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Showing posts with label Simon Harris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon Harris. Show all posts
Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ As the Twenty-Six-County administration led by Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, and Tanaiste, Simon Harris, prepare for their joint attempt to curry favour with US President Donald Trump they appear to have conveniently forgotten the atrocities committed by the US under this man.

As the bowl of traditional shamrock is prepared to be handed over to Trump, the bodies of countless Palestinians killed during US sanctioned Israeli bombings, during what Trump calls a ‘ceasefire’ brokered by him, are conveniently forgotten. 

Despite the fact that last year Donald Trump insulted the two leaders of Irish constitutional politics by not inviting them for the customary lunch at the White House they appear hell bent on giving him the chance to repeat the belittling. Last year Trump invited former Mixed Martial Arts and fellow rapist, Conor McGregor, to luncheon with him. No doubt the two perverts had much to discuss, and it will be interesting to see who he invites this year. 

Let’s get one thing straight, as far as Ireland is concerned, Trump is not Joe Biden who really absorbed the Saint Patricks Day celebrations, neither is he Barack Obama who also enjoyed the festivities, as did Bill Clinton. No, Trump only likes celebrating himself and bombing smaller defenceless countries like Venezuela whose oil he will half inch (pinch, steal). More recently the administration led by Donald Trump in the US has stooped to new depths when on Trumps social media site an image of former President, Barrack Obama, and his wife, Michelle, superimposed as ‘apes’ was uploaded for the world to see. This act really shows the administration up for what it is, racist, imperialist, dictatorial and above all else, immoral. Yet the leaders of the Twenty-Six-County government insist on visiting him even though Trump has no interest in the audience at all! It is called going through the motions!!

The depiction of the former President and his First Lady as ‘apes’ is as racist as anything Adolf Hitler used to describe Jewish people back in the days of the Nazi regime. Would the two Irish political leaders, knowing the persecution suffered by socialists, communists, trade unionists and, above all, Jewish people have visited Hitler in Berlin? Would they have used trade and ‘jobs’ to placate or even cultivate the tyrant? A hypothetical question and one which of course cannot be answered but the point is the similarities between Trump and Hitler. The difference between the two is one of extremities but principally they are pretty similar, both are/were power crazy, racist, narcissists, and bullies. Who knows how far Trump would go but for the, albeit inadequate, checks and balances in the US which Hitler in Germany dismantled when they got in his way. On that subject has it gone unnoticed the said checks and balances in the USA are being gradually eroded by the Trump administration? 

The Trump government has, on home soil, overseen their Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), agents gun down unarmed protestors in Minneapolis. These protestors were guilty of nothing more than voicing their opposition to Tumps racist immigration laws. Apparently, such protests are no longer tolerated in Trumps USA. The Trump administration tried to claim one gunned down protestor, ICU Nurse Alex Pretti, was armed and dangerous! This was, of course, rubbish as are most of Trump's claims, but much of the media and social media swallowed this dollop of bullshit. Some in the media did speak out and I expect these people to suffer Trump's wrath in the future. It turned out the Nurse was carrying a mobile phone and not a gun at all. Can anybody tell me the difference between the actions of ICE with Presidential approval in Minneapolis and the actions of the Iranian Government who also gunned down and killed protestors in Tehran? Perhaps again the only difference was the numbers killed but principally those actions of the religious nutters in Tehran and those of Trump's mob are the same.

Trump's illegal bombing of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro should have been enough to cancel the visit. After all, would Martin and Haris have visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow after the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine? No, of course not, so why visit the racist white supremacist Trump? The images of Barack and Michelle Obama were disgusting and insulting to the offended couple and, I would imagine, the majority of US citizens! Micheal Martin regularly uses US investment in Ireland and ‘jobs’ as a cover to hide behind for going on this trip. Does he seriously believe, or expect us to believe, that by refusing to go to the US this year Irish jobs would be put in jeopardy? Does Martin really believe these jobs depend on him being ‘well in’ with the US president whoever that may be? What nonsense and an insult to people’s intelligence. US companies are not remotely interested in An Taoiseach’s relationship with the President; all they are concerned with is profit, and profit on profit at that. They come to the Twenty-Six-Counties because they do not have to pay high wages, weak trade unions barely worthy of the name, and very low corporation tax. These are the principle reasons these firms come to our shores and has nothing to do with Micheal Martin going to Washington, or not!

The main opposition party in the Dail, Sinn Fein, have finally come off the fence and stated they would not be attending this year’s events in Washington. Party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, and Michelle O’Neill, leader of the party in the Six Counties, announced “they will not attend St. Patricks Day events at the White House this year”. Mary Lou went on to state; “this is a principled stance in response to the call for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza.” These atrocities of the Trump gang and their partner in war crimes, Benjamin Netanyahu, were going on last year but Sinn Fein still attended the festivities! Why then and not now? Would it not have been more convincing to mention other wrongdoings of Trump, the bombing of Venezuela, the uploading of racist images, instead of just the Palestinian cause? The plight of the Palestinian people is terrible but has never been used by Sinn Fein in other years as a reason not to attend and looks a pretty weak excuse given the fact last year the same could have, and should have been said. Or could this be more about playing to a world audience? An audience increasing in size behind the plight of the Palestinians, could this be the real reason, a bit of political mileage and credibility perhaps?

All things considered, neither government or opposition should be attending the US festivities this year as the US President sinks to new depths. They should not have gone last year and the Conor McGregor experience over the lunch should also have told both Micheal Martin and Simon Harris something -  Trump treats them with contempt!
 
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Would Martin And Harris Have Visited Hitler?

The Journal ✎ Last weekend Taoiseach Simon Harris raised eyebrows over comments he made linking record homelessness to an upsurge in people seeking asylum in Ireland.

28-September-2024

His remarks led to accusations that the Taoiseach was deflecting blame for the housing crisis away from the Government and on to vulnerable people.

Subsequent news analysis of Harris’ words also pointed out that his remarks could not be accurate, because asylum seekers are not counted in monthly homeless statistics.

Those figures have climbed to staggering heights this year, and the number of people living in emergency accommodation in Ireland has skyrocketed since the Government took office in the middle of 2020.

The reasons behind that trend are far more complex than immigration on its own.

Experts say the lack of housing for those in long-term homelessness is not enabling the numbers to fall, while factors like landlords leaving the private rental market are playing a much bigger role in the increasing numbers of people becoming homeless.

In April, the month Harris was appointed Taoiseach, homeless figures passed 14,000 for the first time in the history of the State.

That number has increased in every month since . . .

Continue reading @ The Journal.

The Taoiseach Said Asylum Seekers Are Driving Up Homeless Figures ✸ Experts Say It's Far More Complicated

Michael O’Rourke ✍ Taoiseach Simon Harris was in Kiev glad-handing Kiev’s drug addict, war criminal President Zelensky. Here is an alternative account of pro-NATO, pro-Unionist RTE news headline from September-4.

In a grotesque speech that packed in more pathological lies than a similar sized speech in a ‘Nineteen Eighty-four’ Big Brother lie contest, could achieve, Harris showered the now unelected Zelensky with unctuous lies pretending the utterly corrupt Kiev regime is democratic. He didn’t come empty-handed though, he slipped across a cheque for €36 million as part of the €454 million package the Irish government is giving to the corrupt Nazi Kiev regime beginning this year.

Irish people on the housing waiting list and on HSE waiting lists will of course be delighted to know Simon Harris is looking after their geo-political interest in this way. And they will naturally understand that any prime minister visiting Don-Zelensky has to bring a decent amount of moolah to hand over or else they could be denounced as a “Putin puppet” by the little man – an incidental fact that never occurs to any RTE hack reporting on the visit.

The Taoiseach has also invited the Kiev regime’s war criminal to Ireland for an official visit, probably to collect another cheque, and possibly before he skips town with his millions already secured in Swiss bank accounts, and providing he is allowed to skip by the Azov Brigade. 

His wife has indicated her wish to move to one of their multi-million-dollar mansions in Florida or Italy – or maybe to Israel where he has bought a house? No, maybe not Israel at the moment! But unlike the hundreds of thousands of conscript soldiers he has forced into the meat-grinder against the Russian army to fight a NATO proxy war on the Russian people of Donbass and all of Russia, and who have died, he and his family are equipped with British passports and an exit plan for when the NATO project collapses.

It’s not likely that Zelensky will make it to Ireland however to meet with the Irish traitors, Harris et. al. in time before the fascist Kiev regime collapses, unless it’s just a quick visit to collect the moolah, and fuck you Harris or whatever your name is, I’m off, and go.

🖼 Michael O’Rourke is a former POW imprisoned on behalf of the INLA.

Harris In Kiev

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ writing in Socialist Democracy.

Leo Varadkar resigned as the high king of Ireland, sorry, I meant to say Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) and in true regal fashion his successor was chosen by a select cabal of the chosen Blue Shirts who have been in charge of this country for some time.

The anointing of Simon Harris as the new Taoiseach was a decision taken by a deeply unpopular party and was not the result of the balance of forces resulting from a general election. The south of Ireland has a parliamentary system, which means that it is parliament and not the people who chose the leader, though the only eligible candidates are those who have been elected to this parliament by the people.

New Taoiseach Simon Harris.

None of this formal democracy actually comes across as democratic. It comes across as what it is, the manoeuvres of hucksters, the corrupt, the so called great and good of society. Deals are done by businessmen, bankers, independent T.Ds who legally sell their vote to the biggest huckster in exchange for some local deal. So, the paving of roads in a small part of the country, could and does in practice determine the national outcome in choice of Taoiseach. It has been like this for quite some time, ever since Fianna Fáil lost any possibility of ever winning a majority and ever since Fine Gael lost the ability to do a deal with the treacherous Labour Party, which has proven itself willing to sell out time and again. Now a deal must be struck between three parties, FF, FG and the Greens plus a smattering of independents.

So, Harris’s anointment is not any less democratic than that of Varadkar’s or Martin’s before him i.e. it is quite undemocratic. We have put up with years of rotating Taoisigh without any election and instead the inner circle of the corrupt choosing from amongst their ranks. But this time the loyal “opposition” smell blood in the water and like sharks they begin to circle round, claiming correctly that the government was unpopular and that this in their view apparently necessitated a new election. It seems for the moment that this will not happen. All the claims and pushes for a new election have centred around the democratic value attached to his anointment. No party has been able to bring itself to say why the government should go. It is a right-wing government that has presided over a collapse in the health service, a housing crisis, cut backs, spiralling costs in the Children’s Hospital, not to mention the sheer wilful incompetency of an intellectually and culturally challenged coterie of corrupt landlords in thrall to international capital. But this is not the reason why an election should be called now as opposed to last year or in two months’ time.

The real reason that shows how unpopular and out of tune the government is, was the crushing defeat it suffered in two referenda in March. The government proposals were overwhelmingly rejected by the biggest margins ever recorded in referenda in the history of the state. The defeat was such a shocking blow to the government that its plans for another referendum on allowing the country to sign up to a European wide patents court looks like it will be shelved. Though patents and patent law can be complex it was the type of referendum the government would have been expected to comfortably win. But following its recent disasters, it is taking no chances.

The loyal “opposition” of Labour, Social Democrats, Sinn Féin and People Before Profit cannot bring themselves to demand the government stand down following the referenda failure because they were also defeated. All of the loyal “opposition” supported the government’s referenda proposals and did more campaigning than the actual government parties. Were they to use the referenda results as the reason for calling an election they would have to look in the mirror as the vote was also against them, in some areas of the country even more so. They have supported this government in all of its attempts to roll back women’s rights, housing rapists in women’s prisons, allowing men to participate in women’s sports, use women’s changing areas, erasing the word woman and female from legislation and from information leaflets from health authorities. They have supported and called for the imposition of the legally binding use of pronouns and self ID, something which has failed so far.

They have also supported the government in its attempts to introduce Hate Speech legislation. Hate was not defined in the legislation, the examples given to justify refer to actual acts of violence already covered by incitement to hatred or criminal harm legislation. Following the referenda defeat Sinn Féin saw the writing on the wall and has called for the government to withdraw the Bill it had previously supported, though the rest of the loyal “opposition” are still gung-ho for it all.

This loyal “opposition” not only supports the government in pursuit of misogynistic policies on women’s rights but also on other options. In the midst of the housing crisis, for example, they don’t counterpose the government’s ponzi scheme of constant house inflation with universal public housing, but rather with subsidies and sops to the construction industry, talking of affordable, or really affordable or even more affordable housing. Anything other than a break with the market and the ponzi scheme in housing.

The loyal “opposition” differs on technical matters, exact wording of the referenda, a clearer definition of hate, how much money landlords should make from the housing crisis, and on this last point none of them say they should make no money. They all want landlords to make lots of money and FF, FG, Greens, Labour and Sinn Féin are full of landlords. No one justified the call for an election because they are all complicit with the mess we are in and all of them bear responsibility for the reactionary referenda proposals and the disaster that followed. They prefer to point to technical matters rather than policy, as they essentially agree with policy and bicker over minutiae rather than substance.

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

A New Taoiseach 🚥 The Election No One Dare Justify

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