couldn’t happen to a nicer person ;)
I’d love to be driving that karma bus
Spud
I can imagine she’ll still secure a spot of The Late Late and be paid handsomely for it…
Dub Spot
Let’s not be nasty. Jack Monroe was quite magnificent in her response and said she wouldn’t wish destitution on anyone.
I’m surprised the Irish Times hasn’t had the temerity to rip off the Guardian and find their own Jack Monroe to show how to cook on a budget. But then, the Irish Times readership has tons of money and they don’t really have anyone on staff who could cut it looks-wise or in terms or actually credibility.
Perhaps Roisin Ingle and Conor Pope can team up and do an Avocado with Beans On Toast podcast. Or maybe Rosita Boland and Kathy Sheridan can do a “Rough Guide to Sleeping and Eating Rough(age)”.
We got to vote twice on a couple of major EU issues, why not the Brits :)
Giggidygoo
Because Britain had the liathroidi to stay out of the Euro (for instance) and to determine their own future. Ourselves on the other hand are in it lock stock and barrel. If us plebs say something that our German masters don’t like, we are told to rephrase our answer.
this is real. someone has been actually fired for playing the game thanks to identity politics
jusayinlike
Freedom sock puppet.
DeKloot
What a total dumbass. If you’re gonna go WP on national TV cos your buddies down at your local dive bar or lodge will slap your back, be prepared for the consequences.
Following on from Frankie Boyle’s cancer quote above, chemotherapy will make you sick as a dog but hopefully it’ll cure the cancer. WP being the cancer, WP stupidity the chemotherapy.
rotide
except it has nothing to do with white power. it’s The Game
How can you be sure it has nothing to do with white power? The US Coast Guard think it’s a credible enough symbol of white supremacy to warrant firing the guy, and I don’t suppose they mess about lightly with this sort of thing. Shouldn’t that count for evidence against your insistence that it isn’t a WP sign? Perhaps it being associated with The Game is not incompatible with it being associated with white power? Is The Game even still a thing?
The ‘OK’ sign started as a prank on the media, and the media keep running with it, and now we’re here… even Wikipedia knows that much… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_(gesture)
I’ll tell you why. Because it’s a fupping symbol in common usage to denote ‘OK’.
It’s an OK sign. OK.
If white power fanatics decided to coopt it as a secret symbol they picked an utterly moronic symbol as it is impossible to tell if the person is in favor of the Aryan race, is playing The Game or is just saying OK.
So fine, you can believe it denotes white power. What you can’t do is accuse everyone who uses it as being a racist or fanatic. I have no idea how someone got fired for making a symbol that for 100 years has meant one thing but after a 4chan post now apparently means something else.
DeKloot
Well duh….. seriously, duh….
1930 east Asia just called and want their swastika back….
Nigel
Well if you have no idea maybe you should look into it. It isn’t as if white power types haven’t co-opted stuff before, and the KKK loved their stupid little hand signals. They’ve got you and head-the-ball defending it so it can’t be that moronic a move can it? If you or I made an OK sign we’d do it differently from these jokers even though the sign itself would be substantially the same.
Rob_G
“How can you be sure it has nothing to do with white power?”
– if I saw someone trying to trick people into looking at their thumb and index finger in a circle, my first assumption would be the juvenile Game explanation, rather than some nefarious white supremacist plot.
Nigel
That kind of faux-innocent quasi-deniability is part of the point. Supposedly.
(When Rotide said The Game, i thought he was talking about that stupid misogynistic pick-up system, I’d either forgotten about or never really known about the made-you-look-now-I-hit-you thing, Maybe the test is if you look and they don’t clatter you, they’re a white supremacist?)
Let Freedom Ring
right- so Nigel is ALSO a troll?
Nigel
I’m a 4chan meme that started as a prank but took on a life of its own and escaped into the internet to wreak havioc by confusing people as to whether I’m ok or a OK or okay.
Let Freedom Ring
I’m ok you’re ok Nigel
I have doubts about some of the others though
Rob_G
If white supremacists adopted ‘thumbs up’ as one of their symbols, would it be fine for somebody to fired if they made the much more commonly-accepted ‘thumbs up’ in some other context?
I spend a lot of time on the internet, and this is the first that I have ever heard of this hand symbol meaning anything other than ‘ok’, or ‘punch game’. I think it is a bit 1984-ish that someone working in emergency services can be fired on a whim for some mad-niche extreme interpretation of a commonly-used hand symbol.
From further down in the same article: “Earlier this month, left-wing activists accused a former Trump administration official [Zina Bash] of making the symbol during a Senate hearing.
Ms Bash, who is of Jewish-Mexican heritage, was branded a “neo-Nazi” or “white supremacist”.
Her husband, Texas prosecutor John Bash, angrily pointed out his wife is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors.”
I mean, Jesus wept – this is like the Thought Police.
Let Freedom Ring
Wrong it’s the no thought police
Nigel
If white supremacists successfully adopted thumbs-up as a symbol the sad fact is that soon people who were not white supremacists would avoid making the symbol, which is unfair and unreasonable but that’s how this kind of appropriation seems to work. Assume for a moment that the US Coast Guard have policies about not wanting racists/white supremacists in their ranks and that they take them very seriously. Assume also that they might be in a position to know more about the degree to which flashing such a sign indicates a white supremacist ideology than you or I. Inasmuch as it might be a prank, it’s backfiring pretty spectacularly on some of the people playing it, but if your idea of a good time is flashing newly ambiguous signs so you an say oh hey, that’s not a white supremacist sign that’s OK, or I’m actually waiting for you to look so I can hit you, hahahah then maybe you should go to hell.
Rob_G
Would you ever cop on to yourself – that’s like saying that my wearing of a red t-shirt is promoting gang violence because some Crips lad in Los Angeles does it as well.
The hand-punch game has been in the popular culture thing for more than 20 years (it had already been around a long time when it appeared on Malcolm in the Middle), the same symbol being used as a white power symbol doesn’t seem to have any basis in reality other than as a hoax on 4chan.
“ … then maybe you should go to hell”
– or maybe to continue to think for myself and apply logic to a situation before arriving at an opinion on it, rather than going straight for the pitchforks and torches because that online mob is telling me to.
Nigel
Rob tells me this guy, an American in America, which is a totally different continent with a totally different culture, has to be playing a game from a 20-year-old TV show for some reason, and that the US Coast guard, who have the job of making hiring and firing decisions and who are also Americans living in America and presumably more up to date on the current usage of such hand-symbols, could not possibly possess the specialised knowledge both of the culture of the US and of the behaviour of this man, their employee, that Rob, who lives in Ireland and who admits to being largely ignorant of current usage, apparently has. I really admire the fidelity to logic being displayed here.
Rob_G
“It is important to realize that the “OK” gesture is a nearly universal hand gesture and most usage of it is completely innocuous. Even when used as described here, the fact that white supremacists, the alt lite and many Trump supporters all use the symbol means that one cannot assume that anyone who poses with such a gesture is intending or exhibiting an association with white supremacy. ” – Anti-Defamation League, updated 2018
I am sure that the Coast Guard thought the ‘controversy’ as daft as I do, but it being 2018 and optics and all that, felt that they had do something to appease the mob.
Nigel
I’m sure you do think that. Me, I don’t think invoking mobs and pitchforks is sufficient to explain why they’d fire a guy for giving a hand signal that everything was ‘OK.’ If anything it suggests that there might be something to it.
Nigel
I find myself intrigued by the idea that someone came up with this as an elaborate, long-term counter-move in that stupid Game, whereby anybody who attempted to play it risked being accused of being a white supremacist.
millie st murderlark
I hate you both. It’s been way too long since I’ve been caught by that.
Dub Spot
Deserved to be fired on humanity grounds. Plus, the U.S. Coast Guard is part of the U.S armed forces: There to defend and protect ALL Americans. A firing squad for treason might have been a better solution, but I’m against the death penalty – like most right-minded Americans.
Peter Dempsey
Great to see the Mail headline re Garda harassment
f_lawless
I think stories like that have little merit in the times we live in – unless the identities of the commenter(s) writing the death threats can be directly established. To varying extents most modern states these days employ teams of online commenters to try and mold public opinion in their favour. If your goal was to try and prove to the public that the Garda reasoning for the use of balaclavas was justified, it’s all too easy to post anonymous death threats to achieve that.
Dub Spot
There’s a reason people are Gardai. Same reason people work in HR.
Giggidygoo
So which is it?
Above – Gardai claim they wore balaclavas to protect their identity.
Harris + GRA claim it was protection against fire and acid.
Well, neither would work if we are to believe the above story about identity, and obviously part of the face and especially the eyes are not covered against acid or fire.
……………
No one though has answered with clarity why the Gardai allowed the Thugmobile and it’s balaclava-covered occupants to roam the streets despite this van having no MOT and front identification number plate. Why is Drew Harris and the GRA avoiding giving any answers on that?
…………….
Kdoc
Exactly. The Gardaí facilitated a group of masked men to break the law in our capital city.
SOQ
No MOT AND no insurance because if the vehicle was not road worthy, especially as it had not been tested in four years then it could not possibly be insured. If you or I were caught in similar we would have the book thrown at us, and rightly so. God help anyone that thing ran over because there is no way it could be safe.
It has been suggested that the guards actually own the vehicle which would make sense but that is even worst. It is one thing for a private citizen to be breaking the law but quite another for the guards to be doing it. They above all should know the importance of MOT and NCT and is more than a little double standard to prosecute others for similar. No matter what way you look at it, the whole thing stinks to the high heavens.
SOQ
And just to explain my rant; I was a victim of a similar vehicle. I was standing on a pavement minding my own business when this cowboy came round the corner and lost control because one of the brakes failed. By the grace of God I was wearing a hat because otherwise my skull would have been cracked open but, I did receive two broken limbs and three months concussion. And I am not on my own by any means because there are plenty of others who have been victims too.
Because it was from outside the jurisdiction is no excuse as all they have to do is check on the gov.uk website. ANY vehicle which is not road worthy should be impounded on the spot, otherwise they fail to keep people safe and uphold lawful order. All credit to Drew Harris for his commendation of the masks but he also really needs to explain why that vehicle was on a public road.
Giggidygoo
fully agree.
SOQ
*condemnation sorry
Freedom
Waffle
These people, even though I agree with their points, needed to be thrown out and actively escalated a public order confrontation by ignoring the notice to quit
The Guards bumbled the optics of it but it was a pretty successful operation because the property is now vacant.
Freedom
And no one was badly hurt
SOQ
Oh look at you big keyboard man.
They broke a serious law while enforcing a less law. Try not being able to walk down any pavement on a main road for six months then come back to me with the meaning of waffle eh?
Let Freedom Ring
It’s sad what happened to you
I was the victim of a similar event myself in the past.
I don’t use that as an excuse for an anti civic order rant however even when I agree with the cause.
SOQ
Oh another new shapeshifter username I see. I very much doubt you were but anyways.
Where in the above is the anti civic rant exactly? Hammering around in a vehicle which is likely to fail and careen out of control at any given time is hardly the most ‘civic’ of things to do now is it?
But I doubt you even care about any of this, you just want attention, which is beyond sad.
Let Freedom Ring
You said yourself it was a rant
As for the shape shifter thing don’t make me laugh, weren’t you Some Old Queen before?
Some old princess more like
SOQ
One is an abbreviation of the other. I use the same name all the time.
WTF is wrong with you that you can’t have a civilised conversation without resorting to sneering and name calling all the time?
Let Freedom Ring
One is an extension of the other
I excoriate the same bumptious self regarding “usernames” all the time
Example/ only “your” experience knocked down by an uninsured vehicle “matters” – justifying your anti civil order diatribes
Mine on the other hand – you “very much doubt” if it happened- negging “my” insights to an irrelevance even though they are as valid as yours. Maybe more valid …
jusayinlike
Banned already, as far as I recall you are a knuckle head.
Martco
I hope this TBTC group have the sense to cam themselves up in future & maybe livestream the next encounter
recording contentious meetings with the Guards is advisable as Maurice McCabe has shown
MaryLou's ArmaLite
Were you the scummy fupper threatening the Garda ?
I understand one of those arrested had a knife, scummy people.
Giggidygoo
Did the commissioner utterly condemn the Thugmobile driver and occupants!
And where are you getting the ‘understanding’ – from the back of your Wally Mitty brain?
So if it isn’t on the official Sinn Fein propaganda sheet it didn’t happen ?
jusayinlike
You just cited the Indo, close the door on your way out..
MaryLou's ArmaLite
Please provide a list of Sinn Fein approved news sources ?
An Phoblacht
and ….. rants from shinnerbots on politics.ie ??
jusayinlike
@ Mary Lous Armpit
I’ll provide those no problem, but firstly you cite evidence of British secret service collusion with loyalist paramilitary organisations causing massacre style death tolls.
How come you never mention loughinisland or Omaha massacres and the respective fallout which unequivocally showed British state collusion with loyalist paramilitary organisations.
Degrees of stupid?
Yes, that is painfully obvious.
jusayinlike
Not as stupid as the DUP and their loon creationist troll farm..
jusayinlike
“I understand…”
“As far as I can recall..”
twit comments, but pat for course for the cowardly DUP and their troll farm.
Dub Spot
Why are these gardai on Facebook? And using their own devices? They should be more careful of their personal security.
Tough buns if you don’t get enough Likes because you’re a guard. Fupp off.
SOQ
Spin it all you want but a few keyboard warriors reacting to what was a very badly managed policing operation is hardly in the same league as at best, a downright dangerous and highly illegal vehicle being escorted to and from a crowded city centre location. They could have killed someone ffs.
If this van still had an English police force logo on it then no matter where it went, north or south, it would have stuck out like a sore thumb. And yet, no reports of sightings from anywhere. At this stage I am pretty certain that if a search of Garda storage is done, it will turn up.
Topsy
Gardai shouldn’t be smoking or doing acid on duty.
Freedom
Thanks
Your input is truly stellar
Herculean even
Giggidygoo
Glad you liked it. Now go off and take some more shill pills
Freedom
you could neg for Ireland
jusayinlike
As far as I recall you are a knuckle head.
Daisy Chainsaw
Can’t be acid, not with those bare arms and hands on display and no protective eyewear/goggles. It’s hiding their shame, pure and simple.
Any news yet or is Mary Lou waiting for clearance from Belfast ?
bisted
…I think you mean the Ard Chomairle…a few of them are from Belfast alright…just announced that it is Liadh though…
Giggidygoo
The Presedential election has now become a two-contestant race. Sales of Sean O Riarda music will sky-rocket. Higgins may forget munster for a start.
Mise Eire. I am Ireland. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xCvSzNMOMcY
Enjoy.
bisted
…I agree that it will be a two horse race but I’ll be betting the shinners top the pole on the first count…the shinner core vote is very solid and they will come out to vote…the media are declaring this a one horse race and I’ll bet the Higgins camp hate that but I expect he will win outright but only after the elimination of the other three…
It was always going to be a 2 horse race anyway
Between the Michael D and who ever the Shinners whittled their own candidate shortlist ta’
Michael D can forget about Munster
And probably Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Louth, Donegal and Meath
Now we actually have a proper race
johnny
with impeccable timing as part off a wonderfully coordinated media strategy the NYT has a simply marvelous piece on the front page off todays travel section-well done SF:)
“Were you out at Synge’s Chair?” I called out as she approached.
The sun behind her hung, unmasked by clouds, low and long in the Irish early summer sky.
”I was,” she said. Her voice was strong, clear — the way one’s voice can be when exhilarated. ”I’ll start writing a play soon.”
I have never, once, heard Higgins say, or tell the government that they have a duty of care to the citizens of this country. Has he even taken the time to address the Dail on any matters? It takes someone whose existence can be traced back to an actual traditional heritage, to say this. Someone with a bit of real history behind them.
Ni Riada has a better chance (in my opinion) of being President that any of the other candidates, including Higgins.
We have had enough of ‘Musha Eire’.
We have the real thing here. Mise Eire.
MaryLou's ArmaLite
can’t wait till SF poll around 20%
jusayinlike
and the rest..
MaryLou's ArmaLite
yer politicians are just like your commenting style – toxic
she won’t get within an asses roar.
Is she like Gerry, was she not ever in the IRA ?
Brother Barnabas
she was in the notre dame des missions convent battalion
rubbed shoulders with some of south county dublin’s meanest republicans during her time
why do you ask ?
SOQ
The only reason anyone now days cares if a parent was in the IRA is because they will be loaded? Financial not literal interpretation obviously.
Ollie Cromwell
Chanel has snubbed Paris in favour of London.
Take that Macron.
Take the Remoaners.
The legendary fashion house generated global sales of over £7 billion last year and has chosen London as the place to consolidate its global operations for the first time, despite being founded in Paris over 100 years ago. Several senior executives are set to move and the company’s main New York offices have relocated to London, bringing dozens of jobs with them. Zut alors!
Ollie Cromwell
Chanel has snubbed Paris in favour of London.
Take that Macron.
Take the Remoaners.
The legendary fashion house generated global sales of over £7 billion last year and has chosen London as the place to consolidate its global operations for the first time, despite being founded in Paris over 100 years ago. Several senior executives are set to move and the company’s main New York offices have relocated to London, bringing dozens of jobs with them. Zut alors!
#despitebrexitmehole
Brother Barnabas
ollie resorts to talking to himself
#afatethatbefallsallknobends
jusayinlike
He’s hitting bothered about the incoming second referendum.
jusayinlike
*hot and*
Ollie Cromwell
You’ve got more chance of getting a nosh off the Queen than you have of a second referendum.
It’s the soaked piece of flotsam and jetsam the Remoaners cling to as their last hope.
It ain’t happening bozos.
jusayinlike
Watch it get overturned, all the papers are rounding on the government, lobbying the masses to reverse it, it’s gonna happen and I can’t wait to rub your Tory snot in it.
jon
You really do not understand the British people do you?
A referendum was taken out to leave the EU and they voted out
Its the duty of parliament to carry out the will of the people
Instead of wishful thinking Ireland needs to get its act together regarding the damage we will face.
And do not look for the help from the EU as we experienced their help already after the crash.
Our leaders need to grow balls and not play ball with the EU
jon
Well after all London is a centre of fashion and France is a nightmare to do anything in business wise
Lived there for nine months trying to open a business
But in the end decided to move back to Ireland and open here(head done in with red tape and shoulder shrugs then the labour laws)
Add in the fact that British designers like Alexander McQueen head fashion houses in France and elsewhere
Just shows contrary to the propaganda, the UK is and always will be a centre of excellence.
SOQ
McQueen killed himself eight years ago darling, at the very least be knowledgeable of whom you quote.
jon
correct SOQ but he was such a great designer his brand still exists thrives and wins awards
But lets try another john Galliano Stella mc Cartney
The list is endless
And the only thing I did not quote was his death
SOQ
Get over yourself. You didn’t even know Alexander McQueen was dead. Stella McCartney is a multi millionaire because of her father. John Galliano is despite his passport, Spanish, and lost everything for hurling anti Jewish abuse in Paris.
Try again?
SOQ
Go read up on people like Anita Roddick before coming on here telling us we don’t understand English culture.
jon
So the police must for their own safety wear balaclavas?
We may disagree on some stuff, and move on, without personal digs. But the level of vitriol from these new names is reaching unprecedented levels of pure nastiness… :/
Think I’m gonna make a proper effort from now… to ignore the fupps !
The print run must have been done before this news emerged https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1041007160765894658
Rancid turd in human form Katie Hopkins is now financially, as well as morally bankrupt!
To quote Frankie Boyle
Cancer doesn’t discriminate, making it morally superior to Katie Hopkind.
:0) hadn’t heard that one!
couldn’t happen to a nicer person ;)
I’d love to be driving that karma bus
I can imagine she’ll still secure a spot of The Late Late and be paid handsomely for it…
Let’s not be nasty. Jack Monroe was quite magnificent in her response and said she wouldn’t wish destitution on anyone.
I’m surprised the Irish Times hasn’t had the temerity to rip off the Guardian and find their own Jack Monroe to show how to cook on a budget. But then, the Irish Times readership has tons of money and they don’t really have anyone on staff who could cut it looks-wise or in terms or actually credibility.
Perhaps Roisin Ingle and Conor Pope can team up and do an Avocado with Beans On Toast podcast. Or maybe Rosita Boland and Kathy Sheridan can do a “Rough Guide to Sleeping and Eating Rough(age)”.
GO JACK!
Karma’s a bitch.
Sure – it didn’t help this fellah who believed in instant karma https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLy2SaSQAtA
Wow, that’s pretty crass Shayna.
She went there all right.
…he was far far away from living up to the content of his songs.
In fairness, none of us live up to expectations. It was the same for him.
Yet, many still don’t do what he did.
True enough.
He didn’t discriminate Clampers, he battered men and women with equal gusto – I thought that’d put him firmly in your good books. :)
…now that is crass Bertie.
…. imagine.
Bertie your remark was awful
And not funny
it wasn’t too awful
and it was kind of funny
It was despicable
https://youtu.be/pYcAaWuaS4s
https://youtu.be/jofDZjruhD4
Bets on new Brexit referendum..
odds anyone..?
We got to vote twice on a couple of major EU issues, why not the Brits :)
Because Britain had the liathroidi to stay out of the Euro (for instance) and to determine their own future. Ourselves on the other hand are in it lock stock and barrel. If us plebs say something that our German masters don’t like, we are told to rephrase our answer.
I totally agree. I was being somewhat flippant… facetious if you will :)
I know. -)
Paddy Power will give you 9/4.
Don’t waste your money.
Didn’t your DEGREES teach you to avoid gambling?
I generally do unless I see the occasional punt that interests me.
But a second referendum ?
Not a hope.
Freedom needs some love in his life .he sounds really bored and frustrated
I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it:
US Coast Guard employee removed for ‘white power sign’ on air – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45535715
this is real. someone has been actually fired for playing the game thanks to identity politics
Freedom sock puppet.
What a total dumbass. If you’re gonna go WP on national TV cos your buddies down at your local dive bar or lodge will slap your back, be prepared for the consequences.
Following on from Frankie Boyle’s cancer quote above, chemotherapy will make you sick as a dog but hopefully it’ll cure the cancer. WP being the cancer, WP stupidity the chemotherapy.
except it has nothing to do with white power. it’s The Game
Heard that too.
How can you be sure it has nothing to do with white power? The US Coast Guard think it’s a credible enough symbol of white supremacy to warrant firing the guy, and I don’t suppose they mess about lightly with this sort of thing. Shouldn’t that count for evidence against your insistence that it isn’t a WP sign? Perhaps it being associated with The Game is not incompatible with it being associated with white power? Is The Game even still a thing?
The ‘OK’ sign started as a prank on the media, and the media keep running with it, and now we’re here… even Wikipedia knows that much… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_(gesture)
You just lost The Game :)
D’oh… now I have :)
I’ll tell you why. Because it’s a fupping symbol in common usage to denote ‘OK’.
It’s an OK sign. OK.
If white power fanatics decided to coopt it as a secret symbol they picked an utterly moronic symbol as it is impossible to tell if the person is in favor of the Aryan race, is playing The Game or is just saying OK.
So fine, you can believe it denotes white power. What you can’t do is accuse everyone who uses it as being a racist or fanatic. I have no idea how someone got fired for making a symbol that for 100 years has meant one thing but after a 4chan post now apparently means something else.
Well duh….. seriously, duh….
1930 east Asia just called and want their swastika back….
Well if you have no idea maybe you should look into it. It isn’t as if white power types haven’t co-opted stuff before, and the KKK loved their stupid little hand signals. They’ve got you and head-the-ball defending it so it can’t be that moronic a move can it? If you or I made an OK sign we’d do it differently from these jokers even though the sign itself would be substantially the same.
“How can you be sure it has nothing to do with white power?”
– if I saw someone trying to trick people into looking at their thumb and index finger in a circle, my first assumption would be the juvenile Game explanation, rather than some nefarious white supremacist plot.
That kind of faux-innocent quasi-deniability is part of the point. Supposedly.
(When Rotide said The Game, i thought he was talking about that stupid misogynistic pick-up system, I’d either forgotten about or never really known about the made-you-look-now-I-hit-you thing, Maybe the test is if you look and they don’t clatter you, they’re a white supremacist?)
right- so Nigel is ALSO a troll?
I’m a 4chan meme that started as a prank but took on a life of its own and escaped into the internet to wreak havioc by confusing people as to whether I’m ok or a OK or okay.
I’m ok you’re ok Nigel
I have doubts about some of the others though
If white supremacists adopted ‘thumbs up’ as one of their symbols, would it be fine for somebody to fired if they made the much more commonly-accepted ‘thumbs up’ in some other context?
I spend a lot of time on the internet, and this is the first that I have ever heard of this hand symbol meaning anything other than ‘ok’, or ‘punch game’. I think it is a bit 1984-ish that someone working in emergency services can be fired on a whim for some mad-niche extreme interpretation of a commonly-used hand symbol.
From further down in the same article:
“Earlier this month, left-wing activists accused a former Trump administration official [Zina Bash] of making the symbol during a Senate hearing.
Ms Bash, who is of Jewish-Mexican heritage, was branded a “neo-Nazi” or “white supremacist”.
Her husband, Texas prosecutor John Bash, angrily pointed out his wife is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors.”
I mean, Jesus wept – this is like the Thought Police.
Wrong it’s the no thought police
If white supremacists successfully adopted thumbs-up as a symbol the sad fact is that soon people who were not white supremacists would avoid making the symbol, which is unfair and unreasonable but that’s how this kind of appropriation seems to work. Assume for a moment that the US Coast Guard have policies about not wanting racists/white supremacists in their ranks and that they take them very seriously. Assume also that they might be in a position to know more about the degree to which flashing such a sign indicates a white supremacist ideology than you or I. Inasmuch as it might be a prank, it’s backfiring pretty spectacularly on some of the people playing it, but if your idea of a good time is flashing newly ambiguous signs so you an say oh hey, that’s not a white supremacist sign that’s OK, or I’m actually waiting for you to look so I can hit you, hahahah then maybe you should go to hell.
Would you ever cop on to yourself – that’s like saying that my wearing of a red t-shirt is promoting gang violence because some Crips lad in Los Angeles does it as well.
The hand-punch game has been in the popular culture thing for more than 20 years (it had already been around a long time when it appeared on Malcolm in the Middle), the same symbol being used as a white power symbol doesn’t seem to have any basis in reality other than as a hoax on 4chan.
“ … then maybe you should go to hell”
– or maybe to continue to think for myself and apply logic to a situation before arriving at an opinion on it, rather than going straight for the pitchforks and torches because that online mob is telling me to.
Rob tells me this guy, an American in America, which is a totally different continent with a totally different culture, has to be playing a game from a 20-year-old TV show for some reason, and that the US Coast guard, who have the job of making hiring and firing decisions and who are also Americans living in America and presumably more up to date on the current usage of such hand-symbols, could not possibly possess the specialised knowledge both of the culture of the US and of the behaviour of this man, their employee, that Rob, who lives in Ireland and who admits to being largely ignorant of current usage, apparently has. I really admire the fidelity to logic being displayed here.
“It is important to realize that the “OK” gesture is a nearly universal hand gesture and most usage of it is completely innocuous. Even when used as described here, the fact that white supremacists, the alt lite and many Trump supporters all use the symbol means that one cannot assume that anyone who poses with such a gesture is intending or exhibiting an association with white supremacy. ” – Anti-Defamation League, updated 2018
I am sure that the Coast Guard thought the ‘controversy’ as daft as I do, but it being 2018 and optics and all that, felt that they had do something to appease the mob.
I’m sure you do think that. Me, I don’t think invoking mobs and pitchforks is sufficient to explain why they’d fire a guy for giving a hand signal that everything was ‘OK.’ If anything it suggests that there might be something to it.
I find myself intrigued by the idea that someone came up with this as an elaborate, long-term counter-move in that stupid Game, whereby anybody who attempted to play it risked being accused of being a white supremacist.
I hate you both. It’s been way too long since I’ve been caught by that.
Deserved to be fired on humanity grounds. Plus, the U.S. Coast Guard is part of the U.S armed forces: There to defend and protect ALL Americans. A firing squad for treason might have been a better solution, but I’m against the death penalty – like most right-minded Americans.
Great to see the Mail headline re Garda harassment
I think stories like that have little merit in the times we live in – unless the identities of the commenter(s) writing the death threats can be directly established. To varying extents most modern states these days employ teams of online commenters to try and mold public opinion in their favour. If your goal was to try and prove to the public that the Garda reasoning for the use of balaclavas was justified, it’s all too easy to post anonymous death threats to achieve that.
There’s a reason people are Gardai. Same reason people work in HR.
So which is it?
Above – Gardai claim they wore balaclavas to protect their identity.
Harris + GRA claim it was protection against fire and acid.
Well, neither would work if we are to believe the above story about identity, and obviously part of the face and especially the eyes are not covered against acid or fire.
……………
No one though has answered with clarity why the Gardai allowed the Thugmobile and it’s balaclava-covered occupants to roam the streets despite this van having no MOT and front identification number plate. Why is Drew Harris and the GRA avoiding giving any answers on that?
…………….
Exactly. The Gardaí facilitated a group of masked men to break the law in our capital city.
No MOT AND no insurance because if the vehicle was not road worthy, especially as it had not been tested in four years then it could not possibly be insured. If you or I were caught in similar we would have the book thrown at us, and rightly so. God help anyone that thing ran over because there is no way it could be safe.
It has been suggested that the guards actually own the vehicle which would make sense but that is even worst. It is one thing for a private citizen to be breaking the law but quite another for the guards to be doing it. They above all should know the importance of MOT and NCT and is more than a little double standard to prosecute others for similar. No matter what way you look at it, the whole thing stinks to the high heavens.
And just to explain my rant; I was a victim of a similar vehicle. I was standing on a pavement minding my own business when this cowboy came round the corner and lost control because one of the brakes failed. By the grace of God I was wearing a hat because otherwise my skull would have been cracked open but, I did receive two broken limbs and three months concussion. And I am not on my own by any means because there are plenty of others who have been victims too.
Because it was from outside the jurisdiction is no excuse as all they have to do is check on the gov.uk website. ANY vehicle which is not road worthy should be impounded on the spot, otherwise they fail to keep people safe and uphold lawful order. All credit to Drew Harris for his commendation of the masks but he also really needs to explain why that vehicle was on a public road.
fully agree.
*condemnation sorry
Waffle
These people, even though I agree with their points, needed to be thrown out and actively escalated a public order confrontation by ignoring the notice to quit
The Guards bumbled the optics of it but it was a pretty successful operation because the property is now vacant.
And no one was badly hurt
Oh look at you big keyboard man.
They broke a serious law while enforcing a less law. Try not being able to walk down any pavement on a main road for six months then come back to me with the meaning of waffle eh?
It’s sad what happened to you
I was the victim of a similar event myself in the past.
I don’t use that as an excuse for an anti civic order rant however even when I agree with the cause.
Oh another new shapeshifter username I see. I very much doubt you were but anyways.
Where in the above is the anti civic rant exactly? Hammering around in a vehicle which is likely to fail and careen out of control at any given time is hardly the most ‘civic’ of things to do now is it?
But I doubt you even care about any of this, you just want attention, which is beyond sad.
You said yourself it was a rant
As for the shape shifter thing don’t make me laugh, weren’t you Some Old Queen before?
Some old princess more like
One is an abbreviation of the other. I use the same name all the time.
WTF is wrong with you that you can’t have a civilised conversation without resorting to sneering and name calling all the time?
One is an extension of the other
I excoriate the same bumptious self regarding “usernames” all the time
Example/ only “your” experience knocked down by an uninsured vehicle “matters” – justifying your anti civil order diatribes
Mine on the other hand – you “very much doubt” if it happened- negging “my” insights to an irrelevance even though they are as valid as yours. Maybe more valid …
Banned already, as far as I recall you are a knuckle head.
I hope this TBTC group have the sense to cam themselves up in future & maybe livestream the next encounter
recording contentious meetings with the Guards is advisable as Maurice McCabe has shown
Were you the scummy fupper threatening the Garda ?
https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/news/commissioner-utterly-condemns-online-threats-made-to-garda-who-policed-housing-protest-37321083.html
I understand one of those arrested had a knife, scummy people.
Did the commissioner utterly condemn the Thugmobile driver and occupants!
And where are you getting the ‘understanding’ – from the back of your Wally Mitty brain?
here ya , a knife and a bit of racism ta boot.
https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/garda-was-subjected-to-racist-comment-as-fallout-continues-following-eviction-protest-37311262.html
independent.ie
deary me..
So if it isn’t on the official Sinn Fein propaganda sheet it didn’t happen ?
You just cited the Indo, close the door on your way out..
Please provide a list of Sinn Fein approved news sources ?
An Phoblacht
and ….. rants from shinnerbots on politics.ie ??
@ Mary Lous Armpit
I’ll provide those no problem, but firstly you cite evidence of British secret service collusion with loyalist paramilitary organisations causing massacre style death tolls.
How come you never mention loughinisland or Omaha massacres and the respective fallout which unequivocally showed British state collusion with loyalist paramilitary organisations.
quid pro quo
Ah stop, Jus…
Watch out Mary Lou
This one has DEGREES!!!
Degrees of stupid?
Yes, that is painfully obvious.
Not as stupid as the DUP and their loon creationist troll farm..
“I understand…”
“As far as I can recall..”
twit comments, but pat for course for the cowardly DUP and their troll farm.
Why are these gardai on Facebook? And using their own devices? They should be more careful of their personal security.
Tough buns if you don’t get enough Likes because you’re a guard. Fupp off.
Spin it all you want but a few keyboard warriors reacting to what was a very badly managed policing operation is hardly in the same league as at best, a downright dangerous and highly illegal vehicle being escorted to and from a crowded city centre location. They could have killed someone ffs.
If this van still had an English police force logo on it then no matter where it went, north or south, it would have stuck out like a sore thumb. And yet, no reports of sightings from anywhere. At this stage I am pretty certain that if a search of Garda storage is done, it will turn up.
Gardai shouldn’t be smoking or doing acid on duty.
Thanks
Your input is truly stellar
Herculean even
Glad you liked it. Now go off and take some more shill pills
you could neg for Ireland
As far as I recall you are a knuckle head.
Can’t be acid, not with those bare arms and hands on display and no protective eyewear/goggles. It’s hiding their shame, pure and simple.
Shinners to announce Pres candidate at noon…… * den-den-dennnnnnn ! *
…OK, the report said around noon….. :)
Liadh Ni Riada? Good candidate in fairness.
Any news yet or is Mary Lou waiting for clearance from Belfast ?
…I think you mean the Ard Chomairle…a few of them are from Belfast alright…just announced that it is Liadh though…
The Presedential election has now become a two-contestant race. Sales of Sean O Riarda music will sky-rocket. Higgins may forget munster for a start.
Mise Eire. I am Ireland. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xCvSzNMOMcY
Enjoy.
…I agree that it will be a two horse race but I’ll be betting the shinners top the pole on the first count…the shinner core vote is very solid and they will come out to vote…the media are declaring this a one horse race and I’ll bet the Higgins camp hate that but I expect he will win outright but only after the elimination of the other three…
It was always going to be a 2 horse race anyway
Between the Michael D and who ever the Shinners whittled their own candidate shortlist ta’
Michael D can forget about Munster
And probably Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Louth, Donegal and Meath
Now we actually have a proper race
with impeccable timing as part off a wonderfully coordinated media strategy the NYT has a simply marvelous piece on the front page off todays travel section-well done SF:)
“Were you out at Synge’s Chair?” I called out as she approached.
The sun behind her hung, unmasked by clouds, low and long in the Irish early summer sky.
”I was,” she said. Her voice was strong, clear — the way one’s voice can be when exhilarated. ”I’ll start writing a play soon.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/travel/aran-islands-ireland-jm-synge.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftravel&action=click&contentCollection=travel®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
Good luck Liadh.
True Frilly, a proper race!
Good luck to your candidate of choice, I’ll be shoutin’ for MDH. :)
– –
And… sorry, to hear of the comments going down the nasty route on your Friday post… :/
Belfast?-try keep up barrow boy and follow the money,its NY these days :)-wonderful candidate and well done SF-here’s her announcement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JlA6-9Ayng#action=share
I have never, once, heard Higgins say, or tell the government that they have a duty of care to the citizens of this country. Has he even taken the time to address the Dail on any matters? It takes someone whose existence can be traced back to an actual traditional heritage, to say this. Someone with a bit of real history behind them.
Ni Riada has a better chance (in my opinion) of being President that any of the other candidates, including Higgins.
We have had enough of ‘Musha Eire’.
We have the real thing here. Mise Eire.
can’t wait till SF poll around 20%
and the rest..
yer politicians are just like your commenting style – toxic
she won’t get within an asses roar.
Is she like Gerry, was she not ever in the IRA ?
she was in the notre dame des missions convent battalion
rubbed shoulders with some of south county dublin’s meanest republicans during her time
why do you ask ?
The only reason anyone now days cares if a parent was in the IRA is because they will be loaded? Financial not literal interpretation obviously.
Chanel has snubbed Paris in favour of London.
Take that Macron.
Take the Remoaners.
The legendary fashion house generated global sales of over £7 billion last year and has chosen London as the place to consolidate its global operations for the first time, despite being founded in Paris over 100 years ago. Several senior executives are set to move and the company’s main New York offices have relocated to London, bringing dozens of jobs with them. Zut alors!
Chanel has snubbed Paris in favour of London.
Take that Macron.
Take the Remoaners.
The legendary fashion house generated global sales of over £7 billion last year and has chosen London as the place to consolidate its global operations for the first time, despite being founded in Paris over 100 years ago. Several senior executives are set to move and the company’s main New York offices have relocated to London, bringing dozens of jobs with them. Zut alors!
#despitebrexitmehole
ollie resorts to talking to himself
#afatethatbefallsallknobends
He’s hitting bothered about the incoming second referendum.
*hot and*
You’ve got more chance of getting a nosh off the Queen than you have of a second referendum.
It’s the soaked piece of flotsam and jetsam the Remoaners cling to as their last hope.
It ain’t happening bozos.
Watch it get overturned, all the papers are rounding on the government, lobbying the masses to reverse it, it’s gonna happen and I can’t wait to rub your Tory snot in it.
You really do not understand the British people do you?
A referendum was taken out to leave the EU and they voted out
Its the duty of parliament to carry out the will of the people
Instead of wishful thinking Ireland needs to get its act together regarding the damage we will face.
And do not look for the help from the EU as we experienced their help already after the crash.
Our leaders need to grow balls and not play ball with the EU
Well after all London is a centre of fashion and France is a nightmare to do anything in business wise
Lived there for nine months trying to open a business
But in the end decided to move back to Ireland and open here(head done in with red tape and shoulder shrugs then the labour laws)
Add in the fact that British designers like Alexander McQueen head fashion houses in France and elsewhere
Just shows contrary to the propaganda, the UK is and always will be a centre of excellence.
McQueen killed himself eight years ago darling, at the very least be knowledgeable of whom you quote.
correct SOQ but he was such a great designer his brand still exists thrives and wins awards
But lets try another john Galliano Stella mc Cartney
The list is endless
And the only thing I did not quote was his death
Get over yourself. You didn’t even know Alexander McQueen was dead. Stella McCartney is a multi millionaire because of her father. John Galliano is despite his passport, Spanish, and lost everything for hurling anti Jewish abuse in Paris.
Try again?
Go read up on people like Anita Roddick before coming on here telling us we don’t understand English culture.
So the police must for their own safety wear balaclavas?
Jaysus! sounds like that thread went nuts.
Feck ’em Frilly!
We may disagree on some stuff, and move on, without personal digs. But the level of vitriol from these new names is reaching unprecedented levels of pure nastiness… :/
Think I’m gonna make a proper effort from now… to ignore the fupps !
I know
And they think they’re doing that girl favours
But at least ye all know the truth now
I own and run Broadsheet
Btw
Who’d have thought Memes would have been capable of grooming a successor
Oh yeah
I’m also Leather Jacket Guy
So
Do yere worse
I’m going ta’ hell anyway
I’ll lock the door ahead of you!
‘night Frilly!
Which ones were hassling you Frilly ?