since 1948. Data: parlgov.org #GE24

obligated by the accident and privilege of baptism to point out that actually traditional Catholics sit in the pews at Mass thinking about whether the Giants are going to get it together on defense this year rather than masturbating while imagining themselves present at the First Council of Nicaea

We already have a perfectly good Lido a few minutes walk away. You need the walk to burn off the chips.