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TPQ ⚈ A page for those who hate so that they are kept at a distance from those who do not. 

Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men.
For though the bastard is dead, 
the bitch that bore him is again in heat - Bertolt Brecht

Nationalists Ireland, or Natsis for short, every so often make an appearance on TPQ where neither they nor their warped sense of superiority coupled to their belief in eugenics make for intellectual stimulation. 

They believe in their own splendid sense of isolation, at times venting the deranged view that nationalism is in the DNA, a biological imperative by which we must all be driven and to which we must conform. They are welcome to their splendid isolation and not be compelled to have their superior genes diluted by the untermenschen or via contact with people of foreign origin. 

They claim to be on a mission to protect the women of Ireland while strangely believing that women are not in danger from the clerics of the Catholic Church. Nor do they seem to get that many women want protected from the Natsis rather than immigrants. 

They delude themselves that Ireland is not a crime free zone because of immigrants; that Hutch and Kinahan are African names, that Larry Murphy is of Romanian origin; that racist riots are not criminal but rather the outpourings of ordinary people venting their frustration. 

Their faces firmly set against cultural integration, we will accede to their wish and not integrate with them. The Natsis can have their own place on this blog where they can reinforce the superior gene pool.

Natsis

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Six Hundred And Eighty Seven

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Most of us will have read or heard the story of the legendary battle between alpha Greek warrior Achilles and the Trojan Prince, Hector, during the mythical Trojan Wars.

It invokes images of the apex fighter, Achilles, chasing Hector around the walls of Troy the ancient city which is the background of the fabled Trojan Wars, a city supposedly under siege for ten years. The story, fascinating as it is, is at best a legend and at worst a load of bollocks though there are Bronze Age findings to strongly suggest such a city as Troy did perhaps once exist. The rest about a wooden horse containing Greek soldiers is not perhaps so factual. The epic battle between Achilles and Hector who, getting a little tired of being chased round the walls of the city, turned to fight his tormentor and lost fatally. That was the end of this fantastic though totally imagined tale but what happened on Friday 6th June in the USA is not so fanciful. Here two titans of the modern age did verbal battle over the internet then the media of the world!

People of various time zones some perhaps just awakening could have been forgiven for thinking the end of the world had arrived as newscasters and reporters transmitted the verbal battle between US President, Donald Trump, and his former best ‘buddy’ and world’s richest man, Elon Musk. The world’s most powerful man and biggest bullshitter and the planet's largest parasite and wealthiest man on earth had a lover’s tiff of no small magnitude. Both were taking lumps out of each other but who will win this potentially dangerous battle of the giants should it continue? Remember when Trump was first elected? These two cowboys were on stage with Musk performing the now infamous Nazi salute on stage followed by him enacting a macabre act waving a chainsaw in the air as a gesture of how he was going to cut tens of thousands of public service jobs. All this with the Presidents approval and support as he encouraged Musk with the cry; “go on Elon give it to em” which should show the level of lunacy possessed by both men. Could anybody imagine in the 26 County Dail, ridiculous as it sometimes appears, Micheal Martin giving a Nazi salute? No, definitely not, it just would not happen. Imagine Pearse Doherty of Sinn Fein waving a chain saw switched on shouting obscenities across to government benches? Again, it just would not happen but this is not Ireland, Britain, Spain, Germany or any other relatively stable country – as far as stability can be perceived and judged within capitalism – it is the barmy USA. When this mega argument was transmitted across the globe people could initially have been forgiven thinking the world had stopped revolving on its axis (something else which does not really exist, it is imaginary for those who think it is real) so much was the magnitude of the reporting.

After the break newscaster Sharon Tobin spoke to Associate Editor for the Washington Post, Jean Jordan, about the raging row between the two so-called ‘heavyweights’ beginning by asking in a matter-of-fact kind of way; “it looks like a very childish row what’s the significance?” The Associate Editor replied “For one thing Elon Musk has 220 million followers which Trump used during his election campaign”. This is to mean Musk has a huge following on his account, Twitter I understand, which was of great assistance to Trump during his election campaign in 2024. “The significance of having the world’s most powerful man against the world’s richest man” bears much significance. “Musk can do some damage to Trump” - the two men have done something which should not be encouraged according to Jean Jordan who noted; “how they have entwined their business and political interests.” With Musk taunting the President “without me you would never have been elected” suggests to the electorate how bent and corrupt the US Electoral College system of voting really is. The US electorate do not vote for the candidate standing for the presidency, they vote for an elector who then casts a number of votes given to him/her for their preferred presidential candidate. Did Musk’s money influence any of these electors? Is such a thing possible? Well, it has happened in the past what are termed “faithless electors” have changed their votes to the other candidate. “Usually, faithless electors act alone, although on occasion a faithless elector has attempted to induce other electors to change their votes in concert.” Though these occurrences are rare and were usually recorded late 19th early 20th centuries. The fact remains it can happen. For example, so many hundreds of thousands vote for the elector to vote candidate A, only for this elector, possibly through financial inducement, change to candidate B. Is this what Musk meant when he stated; “without me you would never have been elected”? The remonstration continued over last weekend and beyond and brought into question Musk’s ability, should he choose, to leave the US Astronauts stranded in space to die as the argument took a sinister twist! Jean Jordan pointed out, and this is very important regarding Musk: “he has the only space vehicle which can go up and bring back our Astronauts back from the space station.” Elon Musk has apparently suggested the use of his space vehicles could be denied! Would Musk really use his wealth and arguments with the President to sabotage the Astronauts? Even if he implies this surely it amounts to treason? So we could have one corrupt President and one blackmailing billionaire fighting it out!

The United States are the most vociferous opponents of other countries interfering with elections held outside their own jurisdiction but what about interference in elections held in the US. Was the 2024 election influenced by Musk’s financial might? Were the scales weighted in Trumps favour over Kamala Harris? Is this what Musk meant by his comments about Trump “never have been elected” without his influence? Sharon Tobin asked of Musk; “he does seem to have endless resources can he make it difficult for Trump”? Mary Jordan replied; “he can make it extremely difficult for Trump.” Was this a reference to Musk’s wealth? 

Over in London, England, the Mountbatten-Windsor family who reside in a 775-room detached house situated in the City of Westminster are also getting a little hot under the collar over this tiff between Trump and Musk! Apparently, Elon Musk is implying he may reveal the list of ‘powerful names’ on the Epstein Files. Jefferey Epstein was the paedophile who committed suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking offences and was a friend of President Trumps. Trump “is one of the powerful names on the dossier” (Irish Daily Mirror Saturday 7th June 2025 P.4) claims Musk and has hinted he may publish the full list of these names. Musk claims “dozens of powerful men are named, including the Duke of York” (ibid). For the readers who are unaccustomed with the pecking order of Britain’s Royal Family, who live in the aforementioned detached house with 775 rooms, the Duke of York is the King of England’s brother, Prince Andrew. Its ‘squeaky bum time’ for the Mountbatten-Windsor family as Musk could open a huge can of worms, a very fitting word for the kind of person on the ‘Epstein Files’. One insider said:

if Elon is willing to drop Trump, no one is safe, not even royalty. While he had close ties to the Trump administration, Musk had eyes and ears everywhere. He knows exactly who was connected to Epstein. No one could do more damage to Trump than Elon right now and the President’s aides know it (ibid).

It must be imagined the ‘damage limitation’ squad at Buck House will be on red alert and perhaps even the ‘assassination lads’ could be called in if the danger of Randy Andy’s involvement with Epstein becoming of major public interest increases? Britain’s Prince Andrew has “denied any wrongdoing during his friendship with Epstein” (ibid).

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the whole issue is the apathetic attitudes of the people on the streets in the US. They appear indifferent to the whole affair, claiming in many instances “the rift is inevitable between these two men” as the arguments continue. Elon Musk who supported what is termed; “Trumps Beautiful Bill” now terms it a “disgusting abomination”. The capitalist class of the USA are at loggerheads as to whether this Presidential Bill is good or bad, they cannot make their minds up. Much depends on whether you are a Trump or Musk supporter and then begs the question - now Musk is no longer part of the US government having left his post last week as his position was only temporary for about three months - what does governing the country have to do with him? Answer: he is the wealthiest man on the planet and the government are there to serve his, and his class’s interests! Who else could Musk do damage to? Who else could be on the list, Bejamin Netanyahu perhaps? What about Vladimir Putin, he was and remains a mate of Trump's - could he be on the Epstein list?

As we started with Achilles chasing Hector around the walls of the mythical ancient city of Troy, we can now envisage the younger Elon Musk chasing Donald Trump around the White House Rose Garden. Eventually Hector stopped, turned and faced Achilles to fight him face to face, and lost. The question in the White House battle of the giants is – who is chasing who and what could the outcome be for the rest of the planet? Perhaps Trump will go down as the US President of uncontrollable madness, possibly in the same league as Britain’s mad King, George III! 

What of Elon Musk? Perhaps the CIA for once doing something for the good could place Musk on one of his own rockets to Mars, one way, he could be the first coloniser of the Red Planet!

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Achilles Versus Hector 21st Century Style

 

A Morning Thought @ 2676

Azar Majedi ✊ On May 8 and 9 of this year the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII and the defeat of Nazis was commemorated in two different ceremonies, one in Ukraine with British, French, German and Polish heads of states, and one in Russia that was attended by 30 state leaders including the Chinese.


80 years after the end of WWII the world has turned around a whole circle and is back to where it left off. WWII is considered to be a determining point in the history of modern world. The war exposed the inherent inhumanity and brutality of capitalism. The death and destruction that the war imposed on the world was brutal.

Now 80 years later, after a year and a half of genocide, slaughter and mass murder in Palestine and the Middle East, few years of warmongering propaganda, expansion of NATO, monumental investment in arms, the extreme suppression of civil liberties (1), complete censorship of mainstream media and extreme measures against social media, suppression of freedom and the right to protest, we are witnessing the same horrid situation. Fascism is taking over the whole West. The threat of another world war is looming over us. It is unbelievable how it only took 80 years for the monster to reappear.

The war started by a European power and led to an unimaginable death and destruction. Around 80 million people lost their lives worldwide; 7 million Germans, 2.7 million Western Europeans and Americans, 27 million from the Soviet Union, 20 million Chinese and millions in Africa and Asia. WWII is recorded as the most horrendous crime of modern time (from 1500 to today) considering that since the rise of colonialism there have been many genocides committed by Western states, on top of slavery which is one of the darkest chapters of human history; it shows the extent of brutality and inhumanity exerted in this war.

WWII Just like the first one was about world domination and power. It was created to resettle the results of WWI which aimed at re-dividing the world. And the world indeed changed; some empires fell and some gained more power; new countries were created. However, one thing nobody had expected was the October 1917 revolution in Russia which changed the political dynamic and relationships and created a great challenge for the world powers. The threat of communism became the biggest threat of all time for capitalism and western imperialism. As a result fascism started to grow in Europe.

Hitler’s and the fascists’ aim was to defeat the working class and communist movements which were strong in Germany and also in Europe and to crush the Soviet Union. Many communist and labour activists were sent to concentration camps, something which is never talked about. Since WWI, when Russian revolution shook the world, fascism came to the political scene in Europe first and foremost as an anti-communist movement to combat the Soviet Union and the rise of socialist and working class movements in Europe, and in great parts of the world. Italy is considered the birth place of fascism, but it became very strong in Germany, it was in power in Portugal (Salazar regime) and Spain (Franco regime) collaborating with Hitler but officially neutral, it was the de facto power in France, and very strong in Austria, Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Even though British government officially opposed Hitler, Its leaders, notably Winston Churchill were ideologically fascist.

In 1937, while speaking in favour of allowing Jews to settle in Palestine, Churchill made a statement which is eye-opener:

I do not admit ... for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.

Soviet Union was the main force in defeating the Nazis; the force that they waged the war against. According to all historical documents Soviet Union played the main role in defeating the Nazis, after losing around 27 million of its population. It was the “Red Army” who freed Auschwitz. The picture of the Red army soldiers raising the red flag over the Reichstag Building in Berlin has become iconic. (2) This is not about taking sides. It’s about historical facts and trying to understand and expose the West’s intentions for falsifying the history. Soviet Union was not a socialist state. It claimed to be one. But the world capitalism could not even tolerate a fake socialist state.

However, Western imperialism has been trying to change the history by creating a false narrative. This narrative portrays US as the saviour of the world from fascism and the country that ended the war. They even try to bury the abhorrent US crime of dropping nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the war, just as a show of force, testing nuclear bombs or warning the world who the real boss is! The ruling class has created this fantasy world of the good and evil worlds fighting each other, and of course the West is the good, and Russia the evil.

As Western imperialism practically lost the war to the Soviet Union and as a result Soviet Union grew bigger and took over part of Europe, the West chose a very clever ideological-political path or solution to raise the flag of democracy, human rights, individual freedom, rationalism and international law. To create a welfare state with democracy in the West as a propaganda showcase against the Soviet Union and to destroy any socialist movement in the world under the banner of fight for democracy. It was this goal and obsession that led to the creation of Truman Doctrine (3) to rule the world and Marshal Plan (4) to assist Europe.

This only lasted a few decades. By the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, the “sweet” era of democracy and human rights came to an end in the West.

Comparing the world today with 80 years ago, brings to mind Marx’s deep observation of human history: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte) However, the farce has gone to the point of absurdity. Two years ago in May 2023 the G7 held a summit in Hiroshima and condemned the war crimes of Russia without even mentioning the nuclear bombs dropped by the US on that very same city!

This only shows how far the ruling class has come and how obnoxious they’ve become. They’re completely disconnected and feel untouchable. They don’t give a damn about what the public think and feel. This is when you scratch your head and ask how far they’re prepared to go and how far will the people take it? The answer to the first question is as long as they are forced to stop. The answer to the second one is more complicated.

The rise of fascism in the West is real. The ideological narrative promoted by the ruling class is fundamentally the same as the Nazi era, but turned around. Throughout history the WWII narrative has completely changed to Nazis against Jews and all the other factors have been minimised and sidelined. And now in a bizarre way anti-Judaism (anti-Semitism is used in mainstream discourse) has come to mean anti-Israel. By this jugglery they have arrived at the position to call anyone who opposes and condemns Israel an anti-Semite and therefore a criminal. Criminalising any opposition to Israel and its genocidal crimes and to criminalising defence of a suppressed and downtrodden people are the best proof of the rise and power of fascism. Upholding Talmudic values and principles has become officially acceptable and promoted: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently stated that “Europe holds the values of the Talmud,” referring to the central text of Rabbinic Judaism. (5)

NATO has expanded both in size and military capability; warmongering is an integrated official narrative and more bold and practical steps are taken to violate the current international law in order to provoke Russia and China. These are worrying signs.

The West has never stopped creating wars. The West has been more or less safe from war, but wars have been ravaging all over the world, thanks to US, Britain, France, Israel, etc. (We said “more or less”, this refers to the war NATO waged against Yugoslavia that led to thousands killed and misplaced. Belgrade was bombed by NATO for 78 days in 1999). But when the dominant and mainstream spokesmen speak of world war, they mean war in Europe like the 2nd one. The US and the West are struggling with deep crises. Crisis is an inherent nature of capitalism. It is periodical; and each time to overcome the crisis, the stronger becomes stronger, and concentrate more wealth under its control and the weak gets eliminated. The chaotic nature of crisis, if deep enough, can lead to wars.

US while creating the UN as an international institution to deal with world issues, started a brutal campaign to take over the world, suppress any voice for equality, freedom and progress. In fact, the nuclear bombs dropped by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a glimpse to the future, a sign of the shape of the world to come. US organised more than 70 coups during the cold war, bombed many countries, including Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea and Laos. Millions were killed under US bombs, by famine and starvation imposed as a result of war, under military juntas supported by the US.(6)

UN has been exposed as the instrument of US and the West to keep their supremacy and power over world affairs. UN is nothing but a theatrical show to engage and distract the minds. Its downfall was accelerated by the genocide in Gaza and its total inability to make any difference. However, when one delves into its history one discovers that from the beginning it was nothing but farce. The former UN general secretary Kurt Waldheim was a former Nazi military officer. He served in the German Wehrmacht during World War II, including in Greece and Yugoslavia.(7)

80 years from its inception, UN has become an exposed, discredited joke in the world. The Genocide of the Palestinians tore the mask and charade of human rights, international law and democracy. All the propaganda about democracy, human rights, superior science-based, humanitarian-based civilisation has been shredded into pieces.

We have enough proofs and documents to expose the ruling class and its plan for the world destruction in an attempt to deal with capitalist crisis on world scale. We need to mobilise. We need to wake up. We need to fight back. The future of humanity is at stake. Tomorrow might be too late.

(1) UK police is investigating Kneecap, an Irish band, and has charged for terrorist offence under terrorism act for singing against Israel and shouting Free Palestine.

(2)  The Red Army raised the flag over the Reichstag building in Berlin on May 2, 1945, marking the end of the Battle of Berlin and a symbolic victory over Nazi Germany. This iconic image, often referred to as "Raising a Flag over the Reichstag," is a well-known symbol of Soviet triumph in World War II.

(3) The Truman Doctrine, articulated by US President Harry S. Truman in 1947, committed the United States to providing political, military, and economic aid to countries threatened by communism. It aimed to counter the spread of Soviet influence and establish a policy of containment, where the US would work to prevent the expansion of communism. Another aim not addressed openly in this doctrine is threat of Arab nationalism which Eisenhower Doctrine, announced in 1957, addresses more openly. Eisenhower privately admitted that the real goal of the doctrine was to combat Arab nationalism. US under Truman was the first country to recognise Israel.

It’s been documented that former US National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was promoting China to support the Khmer Rouge in 1979: “I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot. Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him, but China could.” According to Brzezinski, the USA “winked, semi-publicly” at Chinese and Thai aid to the Khmer Rouge.

(4) The Marshall Plan was a US-led program of economic aid to Western Europe following World War II, aimed at rebuilding war-torn economies and preventing the spread of communism was a US foreign policy that pledged American support to nations resisting communist aggression or subversion.

(5)  1953 coup ‘d’état in Iran, Turkey 1960 and 1980, Greece 1967, Korean war 1950-53 which resulted in at least 3 million death, Indonesian coup 2-3 million death, genocides in Vietnam and Cambodia, bloody coups all over Latin America; these are some of the atrocities committed by US in cold war under the banner of defence of democracy.

(6) What is dumbfounding is the complete silence of the secularists and feminist movement and organisations with regard to this statement. Those who are lamenting over Islam condemn the misogyny and backwardness of Islam, said nothing, even to raise concern over such outright misogynist and reactionary values. Their silence is deafening.

(7) There were more high Nazi officers and collaborators in Western establishments including Hans Speidel: A general who served in the Wehrmacht and later became the Supreme Commander of Allied NATO ground forces in Central Europe. Adolf Heusinger: A general who served in the Wehrmacht and later became the head of the West German military and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee. Many were employed by NASA.

⏩Asar Majedi is a Member of Hekmatist Party leadership & Chairperson of Organisation for Women’s Liberation.

80 Years After WWⅡ 🪶 Fascism On The Rise

Ten links to a diverse range of opinion that might be of interest to TPQ readers. They are selected not to invite agreement but curiosity. Readers can submit links to pieces they find thought provoking.


Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Six Hundred And Eighty Six

John Crawley ðŸŽ¤ Why do we gather today at the grave of this Church of Ireland patriot who never considered for a moment that because he was Protestant, he was British? 

Why did Pádraig Pearse believe that Wolfe Tone was ‘the greatest of Irish nationalists…the greatest of Irishmen?’

Who was this young Kildare lawyer whom the Duke of Wellington said was:

… a most extraordinary ma n…With 100 guineas in his pocket, unknown, un-recommended, and without friends, he went to Paris and persuaded the French Government to send an army of 15,000 men to over-throw British authority in Ireland. This was an achievement of genius.

Thomas Davis and the Young Irelanders laid a stone on this grave in 1844. The IRB, the Irish Volunteers, and the Irish Citizen’s Army all gathered here over the years. Tom Clarke, executed in 1916, spoke here on four consecutive occasions. Liam Mellows, later executed by the Free State, spoke beside this grave to the Four Courts garrison just before the start of the Civil War. So, too, has a succession of Sticks, Provos, and Fianna Fáilers.

Many wish to pay homage to his inspirational life, others to opportunistically bask in his reflected glory. Some to claim his posthumous endorsement of one republican project or to imply he would have supported the surrender of another. All gather here because few in Irish history talked the talk and walked the walk like Theobald Wolfe Tone.

Wolfe Tone did not view himself as a Protestant of the ascendancy or the plantation but of the enlightenment. It was Wolfe Tone who gave the United Irishmen their name. Founded in Belfast in 1791, they were not campaigning for a united Ireland in the territorial sense; Ireland wasn’t partitioned until 1922. They were seeking to unite Irishmen in the interest of Ireland, as opposed to dividing Irishmen in the interest of England. The Irish people, Tone wrote, had ‘one common interest and one common enemy.’ The manifesto of the United Irishmen declared:

We have no National Government; we are ruled by Englishmen and the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the interest of another country; whose instrument is corruption; whose strength is the weakness of Ireland.

Ireland still has no national government. There is an Irish government in Dublin, but it is not the Government of Ireland. There are two governments of Ireland—one based in Leinster House and the other at Westminster in London. Stormont is a regional assembly of the British parliament.

Instead of national politics, we have partition politics. And who could look at Stormont and Britain’s Secretary of State and deny that part of Ireland continues to be ruled by Englishmen and the servants of Englishmen?

Unionists never had an issue with a united Ireland per se. They lived in a united Ireland under Crown jurisdiction for hundreds of years. The Orange Order is an all-Ireland institution. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches are all-Ireland ministries. And, of course, the Church of Ireland is not the Church of Northern Ireland. Their real objection is becoming subject to the democratic decision-making of a national electorate that contains a Catholic majority.

When Republicans speak of reaching out to unionists, we mean reaching out to them as fellow citizens and not as foreigners who happen to live here. Foreigners are born in another country. The vast majority of Ulster Unionists were born in Ireland. They must not be treated as the civil garrison of an alien state. That is not pluralism; that is submitting to the social and political modelling of colonial conquest.

Pádraig Pearse said of Wolfe Tone:

He has spoken for all time, and his voice resounds throughout Ireland, calling to us from this grave when we wander astray following other voices that ring less true.

Today, the voices that ring less true tell us that far from breaking the English connection, we must work within it. That sectarianism, inequality, and partition will eventually be ended by collaborating with the government that created and sustains them.

If you want to believe that, then work away. Good luck to you. If you manage to get elected or co-opted to Stormont, the British government will subsidise your belief with a salary, expenses, and ultimately a pension. But don’t internalise Britain’s pacification project and call it a republican peace strategy. We have had pacification many times in our history. We have it now. However, we will never achieve lasting peace in our country until the root cause of conflict is definitively addressed, which is Britain’s claim to govern any part of Ireland.

Irish republicanism is fundamentally about replacing sectarian and ethnic divisions with a united civic identity in a sovereign republic. It is not about a ‘Shared Island’ rooted in British/Irish identity politics.

Many supporters of the Good Friday Agreement believe the intergovernmental British-Irish Council should keep functioning even after a pro-unity referendum is won so that Britain can continue to represent its citizens in the north east of Ireland. Far from achieving sovereignty over our whole territory and population, a part of Ireland will continue to be administered under British government supervision. Many Shared Islanders also advocate a continuation of Stormont and champion an enduring role for the British royal family as an institutional point of reference for the loyalties of those who would prefer to see themselves as a civic outpost of London rather than as equal citizens of a national democracy. A 32-county state built upon the political architecture of the Good Friday Agreement will not be a united Ireland.

A Shared Island means we share in Britain’s analysis of the nature of the conflict as a domestic dispute between sectarian factions, we share in the colonial legacy of sectarian apartheid, and we share in the imperial project of divide and rule. Differences that would become incidental in a genuine Republic remain fundamental in a ‘Shared Island’. The Shared Islanders call on us to embrace these differences for the sake of peace, as opposed to Tone’s republican vision of ending these differences for the sake of peace. Robert Emmet did not request that his epitaph be withheld until his country had taken its place as two nations among the nations of the earth.

Those who believe that unionists may be enticed into a 32 County state by discarding or eroding Irish national flags and symbols, by changing the national anthem, by chasing English royalty around Ireland, or by attending British war memorials forget that Ulster unionists chose to opt out of joining the 26-County state in 1922 when that state had substantially closer links with Britain than it does today. The Free State government had retracted its allegiance to the Irish Republic, set up a subordinate parliament in the name of the King, took an oath to be faithful to that King, was a member of the British Commonwealth, and was eagerly murdering republicans with arms supplied by the British government. And yet, unionists wanted no part of it then and want no part of it now. Britain ensures they don’t have to.

Republicans know that a genuine process of national reconciliation can only begin when Britain leaves Ireland and can no longer interfere in our internal affairs. This includes Britain’s claim to act on behalf of Ulster Unionists in a future non-partitioned Ireland.

Britain was awarded no right to represent Ulster Unionists in the three Ulster counties incorporated into the Free State in 1922. Many of these unionists in Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal had signed the Ulster Covenant and were as loyal to the Crown in their day as their brethren a mile up the road in Fermanagh or Tyrone are today. One hundred three years later, their descendants are still Protestant; those who wish to be are still Orangemen, but they are not the British presence. They are equal and valued citizens of the Irish State.

During the Troubles, the UK government portrayed the war as a criminally motivated conflict in which Britain selflessly held the line between sectarian factions in six Ulster counties. However, there was no trouble between these same factions in the three Ulster counties outside of Crown jurisdiction after the British government left in 1922. Isn’t it amazing what can be accomplished when you take London out of the equation?

Ending the partition of our country while sustaining the partition of our people, giving it constitutional legitimacy, and imprinting that division with a democratic mandate is a dream come true for the Brits. It ensures that unionists will remain forever in Ireland but not of it. It makes us willing accomplices in our national discord. It guarantees that the political malignancy through which Britain historically controlled and manipulated Ireland will endure.

Despite the assertion of many Irish politicians, the United Kingdom is not our friend or ally. It is not a force for peace and should not be allowed to define the concept of peace in Ireland. Britain continues to occupy our country. It has invaded or established a military presence in 171 of the 193 countries that are currently UN member states. Britain has caused chaos across the globe. To cite one of countless examples, it played a pivotal role in engineering the catastrophe in Palestine. More recently, there have been hundreds of Royal Air Force reconnaissance flights over Gaza and aerial bombings throughout the region in support of Israel. We must not be harnessed to Britain’s war chariot. We must not be lured into a British border poll by promises of the wonderful things that can happen if we join NATO. Ireland has a democratic right to determine the Irish national question on an Irish national basis without preconditions from unionists, partitionists, or the British government. British jurisdiction in Ireland is an affront to our national sovereignty, an assault on our national democracy, and their openly stated intention to exploit our national territory in any future global conflict presents an existential threat to our national survival.

There are those donning the mantle of Irish republicanism who are so shallow, so opportunistic, so cynical they would support a 32-county Irish state becoming a British protectorate within the British Commonwealth in order to claim they helped to achieve the united Ireland republicans fought and died for. They reveal a form of corporate narcissism in which they convince themselves that anything they do is republican, no matter how counter-republican it proves to be. Wolfe Tone would roll in his grave.

Returning to the man himself, Tone tried and failed to bring French republican forces to Ireland in 1796 and again in 1797 but was thwarted on both occasions by unfavourable winds and weather.

Tone attempted a third time to bring an expeditionary force containing 3,000 men to Ireland. This last action of the 1798 rebellion took place in October when the Royal Navy defeated the French in a naval battle off the coast of Donegal. Wolfe Tone refused an offer to escape and was captured in the uniform of a French officer. Recognised by a fellow Trinity graduate, he was brought to Dublin.

Tone was tried and sentenced to death. He was placed in the same cell that his executed brother Matthew had been placed in a month previously. In the cell, he found a small razor, possibly Matthew’s, and reportedly cut his throat to deny the British government the spectacle of hanging him. He died a week later, on the 19th of November 1798. He was 35 years old. The British government would permit only two people to attend his burial here in Bodenstown.

Sean O Faoláin wrote:

If Tone did not in his life time achieve much, he started much. Without him republicanism in Ireland would virtually have no tradition.

Today we honour this intelligent and sincere man who gave the United Irishmen their name. This articulate man who defined their cause. This resourceful and persuasive man who organised three invasion fleets in an attempt to free his country from foreign rule and the sectarian structure that propped it up. This courageous man who said that if necessary, he would land in Ireland with nothing more than a corporal’s guard.

We stand today beside the grave of this remarkable patriot to honour his service and sacrifice and to reaffirm our commitment to his ideals. We stand here not as southern or northern Irishmen and women, not as Catholics or Protestants, not as inhabitants of this ‘island’ nor advocates of insipid All-Island institutions, but as United Irishmen and women. We stand today as Tone and his comrades stood then – as unapologetic Irish republicans.

Leaving Wolfe Tone’s grave, we take with us an inspiring reminder of what authentic leadership looks like. We depart re-energised by his immortal words:

To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country—these were my objects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissentions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in the place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter—these were my means.

Up the Republic!

John Crawley is a former IRA volunteer and author of The Yank.

Bodenstown Address 🪶 8-June-2025

 

A Morning Thought @ 2674

 

A Morning Thought @ 2673

Stanley Cohen ✊May 19, 2025.

Hamilton Vagi - OIC/Head

PNG NCSC, Data Governance & Standards
National Cyber Security Centre
By email to: hamilton.vagi@ncsn.gov.pg

Dear Mr. Vagi:

I am writing as an attorney on behalf of and in response to your recent email to the “DDoSecrets Team” in which you formally “asked” my clients to undertake the “immediate removal of compromised data related to the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA), which has been published on your platform.”

Although my clients respect your request, in keeping with age-old tradition and practice as journalists and publishers of information even, at times, sensitive embarrassing information, for use and republication by other journalist’s, DDoSecrets understands well its place and obligation to assist in the growth and protection of a robust and widespread marketplace of ideas … even one in which controversial, if not painful, political concepts and practices are exposed, examined and debated among the body politic as a whole.

In that light, I can assure you that my clients are not “hackers” and play no role, direct or otherwise, in identifying, seeking or obtaining information from repositories be they state or private entities concerning information and/or internal communications regarding their activities. That is to say at no time does DDoSecrets identify targets or systems to be breached or the manner and means by which to do so in order to access material from any state or private entity. So, too, as journalists living up to the highest of that profession’s age-old standards, DDoSecrets takes all necessary steps to protect/redact any and all collateral personal data it might receive that if published could pose a direct threat to individuals and or their families be it personal or economic in nature. Quite frankly, that a person, entity or a state may prove to be embarrassed by virtue of a 21st century political expose of their intent and activity is of no dispositive or controlling moment to DDoSecrets or, for that matter, any other journalist or publication … it comes, after all, not just with the turf, but the profession.

My client is a bit shocked, but not intimidated, by your undisguised threats to retaliate against DDoSecrets for what proved to be the publication by it and others of embarrassing political data retrieved from the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) of Papua New Guinea (PNG). I can assure you DDoSecrets played no role whatsoever in the manner and means by which the MRA material was obtained and neither requested nor directed others to do so when it was apparently “hacked” more than two years ago. Moreover, that the MRA publication contains political information that falls very clearly within the reach, responsibility and safeguard of DDoSecrets as journalists is beyond dispute.

As uncomfortable to state actors in PNG as it may be, one would be hard-pressed to argue that that the mere publication of data that raise questions concerning the good faith and motivation of entities involved with it constitute a violation of the intended reach of any law. For example, among the PNG related data release was an exchange of 2013-05-06 between “Mineral Government PG” and several dozen others affiliated with MRA. Entitled “Consultation Meeting- Involuntary Resettlement Policy” the exchange goes on to say:

DMPGM has engaged a consultant under the WBTA2 to develop an Involuntary Resettlement Policy for the Mining industry in PNG. As part of the interagency consultation, we will like to have a discussion session with MRA on the issues, challenges and progress so far on resettlement programs in the mining industry. (emphasis provided).

Another release within the subset of related DDoSecrets publications is an announcement that the “Mineral Policy and Legislation Division (MPLD) invites the pleasure of your company for the Dinner with the Consultant for the Involuntary Resettlement Policy at 7pm this afternoon at the Daikoku Restaurant.” In yet another related DDoSecrets publication, the public obtains access to an explosive 17-page primer for the forced displacement of indigenous communities to serve the economic thirst of local corporate vultures. In relevant part in its introduction it states:

This Policy is developed to guide and assist the State, the Developer (mining project company), the mine project affected people and other stakeholders to address the resettlement issues. The policy will assist the State team or the lnvoluntary Resettlement Committee (lRC) to assess investigations, land surveys, socio-economic information and data and the lnvoluntary Resettlement Plan for the mine project affected or displaced families.


Most recently in 2020 in another exchange initiated by the Mineral Resources Authority published by DDoSecrets we learn ….

Your email is acknowledged. I am in Porgera with inspectors at the moment recording/shooting video. I will write a response tonight. Having said that, my thoughts are that, for the most part, the allegations are levelled against OTML. Not against MRA. Hence OTML should respond separately, likewise MRA…. I’m not sure if we want to be seen to be collaborating with OTML as an entity that we regulate… My thoughts only… Our response will be from perspective as the regulator.

That you now seek to bully DDoSecrets into removing, nay, censoring explosive embarrassing information essential to an informed body politic of the People of Papua New Guinea, regarding the pernicious relationship between the mining industry and, at times, PNG is not just an affront to the role of journalism, but a dramatic about face from an earlier outreach by others holding themselves out to be representative of MRA. Thus, in a series of earlier text messages, one self-identifying as an “ISMS consultant” working for the “Mineral Resources Authority of Papua New Guinea” focused not on content but carrier. One such exchange is telling:

ISMS: “Either take the data being publicised, down and/or letting us know if it was an insider attack.”
DDoSecrets: “I mean what would happen to him? Or her?”
ISMS: “Nothing. This is all about ensuring that future risks can be mitigated. We are just interested in making the MRA more secure so this doesn’t happen again”
DDoSecrets: “Ok”
ISMS: “Can you at least confirm whether it was an insider?”
DDoSecrets: “I don’t know what to say”
ISMS: “if you can confirm it was an insider, then we can strengthen our insider security and our awareness training”
DDoSecrets: “What if I don’t?”
ISMS: “If it wasn’t an insider, then we will spend our efforts securing the perimeter.”[1]

Finally, I would like in brief to comment on your red herring of potential state and international criminal exposure by my client for nothing more than publication of politically sensitive material. Preliminarily, to the extent you rely upon the Budapest Convention as the basis to demand that DDoSecrets remove its expose on various protocols and activities of the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) of Papua New Guinea, as constructed and applied your interpretation is little more than a palpable wishful shout … an argument here lacking any relevant application as to DDoSecrets. Without analyzing in full the intended reach of the Convention, in relevant part, its clear intent is not to silence publication of materials received by journalists and publications who played no role whatsoever in the activity that led to its acquisition, but rather to address “cybercrimes” such as hacking or conspiracy to hack by those who engaged in that very activity. Indeed, on this point, unless I am in need of a stronger reading glasses, I found no part of the Convention which specifically sets forth a lawful basis to prosecute not those who hacked otherwise “secure” data bases of information, but rather those who subsequently published it … here some two years later and only after taking reasonable steps to redact the information in such a way as to safeguard sensitive personal information contained therein.

Likewise, while I have reviewed the Papua New Guinea Digital Government Act 2022 and the National Cyber Security Policy 2021 and found them to reflect a powerful commitment by the state to enter the increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century, at days end neither is on point as to your demand of DDoSecrets. Thus, while these Acts clearly express a strong commitment to the establishment of a proactive and far-reaching strategy to ensure state cybersecurity by, inter alia, safeguarding digital infrastructure each fails to address let alone criminalize, as here, third party publication of embarrassing state information.

So, too, I would note that your threat to seek criminal law intervention and enforcement through various international entities including INTERPOL is likewise a bark without bite. Having litigated and prevailed at INTERPOL on the basis of the “political” exception, I am well aware of what is necessary to obtain a Red Notice against a given identified and criminally charged individual by INTERPOL, as well as its political exemption rule. In this case, your ignored demand of DDoSecrets would, in any event, fail to satisfy the requisite charging predicate for triggering a Red Notice, and most certainly presents activity well within the clear reach and intent of INTERPOL’s political immunity clause.

In conclusion, DDoSecrets has a long and storied history of publishing what some call “compromised data” in their palpable and pernicious drive to own the marketplace of ideas, while many others across the globe see such information as essential to an informed body politic that can make knowing decisions about their world going forward. In that effort, as journalist’s, DDoSecrets respectfully rejects your request to silence knowledge. As has been its practice since it took a much-needed place in the marketplace of ideas, simply put, DDoSecrets had nothing to do with targeting the data you wish to silence, nor did it play any role whatsoever in the manner and/or means by which the data was obtained. No less true, as is its practice, it took any and all necessary steps to ensure that the data release could not in itself adversely impact or injure, physically or otherwise those referenced within its publication.

I close with apt sage words penned long ago. Although centuries may have come and gone and the medium “grown” since, the message nonetheless transcends the narrow confines of time and place … “The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”[2]

Very truly yours,

___________________

Stanley L. Cohen, Esq.


[1] The ISMS author continues on concerned not with content, but process … “There are many different types of insider threats and malicious is just one. If it was an unintentional error then that allows us to focus on different areas like adequate training of the staff.”

[2] ― Thomas Paine, A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal on the Affairs of North America

Stanley L. Cohen is lawyer and activist in New York City.

Compromised Data

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Six Hundred And Eighty Five

Barry Gilheany ✍ In the weekend just passed, President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard to California against the objections of the State Governor to deal with the civic unrest caused by the zealotry of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in pursuing the deportation of “illegal” or undocumented migrants resident in Los Angeles which is a city of sanctuary. 

It is the first occasion that a US President has sent in the National Guard against the wishes of State authorities since Lyndon Johnson sent it to Alabama in 1965 to protect Rev Martin Luther King and other African American civil rights activists from white supremacist mobs during the Selma to Birmingham protest march. Previously President Dwight Eisenhower had sent the National Guard to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1960 to enforce a Supreme Court order to desegregate schools in that state. If nothing else, Trump’s actions are a curious inversion of the states’ rights doctrine so dear to the hearts of Republicans and conservatives in the South and Mid-West of the USA.



Overall, Trump’s federalisation of the National Guard in this way is the first occasion that a US President has used such powers since the 1992 riots also in Los Angeles which followed the acquittal of four LAPD officers of the brutal assault of African American motorist Rodney King, television footage of which was seen worldwide. On this occasion Trump signed off on the order just before his attendance at that iconic display of machismo and violence, an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC – Conor McGregor eat your heart out) in Newark, New Jersey, to send 2,000 troops on the evening of Saturday June 7th after clashes between the ICE authorities. and protestors seeking to prevent deportations.

Appalling though the spectacle and the constitutional improprieties are, the events playing out in LA have most definitely been chronicled beforehand. Trump had long promised mass immigration raids since returning to the White House on the promise of launching “the largest ever deportation programme in history” which would sweep up to twelve million “illegals.” ICE raids have consequently have increased, in particular targeting some areas traditionally left alone, such as courts where immigrants might be attending hearings.[1] The performative cruelty of such programmes, including mass deportations and head shavings of alleged Latin American gangs members to supermax prisons in El Salvador, have been gleefully broadcast to a global audience. Governor Gavin Newsom said Trump’s move was “purposefully inflammatory”; that Trump was trying to “manufacture a crisis” and urged protestors “not to rise to the bait” and responded to the threat by the Secretary of Defence, Peter Hegseth, to deploy marines to LA streets if the disturbances continued as “deranged behaviour”.[2]



But ultimately it has not been a matter of “if” Trump would deploy troops to deal with street protests like those occurring in LA but “when.” Trump’s authoritarianism has been laid bare since his return to office through his attacks on cultural institutions, law firms, media companies and universities. The “Silent Violence “of his second term; the climate of fear and intimidation has seeped into every government department, every news media outlet, every corporate boardroom, every university, and every American household.[3]



Immigration has been a key battleground between the Trump administration and the US judiciary and if the judiciary loses out in its epic conflict with Trump, then it is a fair bet that the US is on the road to untrammelled executive power in the manner of, at best, a Viktor Orban illiberal democracy and at worst a 21st century form of fascism or totalitarianism.

The contours of this struggle were laid out by Vice-President JD Vance who posted on X on 9th February: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” He then upped the ante in a podcast released on 21st May in conversation with Ross Douthat of the New York Times: “I know this is inflammatory, but I think you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people. Furthermore, in Vance’s opinion, Chief Justice was failing in his supervision of the judiciary: “You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they’re not allowed to have what they voted for. That’s where we are right now.”[4]



The judicial activism which has attracted such ire from the Trump administration includes the ruling by the Supreme Court that the government must give “constitutionally adequate notice” to individuals before their removal under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act ; twelve days it intervened again, in the middle of the night, to block deportations of Venezuelans from Texas under the same antediluvian statute. The court has also ruled that the administration must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the 29-year-old migrant who had been living in Maryland for 13 years, sent back to El Salvador after what the government has admitted was an “administrative error”.[5]



It is not as if the judiciary has always stonewalled Trump’s deportation agenda. On 19th May, the Supreme Court gave emergency approval to the government to lift the separate “Temporary Protected Status” from nearly 350,000 Venezuelan migrants. Although the case is still subject to appeal, it has given the green light to immigration to proceed with mass deportation. On 30th May, the highest court in the land also afforded the Trump administration approval to revoke a Biden-era humanitarian programme to grant temporary residency to more than 500,000 migrants facing political turmoil or warfare intended to help refugees from countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, or Haiti.[6]

Yet the president and his allies remain furious with the general response of the judiciary to MAGA’s “remigration” campaign. In the afore-mentioned Garcia case, Trump and his team have opted for what the US legal scholars Leah Litman and Daniel Deacon term “legalistic non-compliance: nit picking over the precise meaning of “facilitate,” resorting to pedantry and slow-walking action commanded by the courts. With his characteristic insouciance towards the responsibilities of and the oath he took to his office, Trump feigns ignorance of legal knowledge in order to avoid giving an opinion on the even most basic points of law. So, when asked on NBC’s Meet The Press whether citizens and non-citizens alike are entitled to due process, Trump said, “I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer.” When pressed by Kristen Welker on the substance of the Fifth Amendment which refers to the rights of [7]the “person” Trump replied that “It might say that – but if you’re talking about that , then we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials” But on his Truth Social platform on a special Memorial Day post, he revealed his true feelings towards judges as well as unashamed ignorance and hostility to the constitutional principles of separation of powers and judicial independence when he attacked:

Judges Who Are On A Mission To Keep Murderers, Drug Dealers, Rapists, Gang Members From All Over The World In Our Country …All Protected By These Usa Hating Judges Who Suffer From An Ideology That Is Very Sick, And Very Dangerous For Our Country”.[8]

Added to this, Trump’s weaponisation of immigration law to arrest and deport international student activists and academics who have participated in pro-Palestine protest encampments on university campuses has brought about a decisive and shattering end to the era of ‘free speech’ (not of the JD Vance vintage though) in the USA (if such a golden era ever existed in reality). This is a clear message from the White House that dissenting political speech will not be tolerated and sadly university administrators appear to be doing little to protect their students out of fear of loss or reduction of federal funding and grants. It was the caving in by Columbia University to Trump’s threats and demands that motivated one academic, Professor Jason Stanley, an expert on authoritarian regimes and author of How Fascism Works, to leave his academic abode in Yale University and move to Canada – for him ‘the Ukraine of North America”[9].

More alarming still is the surge in outright intimidation of the judiciary. Since Trump’s return, unexplained pizza deliveries have been made to federal judges and their families as a way of making them know that their enemies know where they live and judges considered hostile to Trump have been “swatted”; where a hoax is made to summon a SWAT team to a particular address in the hope of traumatising who is at the location in question.[10].

A particularly outrageous development was the arrest and indictment on 25th April of Wisconsin circuit court judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly assisting an undocumented immigrant in evading arrest. 138 former judges then filed a legal argument warning that Dugan’s indictment “threatens to undermine centuries of precedent on judicial immunity, crucial for an effective judiciary”. The response of the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, could have been that of a law officer of any archetypal “Banana Republic”: 

The [judges] are deranged is all I can think of. I think some of these judges think they are above the law. They are not, and we are sending a very strong message today. If you are harbouring a fugitive, we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.[11] 

So in a nutshell, on Planet Trump, the law is effectively what El Presidente says it is. For that is the essential meaning of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in July 2024 that the president himself enjoys legal immunity.

In what is becoming fast moving story, Governor Newsom has sued Trump for his “illegal” orders to deploy the National Guard and the latter has announced that hundreds of marines will be deployed to LA to deal with the unrest which the Governor is trying so desperately to dampen down by his appeals to the anti-ICE protestors to remain peaceful. Is this to be the first serious constitutional crisis of Trump 2.0. The first showdown between the White House and the governor of a key state which has the potential to become a significant power in its right should this crisis presage the ultimate break-up of the United States. Suich a scenario needs to be gamed for.

[1]1 Edward Helmore and Lauren Gambino, Trump deploys national guard on LA streets following dramatic escalation. The Guardian 9th June 2025 p.1

[2] Ibid, pp.6-7

[3] CJ Werleman. The Silent Violence of Trump’s Second Term. Byline Times. May 2025 pp. 44-45

[4] Matthew Ancona Trump against the law The New World 6th June 2025 pp.16-17

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid

[8] Ibid

[9] C.J. Werleman p.45

[10] D’Ancona p.17

[11] Ibid

⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.

Threats To Democracy 🪶 Trump Sends The National Guard To California – The End Of The Rule Of Law In The USA

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