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Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ writing in Substack on 8-June-2026.

Photo: GOL
The right-wing extremist, apologist for crime and man lacking in any moral virtues won the first round of presidential elections in Colombia. He surprised everyone, both on the right and the left. Now the people are mobilising in Colombia’s streets and a huge effort is being made to avoid the next Colombian president being a Latin fascist. If he wins the future will be very turbulent and violent for the social organisations, the left and the country itself. It will also be the case if he loses.

De la Espriella is further to the right than Uribe Vélez in everything. He is also more openly violent in his political tendencies and proposals as much as in his private life. The lawyer for the right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers and an advisor to the paramilitaries in Santa Fe, de Ralito and a man who said that ethics have nothing to do with law. Such a person will govern without any ethics, or rather with the ethics of the murderer, the thief, the human rights violator. He will return the country to the 1980s and 1990s when every president pretended that the military killed no one. However, De la Espriella, just like Bukele in El Salvador, sees no need to fake anything, other than empathy.

It will be a more violent and extremist government than any from the past and the international context helps them in that. For decades Colombian social democrats have looked to the USA and Europe to save the country. Some of them even promised us that Obama would save the country. Such stupidity was common amongst the NGOs. There is nothing wrong in denouncing human rights violations in international settings, even before capitalist institutions such as the European Parliament or the US Congress but trusting in them to put an end to such violations when their companies are the beneficiaries, instigators and in many cases the direct agents in massacres is naïve. However, it is true that sometimes the international institutions have helped soften a situation, but never have they put an end to it. To believe that others will save Colombia and not the Colombian people is not just naïve it is dangerous. The international context will favour the worst excesses of De la Espriella should he become president.

The NGOs used to take advantage of the conjuncture and the supposed international commitment to human rights. This commitment was always conditional but there was a consensus that western powers, should, at least, pretend to be worried and sometimes the social democratic forces in Europe took some steps, when they were in power, or forced other political forces to some something minimal. Their willingness to do so, depended on the interests at stake and the implications for themselves. But times have changed. We see a live streamed genocide and they didn’t bat an eyelid. The USA threatens half the world and they remain silent or they support it, such as is the case with Ukraine and Iran. Even more worrying in the case of a victory for the extreme right in Colombia is that in Europe the same governments the human rights NGOs would lobby are in a campaign against all rights to dissent and engage in attacks on their own people.

In Germany the police arrest people for wearing a T-Shirt with the Palestinian flag or a keffiyeh. They violently attack peaceful protests. Germany expels or denies entry to other Europeans who support the Palestinian cause like the former minister for finance in Greece, Yanis Varoufikis. In Britain the police arrest pro-Palestinian activists, amongst them blind people, old people, priests and processes them under anti-terrorist legislation. When some activists began a hunger strike the government remained firm, as De la Espriella would say, and some of them came close to dying. They also charge pro-Palestinian doctors and try to have their medical licences revoked, not for malpractice but because of their political positions. They have reached the point of going after people for the posts on social media and not just over Palestine but also other issues. During the social explosion of 2021 in which the Colombian police murdered 84 people in a short period, the European Union remained fairly quiet and limited itself to calls for calm. Now under a De la Espriella government that represses the opposition they are not going to say much, bearing in mind that human and civil rights are also under threat in Europe.

In the USA, ICE searches houses without a warrant, arrests citizens and migrants without due process and the president does what he feels like. The international setting favours the Bukele, the Milei and the De la Espriella. Colombia’s social democrats have lost the consolation of European and Yankee “support”. They will have to fight and if the youths come out on the streets again, they will have to support them, materially, publicly, explicitly and of course not betray them as Petro did, leaving them to rot in prison. The extreme right has discounted half measures and you can’t fight them with conciliatory half measures.

Some have called out for a supposed centre that never existed in Colombia. It is not that there is no centre in Colombia, just that it is not what they say it is. The nearest thing to a centre in Colombia, is the Historic Pact. In any other country, it would be seen as such being a liberal/social democratic party, with some members more to the left and others more to the right. What it is not, is a socialist party. It says a lot about how right-wing various professional commentators are that they see in the Historic Pact, Fidel Castro entering Havana. One would wish it were so, but unfortunately it is not, nor will it be. 

Whether a constituent assembly is convenient now or not, is a legitimate debate, but such an assembly is a right people have. Ask for one or not does not place Cepeda on the left, just like their opposition to an assembly does not place them in the supposed centre, though the right-wing don’t usually like assemblies where people get to make decisions. What they really want is for the HP to go further to the right, forming alliances with the “run of the mill” right like Claudia López, responsible for the murder of 14 youths in the protests against the murder of Javier Ordónez at the hands of the police in 2019. Some point to the ex-presidents as a supposed centre. They are all, without exceptions, implicated in the dirty war and it is depressing that they aim to make us think otherwise and that one has to read, not the manifestos of that “left” in the Congress or the commentators from the supposed centre to know what they did, but rather the communiqués from the period of organisations such as Amnesty International. Sipping good whiskey can affect the memory, apparently. Or maybe De la Espriella is not the only one lacking in empathy. These commentators are as much a part of the problem as the bourgeois press itself. They don’t want the country to change too much, they are living it up.

One of the problems of Petro’s government and also Cepeda’s campaign is a lack of clear left-wing proposals. Petro’s attempts to change the health system in Colombia, lacking a majority, ended up as negotiations with right wing forces in Congress, amongst them the supposed centre the commentators want an alliance with. Petro was lacking in audacity. It was also a negotiated process with the health companies such as the Spanish Keralty Group. A simple proposal, which is also simple to understand is a universal health system. To say to the people that if you come down with something minor we will tend to you to the last moment. If it is serious, likewise. If it is chronic or acute also and your income doesn’t matter as it is a universal system and so it is free.

What if Cepeda wins?

But if on the other hand, the mobilisations following the first round and the efforts the Historic Pact bear fruit and Cepeda wins, the problems won’t go away. The right-wing will simply open up another battle front. One of the first to congratulate De la Espriella was extreme Venezuelan right-winger Corina Machado and he wasted no time in returning the accusation of fraud and asked the USA for help to ensure he victory in the second round. Trump heard his call and declared his support as he has done with many authoritarians around the world. If Cepeda wins, the rabble in the opposition campaign will not hesitate to carry out a campaign similar to the Venezuela right-wing asking for sanctions, pressure and if it comes to it and the moment is ripe - ask for a military strike like in Venezuela. Petro has already laid the groundwork in that sense. He ceded to Trump on many things, narcotised his discourse on the armed conflict and spoke of a dictatorship in Venezuela. The abject cowardice he showed will come back like a boomerang. If Cepeda wins, it cannot be discounted that sooner or later they will talk of a dictatorship.

Following June 21st the fight will require fighting, something Petro never understood. The social democrats will also have to fight even if they manage to hang on to their jobs, which is what concerns many of them, though not them all.

⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.

Turbulent Times Ahead After Elections In Colombia

Joanne Murphy ★ Writing In International Leadership Association.

When a knife attack in Belfast sparked riots inflamed by outside "influencers," it exposed an emerging leadership challenge: who manages the bad actors profiting from division? Drawing on new place leadership research this post examines what leading a divided community actually demands.

For anyone who has seen (or even glimpsed) the footage of the recent knife attack in Belfast, Northern Ireland (NI) on Monday, there is something truly horror inducing about what happened on that street. It was grotesque — even in the context of a place with a history of unspeakable brutality through 30 years of civil conflict known as “the Troubles.” 

Of course, far more people will now have seen this awful event — thanks to its dissemination on social media by very many people — including Elon Musk. Musk is a billionaire who never encountered a dangerous situation he couldn’t make worse. His voice and many others, largely from outside NI, have been loud in encouraging protests and mass deportations of “migrants.” A lot of these people seemed to have a sketchy understand of where Belfast is, or the constitutional status of NI as part of the United Kingdom, but not part of Great Britain.

Continue @ ILA.

Riots In Belfast, Place Leadership Post Conflict (And Why Elon Musk Can Take A Hike)

Christopher Owens “When I was just a boy I so wanted to be loved/When I thought I held your hand I know now it was a gun/It was empty from the start but a threat to make them run/A veil of protection though we needed none" - Converge.

24/02/22 - Eight men (Owen McMahon, four sons and a McMahon employee) were shot dead at their home in Kinnaird Terrace, Belfast. According to survivors, police officers were behind the murders.

08/06/26 - One man (Stephen Ogilvie) was taken to hospital with slash wounds to his back, face and eye injuries after an attack in Kinnaird Avenue, Belfast. According to some reports, his attacker (Hadi Alodid) had briefly served as a police officer in Sudan.

Chilling proof, if needed, that history in this country doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

♞♜♝

Firstly, it goes without saying that the attack on Monday night was an appalling act of violence and should be condemned by everyone living in a peaceful, democratic society. While some details are still emerging at the time of writing this, we should still wait for more information to come to light so we can get a better picture of the circumstances that led to that brutal act of violence.

Similarly, the subsequent rioting and torching of homes that we’ve seen played out over the last few days is utterly sickening. Seeing families targeted because of their skin colour should be anathema to everyone. There is no excuse for intimidation or pogroms of any kind and the fact that this is the third instance of rioting over immigrants in the North in less than three years is a depressing thought.

A lesser discussed impact of the pogroms is that it allows the political establishment act as the moral authority and ignore the underlying causes and tensions that have led to such nihilistic violence.

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Let’s state the obvious: to the average citizen it feels like this country is at breaking point:

  • stagnant wages
  • high cost of living
  • lack of new housing
  • faltering NHS
  • a road system which gridlocks if someone sneezes
  • petty crime seemingly going unpunished
  • hypocritical and unaccountable political system
  • withdrawal of communities into individual silos
  • a society that no longer believes in itself

These, of course, are not unique to the North. Many countries in the West and the United States are faced with these problems as well.

But when mass immigration, in particular the way it's been handled by the political system, is thrown into the mix; things become explosive. This is because it’s the most obvious example of change in a society like the North which was (and still is) overwhelmingly white. Of course, there has been immigration in the past: Vietnamese, Black British, Nigerian, Sudanese, Kenyan, African, Pakastani, Chinese, Indian, Turkish, Italian, Israeli, Polish, Greeks and Cypriots have all made the North their home and we should be proud of how they have not only become part of the furniture, so to speak, but that many run successful businesses and give back to their respective areas.

However, in recent years, the number of new arrivals has increased dramatically. Once again, this is not a unique situation to this country, but it is the first time demographics have shifted not just visibly but also at great speed. Change will always happen and nowhere is immune. But change that would normally happen over a span of 50 odd years has happened in the space of 10-15 years. If handled incorrectly, the end result can lead to parallel lives, impact on already stretched health and social services, housing and a grave sense of alienation and displacement among people which can be difficult for some to articulate. If ignored by left wing commentators, it gives the far right the equivalent of a penalty kick.

And quite a few commentators from across the political spectrum have been doing that in recent days.

♞♜♝

Let’s look at a few examples, two from the left and two from the right:

Claire Hanna (SDLP):

The violence in North Belfast was horrific, the video will create fear and shock. No good will come of sharing it or of turning on each other in this society, including for the clout of online voices who don’t know or care about us and who offer absolutely nothing for the future.

On the face of it, this seems to be a reasonable request not to share the horrific footage of the attack and it’s certainly true that various terminally online types have been sharing it not only as an example of the “suicide of the West” but also because their nihilistic world view is partially quenched by such sick footage.

However, when you consider that initial news reports suggested that the incident was merely a stabbing, the tweet can also be considered an attempt to stifle discussion and downplay the severity of the attack. Considering trust in both legacy and new media is at an all-time low (who could forget "firey but mostly peaceful protests" in 2020), I don’t think this is an unreasonable conclusion to draw.

Anthony McIntyre:

The person arrested on suspicion of last night's attack is reported by the PSNI to be a Sudanese national. That has kickstarted a surge in anti-immigrant rhetoric from quarters which were much less vociferous when Ian Ogle was knifed to death in Belfast in 2019. Ogle's killers, because they identified as white and British, did not provoke the same rabid outcry that we are familiar with when the attacker is a different colour. The Irish News has reported that 'far-right activist Tommy Robinson and tech billionaire Elon Musk amplified calls for people to take to the streets in response to the incident.'

Obfuscation, pure and simple.

Firstly, Ian Ogle was stabbed in the chest and then stamped on the head by a gang of men. An evil murder undoubtedly, but one that we have (sadly) seen many times. By contrast, Ogilvie was slashed repeatedly, has lost much of his eyesight with some witnesses believing that it was an attempt at beheading. Leaving aside the 50-year-old example of the Shankill Butchers, that is highly unusual for a killing in Belfast.

Secondly, the background of Ogle’s murder involved the East Belfast UVF, long standing grudges and family ties. At the time of writing this piece, we don’t know the full story of what led to Alodid’s actions but I would be surprised if it was as expansive as Ogle’s.

Thirdly, Mackers knows fine rightly that the discussion surrounding this case will inevitably touch on mass immigration, especially now that the Home Office has confirmed that Alodid had entered the UK in 2023 (supposedly via Dublin) and was granted refugee status the same year until 2028. Writing in 2024, Mackers made his views clear: 

I'm fine with immigration but not fine with suppressing any opinion that is not fine with it. The government have not yet explained how they are going to make it practical. They do not provide the infrastructure and leave it to the leftoids to label those who ask questions about the infrastructure deficiency as far right and racist. Time out of number I have said to people that if they accuse everybody of being far right they will create a far right much more virulent than it currently is.

Yes, the likes of Elon Musk and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon have inflamed the situation but the implication that ordinary people who feel that the North is spiraling out of control have to be manipulated by such types is what the kids refer to as a cope: for many, the video of the crime confirmed their worst fears. They didn’t need anyone to tell them to be angry.

Now let’s look at the right.

Fergus Mason: 

Is anyone actually stupid enough to believe that the family of Stephen Ogilvie, who is currently in a coma with hideous injuries after being attacked by an imported savage, would write a bland statement about the importance of immigration to the hospitality sector? The government's fingerprints are all over this.

Leaving aside the blatant racism, this commentator doesn’t seem to consider the possibility that the Ogilvie family (as well as Stephen) may not be bigots and do genuinely value the importance of immigrants contributing to society, particularly within the NHS.

Disturbingly, it can also be interpreted as an attempt to dehumanise workers who are already facing a rising tide of racist abuse in our aforementioned overstretched society. Such views are abhorrent to the average person.

Paul Golding: 

I hate the IRA, but fair play to those staunch republican for telling the African invader to get the fuck out of Belfast.

Filming a man minding his own business and proceeding to racially abuse him = staunch republican? Fuck away off with that bullshit. The cunt filming that video would have run a mile if he’d been asked to help out the republican movement back in the day.

♞♜♝

The reason it’s important to look at both sides is to see how one fails to address some core issues while the other offers a blinkered, hate-filled response to a complex issue. And there’s evidence that the traditional barrier of ‘themmuns and usuns’ that has demarcated the debate on mass immigration along nationalist and unionist lines may not be as sturdy as some think.

Writing in Unherd, Aris Roussinos noted that there were scenes in North Queen Street and Ardoyne that suggested that it may not be long before nationalist areas have their own migrant riots. If true, this would be a grave inversion of the 1932 Belfast Outdoor Relief Strike (again, history rhyming but not repeating) and would dent the idea of Irish nationalism as a progressive force.

In some ways, globalisation has now given the situation in this country a wedge that has pushed both sides even further apart: nationalism/republicanism (generally) have gone Eurocentric as it allows for a decent facsimile of a united Ireland while unionists/loyalists (generally) have gone in a Brexit style direction as they feel disillusioned with the peace process. Both of these differing stances, combined with a decaying infrastructure, loss of common bond among communities, disconnect between elected representatives and the voters and stagnant wages, has added an extra layer of gunpowder onto a tinderbox which Hadi Alodid inadvertently set off with his evil, frenzied attack.

We live in deeply toxic times and genuine adults need to step up and avert an oncoming crisis.

♞♜♝

Writing in 2011 about the then recent London riots, Kenan Malik correctly diagnosed the malaise and offered up words that we must live by:

Because the right has appropriated the arguments about moral failure, many on the left have rejected moral arguments altogether. The left talks much about the social and economic impact of neo-liberal policies. But little about its moral impact. Such wilful blindness is dangerous. The questions about economic and social poverty, about unemployment and the cuts, are closely related to the questions about moral poverty, about the breakdown of social solidarity and the rise of a nihilistic culture. There can be no challenge to mass unemployment and the imposition of austerity without the restoration of bonds of social solidarity. We cannot, in other words, confront economic poverty if we do not also confront moral poverty. We need to remake our own language of morality, reforge our own moral norms.

⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.

Deliberately Misinterpreting The Present For An Elusive Future

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand

 

Religious Derangement Syndrome @ 2

 

A Morning Thought @ 3173

Catherine McGinty ✏ writing in Derry Now. 

‘IS 465 is a fraudulent standard because it was specifically designed to ignore pyrrhotite and internal sulphate attack, the scientifically proven cause of defective concrete and defective concrete products’ - Donegal County Councillor Frank McBrearty Jr

Homeowners in the North impacted by defective concrete blocks purchased in Donegal must be included in a Public Inquiry, according to a Donegal County Councillor.

Cllr Frank McBrearty (Independent) made his remarks following publication of the National Standards Authority of Ireland’s (NSAI) Revised Irish Standard (IS) 465, on Tuesday (June 2, 2026).

The controversial IS 465 included the standardised protocol for determining whether a building has been damaged by concrete blocks containing certain excessive amounts of mica.

Introduced on November 13, 2018, IS 465 was the gateway testing regime to the Irish Government’s initial 90/10 Redress Scheme, which opened in January 2020. IS 465 only applied to Donegal and only tested for mica in the county.

The revised standard has broadened its scope to include Internal Sulphate Attack (ISA) caused by reactive iron sulphides like pyrrhotite and pyrite. It also established updated methods for extracting core samples - including foundations - to accurately assess the full structural damage caused by these “devastating” minerals.

Following the NSAI revision, Cllr McBrearty has renewed his call for a Public Inquiry into the Defective Concrete Scandal, particularly the roles played by central government and local authorities.

“Such a Public Inquiry must also include home and property owners in Northern Ireland who are also affected by this defective concrete scandal,” said Cllr McBrearty. He added:

My own investigations and extensive research, following initial test results from my mother and father’s home which was structurally failing before our very eyes, led me to the conclusion I repeatedly expressed in Donegal County Council meetings and outside over the last five years - I.S. 465 was a fraudulent standard
It is a fraudulent standard because it was specifically designed to ignore pyrrhotite and internal sulphate attack, the scientifically proven cause of defective concrete and defective concrete products.
Blaming mica was a false flag, as I explained in my 2023 position paper: 'All Deleterious Materials and Sulphide Minerals Scandal: Republic of Ireland'. I have been vindicated [by the Revised IS 465].

The Raphoe councillor said:

It became very apparent from laboratory result analysis on my parents’ home from Petrolab in Cornwall, UK, that concentrating only on certain deleterious materials such as Free Muscovite Mica in Donegal and Reactive Pyrite in Mayo, has become a fatal flaw in the testing process originally set down in IS 465. 
Firstly there was zero official oversight or regulation of quarries or concrete manufacturers or building contractors in the Republic, which led to thousands of homes, and other buildings, in Inishowen Municipal District (MD), Letterkenny/Milford MD, Lifford/Stranorlar MD and wider Donegal, built on defective concrete foundations, with defective concrete blocks, literally crumbling before the eyes of their owners, 

Cllr McBrearty added:

This begs the question, why were the official standards governing the three stages in the production of concrete products not enforced by those in central and local government with the legal obligation to do so?

As we all know, there are three stages in the production of concrete products, each with an official standard to which it must legally adhere.

Aggregates used to manufacture concrete products must adhere to IS EN 12620 (governed by the National Standards Authority of Ireland) - the harmonised European Standard EN 12620 – and this standard does not contain or consider mica.

Ready-mix concrete must adhere to IS EN 206 (the Irish adoption of the European standard for concrete specification, performance, production, and conformity) and this standard does not contain or consider mica.

He added:

Finally, concrete blocks must adhere to IS EN 771-3 and this standard does not contain or consider mica,” he added. “Furthermore, I.S. 465 and now their renewed IS 465 cannot be used in any building development to test any concrete product. Only the standards above can be used and this is the starting basis for the much needed Public Inquiry.

Cllr McBrearty said:

Only a Public Inquiry can determine, why these Irish standards were not adhered to? Why was there no official oversight of quarries, concrete manufacturers or the construction industry? Why was mica fraudulently used as the basis for the Government’s two failed grant schemes (90/10 and Enhanced)? Why did I.S. 465 only test for mica, and only in Donegal?

In addition, it would pave the way for countries outside the Republic to possibly sue the State for selling defective concrete and products into Northern Ireland, Britain and Europe. We know there is wide-spread deterioration in some homes in Derry and Tyrone as a result of the use of defective Donegal concrete blocks and products.

The people responsible for the creation of I.S. 465 must be held to account. In addition, every homeowner who entered either grant schemes and was given any option other than full demolition has grounds for an appeal, now there is scientific evidence mica was not and is not the cause of defective concrete blocks or products.

“The test results from my father and mother’s home proved categorically its deterioration was due to internal sulphate attack on their blocks and internal and external sulphate attack on their foundations - not mica - therefore the removal and replacement of foundations needs to be included in any future redress scheme.

He added:

I believe a Public Inquiry should also examine the possible serious health effects on the people living in these homes, and resulting from dumped material from demolished homes to date. I feel these are being ignored by Donegal County Council.

⏩Catherine McGinty is a journalist covering the North West.

Homeowners In North Impacted By Donegal Defective Concrete Must Be Included In A Public Inquiry

Lasair Dhearg ☭ with a statement on racist violence after the brutal attack in Kinnaird Avenue.

9-June-2026
Last night a man was attacked in Kinnaird Avenue in North Belfast and seriously injured by another man wielding a knife in a sickening and barbaric attack. Only for the intervention of locals, who put themselves at risk of significant harm to save another human being, the victim could have died. We understand that he is now in hospital in a critical condition.

The individual who carried out this mindless act was not here 'illegally', and he was not ‘undocumented’ but had been granted leave to remain by the British ‘Home Office’. This has become an intense focus for many in the hours since, with many false rumours circulating on social media about the age of the victim who, it is understood, is an older adult male. If the attacker was white, you can be guaranteed that there would be fewer comments and much less speculation.

This barbaric attack now reinforces the already sickening knife crime figures across both failed states in Ireland.

Between 2019 and 2023 alone, there were a total of 901 convictions for the possession of a knife in the Six Counties. 3,500 arrests have also taken place for ‘homicides, attempted murders and serious assaults’. The Twenty Six Counties fares no better, where over a ten year period since 2015 an average of one person per month has been murdered with a knife.

The extreme majority of these crimes have been carried out by white men.

Unionist gangs are now calling on people throughout the Six Counties to take to the streets tonight to ‘show their anger’. These calls are nothing but pure sectarianism, as many of the protests are being directed to local Sinn Féin constituency offices in what is clearly an attempt to link any increase in migration to ‘the Catholics’.
 
If you are one of the many individuals out there that have stated this sickening attempt at ‘beheading’ has never happened before, you are either ignorant to the facts or telling deliberate lies. We remind you of that other Unionist gang, the Shankill Butchers, that wreaked havoc in the 1970s and 80s. Most of their victims were literally butchered with many decapitated. Cromwell's armies beheaded thousands, then during the 1798 Rebellion thousands were executed and their heads placed on pikes to spread fear throughout the country.

We remind you also of Unionist John White, friend of Johnny Adair, and responsible for two of the most sickening deaths Ireland witnessed during the recent conflict, when he butchered to death Irene Andrews and Paddy Wilson in a frenzied attack where he beheaded one and nearly the other. He was a white man. The Shankill Butchers were white men.

Unfortunately, last night's tragic attack is now completely overshadowed by the intentions of mindless bigots who want to utilise it for their own self-interests.

Those taking to the streets won't care about our history but will stoke up tension and spread fear amongst the many migrants that have made themselves integral members of our communities.

Many of those protests will be organised and attended by known thugs and women abusers who utilise social media to massage their own egos and enhance their macho persona. They will say that they want to ‘protect women and kids’ when it is well known that they themselves are, or associate with and support, the abusers of women and children. Countless members of their ranks have been exposed in recent years and months as abusers.

These are the types of people now organising protests across the Six Counties to ‘bring the place to a standstill’ yet have failed to do just that for the 67 women across Ireland that have been murdered since 2020, the vast majority of which were killed by men known to the victims and almost exclusively white.

When will Ireland be brought to a standstill for them?

⏩Keep up with Lasair Dhearg - Follow on Twitter @LasairDhearg.

No Standstill For The 67 Women Killed By White Men

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ In today’s world we hear more and more about the positives and, very occasionally, negatives of Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

Those who tell the truth, the negatives, are often deemed as ‘killjoys’ or people with ‘no vision for the future’ when in fact they are pointing out the very real dangers of AI. We are constantly told, by the ‘killjoys’ opponents, about how this new wonderful development will revolutionise our lives and make everyday existence easier which may be true or may not. 

Used properly I have little doubt that AI will improve our lives, that is the lives of everybody on this planet but only if used properly and sensibly which, under capitalism, it will not. Under the present economic conditions AI will be generally available in its most beneficial form to those who can afford and instead of making life better for everybody, in many cases, it will cause unemployment and a lower standard of living. The further down the international scale we go when we arrive at so-called ‘third world countries’ where AI could and should have a real impact unfortunately, like the covid 19 vaccine in many cases, AI will be unavailable as the country will be unable to afford it. As for employment in the so-called ‘developed world’ already, and despite being told in the early days the opposite, we are seeing large transnational companies making workers redundant as their jobs will be taken over by AI generated machines. Therefore as opposed to the future looking rosy it looks more like something people will dread. AI is the new means of production and while in the private hands of a few capitalist barons whose sole God in life is money it will have more negatives than positives for the majority of the world’s population. However, and all these arguments aside, there are far more serious aspects to AI we are told little about.

I watched a film, science-fiction, about an Artificial Intelligence generated doll called M3GAN named Megan, the title of the film being M3GAN. M3GAN stands for Model 3 Generative ANdroid and the film tells the story of Katie, a little girl who loses both parents in a road traffic accident. Her aunt, Gemma, then adopts her and brings her up accordingly. Gemma works for an AI company one of the largest in the world and she is a scientist/inventor. Gemma designs a doll, M3GAN or, in the home Megan, which is designed to be a companion for Katie. The doll is very lifelike and is programmed by Gemma to be a companion and protector to Katie which in the early days the doll does perfectly.

Unfortunately things begin to go wrong when it becomes apparent this android has taken on the ability to reprogramme itself on top of the programmes Gemma has given it, to constantly self-improve and hereby lies the clue to the possible dangers of AI in real life. The doll soon learns how to override Gemma’s programmes refusing, for example, to switch off when instructed. M3GAN soon becomes more intelligent than her designer by far and begins doing things, in the protection of Katie, which are murderous. The scenes in the film are sometimes funny and at other times frightening but at all times they act as a warning. On one occasion the doll rips off a kid’s ear then chases him into the road where he is hit by an oncoming vehicle which M3GAN knew was travelling in the boy’s direction at relative speed. The kid was a typical US spoilt brat who deserved a ‘clip round the ear’, not having his ear torn off before being killed. This was only one of countless incidents involving the taking of actual life by Artificial Intelligence, imitation life. As M3GAN increases its intelligence so too does the androids abilities advance as the machine goes on the rampage defending Katie supposedly.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution back in the nineteenth-century the owners of the new means of production knew, in most cases, fuck all about these new machines or the products these machines helped produce. The same applies in many cases today, the brains are nearly always the scientists and designers who are employed by the capitalist to operate the new technology and design new advancements and products. Through these workers' mental labour power and other workers' physical labour power, often in sweat shop conditions regards physical labour, these capitalists get very, very wealthy. The TNC in the film are no exemption to this rule, and one scene which could be any company in any land on earth in real life, the boss asks Gemma, the brains, to write a speech he can present which sounds like “I know what I am talking about” which, in reality, he did not. This way his audience will believe it to be the employer, user, who is not only the owner of the company but the brains behind the technology when nothing could be further from the truth. The employer’s sole interest, as is obvious, is profit and this is also the case in real life. All the flaws with Artificial Intelligence in this film apply in the real world. Nothing must get in the way of business and profits and a machine like M3GAN would be very profitable indeed, except it wasn’t! Could the self-destructive flaws in Megan’s constant quest to self-improve happen in real life? In all probability yes but don’t expect the capitalist owners to tell us about them. Such information may interfere with profits and that just would not do!

As AI advances and we are told very little about the possible down sides what are these negative possibilities? Well, let us take a scenario in years to come where all air traffic controlling is no longer carried out by humans but AI Androids. A nightmare scenario is this AI reprogramming and re-arranging a flightpath for two Jumbo jets at 30,000 feet forcing the two AI piloted planes carrying countless passengers to collide mid-air!! Such an accident is unthinkable because the casualties would be huge, not only passengers but people living for miles around on the ground would die!! Could such an accident happen? Truth be told something similar already has at Tenerife Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North - Ciudad de laguna Airport) in March 1977. The accident happened in thick fog when two 747 aircraft, or Jumbo Jets, collided on the runway when one of the two giants initiated its take-off run colliding with another stationary Jumbo Jet crashing into the stationary planes side. The number of deaths was 583 in what is to this day the worst aviation disaster in history. New regulations state the captain is no longer “considered infallible” and crew members, all human, must now be involved with decision making. If such a terrible incident can happen with humans in charge of operations imagine the chaos and loss of life if an AI operated air traffic control of the future reprogrammes itself to do the opposite of what the technology is designed for? Humans do not reprogramme themselves, machines can and, I dare say, will!!

As AI continues to have an impact on our lives increasing by the year in the name of profits how many corners could be cut? Could corner cutting then become part of the Androids programmes either by intent or otherwise? As long as the profit factor remains the major driving force then Artificial Intelligence will always harbour doubts about its reliability. AI could be an asset to humanity, all humanity of all countries, if tailor made to suit and assist in society’s needs. These needs do not include causing unemployment and poverty but, alas, while in the hands of private greedy capitalists, like all the means of production distribution and exchange, AI will always have a shadow cast over it. 

Unlike the film, M3GAN, one of the world’s leading AI manufacturers, Anthropic, have called for a pause in AI production. The reason for their call is some of their models are showing signs of “escaping human control” meaning the events in our film could well become reality as AI machines constantly improve their capabilities. This call for a pause in global production is dependent on all manufacturers agreeing which is unlikely. In Washington the Trump administration are opposed to such a pause, irrespective of the risks, in case China get the upper hand taking the lead in AI development. Anthropic will call a pause if they can get agreement to such a pause from all Artificial Intelligence manufacturers, if not, no pause - heaven forbid they lose profits. Better thousands of M3GAN’s could be on the loose terrorising humanity than the company lose one cent in profits more than their competitors or fall behind other manufacturers. The attitude of Trump and his administration is in line with the para-fascist (not to be mistaken with neo-fascist) policies of the White House which involves corporatism, business as part of government. The White House are concerned China will not comply to such a pause in production of AI, China will no doubt be worried the USA will not comply.

A spokesperson for Anthropic indicated “AI is accelerating at a rapid pace” and unfortunately there is no brake mechanism. The “accelerating pedal is down” but as of yet we do not have a brake to slow it down. “A pause” would allow time for us to find a braking system to slow down the rate AI is advancing. The question is; how many of the world’s AI manufacturers would take a pause in profits in order a braking system can be found? How many would be interested in finding such a brake? It is not in the interests of business to search for such a braking mechanism and, as we are constantly told, nothing gets in the way of business and, most importantly, profits!
     
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.
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M3GAN 🪶 Megan (AI)

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Ninety Nine

 

A Morning Thought @ 3172

Jim Duffy ✍ The biggest mistake Starmer made in opposition when he decided not to make detailed government plans and produced a manifesto with no details. 

As a result, it had no mandate for what to do, as it had never told people in detail what it would do.

The party may have done that as the last election result was so disastrous that it looked as if it was almost mathematically impossible for Labour to win a majority, so they were trying to maximise support by saying nothing that would turn anyone off. They end up winning a landslide, not because they won support but because the opposition was so fragmented Labour won seats by default. That is the fatal flaw in First Past the Post. It can create gigantic landslides on support levels that in a far election system would have seen a party lose.

Thatcher 'won' an landslide election in 1983 despite its vote share declining simply because the opposition was split between Labour and the Liberal/SDP Alliance with the former on 27.6% and the latter on 25.4%. It was a landslide entirely created by the flaws in FPTP. Thatcher, Blair and Starmer won dubious landslides on percentages that in any democratic proportional system would have seen them at best in a minority government.

Starmer has been struggling from day 1 as voters had not given a specific mandate for detailed policies. He has also been struggling with a hostile media, many of whom were Corbyn supporters and from day one were gunning for Starmer as he had deposed their hero.

It is easy to chicken out of putting details in manifestos, but it usually comes back to haunt you. At least when you put details in manifesto, you can say to voters "I did say I would do this. It was in black and white in the manifesto." Putting details in manifestos also helps get through things in the Lords. Under the Salisbury convention, the Lords will not reject laws that implement manifestos.

Burnham shouldn't count his chickens to quick though. There is a strong possibility that he won't win that seat in the by-election. Labour did not win that seat comfortably in the landslide. It is a Reform stronghold. Other parties may not want him as leader of the Labour Party. So you may find some Tory voters and Lib Dem voters voting for the Reform candidate to keep Burnham out of Parliament.

Add to that there is the risk that Reform may win the Manchester mayoralty as it is a strong Reform area. The worst of all worlds for Labour would be to lose the by-election and the mayoralty to Reform and have a seriously weakened Starmer stay as leader. Streeting is unlikely to win. He has alienated even once close friends in how in government he walked all over them and turned friends into enemies. He used to dine with some senior close friends like Reeves. That all stopped when they found out he was bad-mouthing them. They are now out to stop him.

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

Starmer's Biggest Mistake

Dixie Elliot ✊I watched the lynch mobs from the Catholic side of the racist fence . . . 


. . .  out in force, with their proverbial burning crosses, on social media today, frothing at the mouth about protecting our children from immigrants and refugees who were forced to flee to our country because their own countries had been invaded and plundered by white oligarchs leaving wastelands in their wake.

I have never seen one of those racist hypocrites calling for protests or action to be taken against the countless drug dealers who live in our communities and which destroy the lives of our children, causing many to take their own lives.
 
Unlike the drug gangs who operate out of our streets these people are soft targets.

This isn't about that poor lad who almost lost his life as the racial hatred was fired by the skin colour of the drug crazed lunatic who attempted to murder him. By all accounts the two of them shared a flat and had been using drugs when it turned to violence.
 
Yet there was not an utterance about the drug gangs who supplied them with the drugs.
 
Tonight Loyalist gangs who hero worship the Shankill Butchers and the Glennanne Gang are burning the homes of innocent people and their terrified children because of their skin colour.
 
When you use the same rhetoric as those scumbags then being 'concerned about your children' is a lame excuse for racism.
 
If you were so concerned about your children then the real targets would be the drug gangs who live among us.


PS: Tommy Robinson is leaving his sunbed by the pool where he lives in Spain to come and lead you to victory over people who he has found guilty of being foreigners.
 
The same Tommy Robinson who takes drugs and is a convicted criminal funded by Israel.

Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.
Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie

Lynch Mobs

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