51 thoughts on “De Christmas Eve Papers

    1. Eoin

      “Sources at the Department for Transport said they were bemused by ..[the police’s] comments because the devices appeared to have been caught on video and police had reported that the drone user flashed lights at them.Sussex police also announced, however, that it had found a damaged drone on the perimeter of the airport” reports the London Times today under the headline “Drone attack farce”

      Remember it’s not the British police anymore, it’s the Brexit-era British police.

  1. Slightly Bemused

    That the couple in the drone case are released is one reason I was concerned at yesterday’s headlines. It appears they are not involved, but now their lives are torn.

    The new doubt about if there were drones evokes memories during the Troubles of hoax bomb calls. Still shut down services and caused chaos but with no actual threat. Works towards making society fear. I hope that we do not return to that.

    1. Ron

      Journalists like the boo boos that did this to that couple are now legitimate targets in the ‘lets expose the skeletons in the closet’ of these clowns and it’s coming. Tick tock tick tock

    2. Eoin

      Remember a few months back when Cliff Richards took the BBC for more than £1 million after the BBC had filmed a raid by the police investigating child abuse allegations? All the British media came out whining that Cliff’s ruling would mean they could never identify anyone before they were charged. But yesterday, not only did they not have difficulty naming those arrested with photos, you had the headline of the year from the Mail “are these the two morons who…”

        1. Martco

          and I have a lot of time for both.,,who wouldn’t want to be like them at 180 years of age wha?

          PS. my top tip for the turkey –

          1. be brave & dissect the bird first – separate out the crown, wings, legs arrange in tin use the undercarriage as a trivet under crown – it will cook much better – faster & easier to control at lower temp stops the dry out risk, plenty instructions online
          2. Half pound of butter, mash in salt pepper & thyme, push in under breasts skin & smear balance all over the crown, legs, wings
          3. streaky bacon over crown smoked if u have it
          4. Stuffing mix can be cooked alongside – make a greaseproof/baking paper & tinfoil parcel coat with olive oil

          and whatever yer having yerself as y go ;)

          Happy Christmas Broadsheeters, one and all, even the ones I don’t agree with, peace etc.

          xxx

  2. Ron

    Some select journalists in Ireland are about to have the skeletons in their closet exposed. Tick tock tick tock

  3. Eoin

    “Varadker anger at €1.4 billion cost of National Childrens Hospital”

    If only this Varadker person was in a position to have done something about it. If only he had been health minister between 2014 and 2016 as the plans for the NCH were being drawn up with contracts issued. If only he had been Taoiseach for the past 18 months and could have monitored the biggest single capital spend in the State. If only he could have demanded answers from Simon Harris in September 2018 when Harris said the cost had rocketed by 50% to €1 billion. And if only he could have mustered some anger when Harris recently gave us the €1.4 billion estimate, with a caveat it could rise further, and with the industry expecting a €1.7 billion final cost.

    But good to know he’s a bit ticked off today. Sound man.

  4. Otis Blue

    Does anyone imagine the final cost at the National Children’s Hospital will be €1.4bn?

    Escalating construction costs cheat us all, Leo.

  5. Johnny

    It’s now official,Dennis O’Brien and Digicel defaulted on 3 Billion in debt,the default is somewhat technical in that its a maturity default as opposed to monetary,but it’s still considered distressed and a default.

    In essence,Digi was unable to repay (refinance) 3 Billion of bonds,due shortly,so they offered better terms to the existing bondholders on new notes (bonds) in exchange for a few more years to repay the money they owe.Digicel and Dennis have no real intention of ever paying it back,it’s hoping or praying that market conditions change and it’s performace improves to such an extent that it can refinance these new notes.

    Basically what happened is,they got a few more years to try sort of this mess,if your term loan or mortgage was maturing/due and your credit was shot,the lender has agreed give them more time.In return for this the lender won’t allow you do certain things and gets better security.One of which is no more dividends (payments) to Dennis or any company related/owned by him-which will hurt him.He’s in effect losing money turning up for work,the opportunity cost is incalculable.Given Dennis has defaulted on 3 Billion of debt,the hypocrisy at INM is staggering,with its moralizing and sanctimonious tone anoit ordinary people,who often can’t repay their debts after getting fecked by predatory financial institutions.

    The announcement is below-
    ‘As of the date hereof, Digicel received from holders valid and unrevoked tenders of $1,931,459,000 aggregate principal amount of the Existing 2020 Notes, representing approximately 96.6% of such notes, and $953,767,000 aggregate principal amount of the Existing 2022 Notes, representing approximately 95.4% of such notes.‘

    https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digicel-group-limited-receives-tenders-for-96-6-of-8-250-senior-notes-due-2020-and-95-4-of-7-125-senior-notes-due-2022-831371953.html

    The major bond rating agencies will provide some coverage on all this over the next few days (this is really not area at all),when they do I will cut and paste the good bits.

    So congrats to Dennis for becoming a unpaid intern,well done Digi for one largest ever Irish bond defaults,coming quite quickly after a failed IPO,winning the “Irish” way huh,hard believe any this actually happened if you relied solely on the Irish MSM !

    To be continued….

    Ps-my area is urban or vertical farming,I spent some time and still do with traders/investment bankers as its extremely capital intense,and yeah we work with have some the largest and best cultivators too……

    https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-emirates-airlines-world-largest-vertical-farm-2018-7

    1. Eoin

      Thanks Johnny. With Denis no longer able to raid the Digicel piggybank for dividends or “fees” for his other companies, does that now mean the bondholders will be taking control of the company in 2022?

      Up to now, couldn’t Denis have just said “fupp it” and withdraw another $100 million dividend and let the company crash? That option is now taken off the table. Won’t he see the source of his wealth transfer into the hands of the bondholders in a few years?

      And despite the deal concluded or to be concluded by the 9 January 2019, isn’t it the case the price of all Digicel bonds is on the floor at record lows?

    2. rotide

      “Basically what happened is,they got a few more years to try sort of this mess”

      So what you’re actually saying is, he kept his company running. What an evil man. You should definitely keep obsessing over him.

      1. Johnny

        Agreed Ro,but I refrain from immature hyperbole but yes he’s evil and a curse on irish society.
        You don’t know nothing about this area,nafa zilch so why do you feel compelled comment on ALL my posts-how do I respond?
        Escalate the insults or ignore your childish almost daily taunts.
        What do you think about the revised covenants-looking forward your input……..

    3. Giggidygoo

      And some estimates of the Broadband contract here were €4bn. How is it calculated? ‘€3bn for me, €500m for you, and we’ll give the job to the other fella’
      Funny how that estimate is in the region of Didn’tSells troubles.

  6. Johnny

    Hi Eoin and happy Christmas,the boys in the NYPD choir will be playing and singing all over NY today!
    So yes the gates have been closed,anyone who tendered is locked into the new bonds,agreed it’s surprising no bounce in the bonds,which indicates they don’t expect get paid back at all.
    In essence this is just some housekeeping by the bondholders,they used this default to clean up some lose ends and make the inevitable bankruptcy a little smoother and cleaner.
    Only in Ireland and the Irish MSM could a major defaul on 3 Billion in bonds,be considered a victory,I heard they are belting out ‘The Fields…”in Talbot Street over another Irish ‘win’.
    Dennis has used Digi as his personal piggy bank for many years,it’s a jaw dropping indictment of his leadership skills,that the bond holders asked and he agreed to work for free,we pay our interns more:)

  7. johnny

    -rotide-i would not let you be editor of the church newsletter,we have a term in NY for bitter failures,its oh yeah he failed to launch or ‘I could have been a contender’-your full of vitriol,bitterness and hound me daily with personal insults, none which have anything do with my posts.
    I can only assume by spelling ‘editor’ backwards you have some relationship to DOB as your comments or insults are childlike and have now veered into school yard bully type.I find it incredibly unpleasant to interact with you,I can smell the failure and bitterness from here, the frustration,the lack of hope, the dreams gone upon in smoke.
    Fortunately I wake up on the sunny side street, my future is so bright I have taken to wearing sunglasses indoors,when I see you have commented once again,I go oh no-more rubbish and personal insults,if your goal is to chase me off Broadsheet its not going work.At any point I can simply switch to being a contributor,its MY choice to stay commenting-so stop wasting your time and for gods sake grow a pair and get on with your sad,falied,miserable little life.
    You constantly insult me by accusing me of being obsessed with DOB-I’m am far from that-the above post is about a MULTI BILLION bond default on Friday,that was reports as a WIN by the IRISH MSM-it was a default on billons of debt,the situation leading to that default was created by DOB,stripping millions and millions out the company to pay his other debts.
    So for the last time-stay off my comments you contribute nothing, just vitriol,slagging and insults like an old drunk,boring,tired and broke pub bore.

    Regarding me being EVIL-hm

    Its up me today to approve a number of projects that have been submitted for ‘greenlight’ in a division that reports to me.This division is an incubator for minorities in the US and convicted felons/criminals.Its a bridge back to life involving indoor farming.We also allocate 10% of all our farms to community groups, in one its a organization,that upskills women on probation in gardening/farming,I could go on but that’s DOB’s style not mine.

    All our farms are ‘green’ using state art technology.solar,biofuels,green tech etc.Today I also have approve a proposal involving hemp, the recent Farm Act here changed that game,including extracting the CBD oil and utilizing the remainder as a biofuel.CBD oil is changing medicine in the states and saving lives.

    On the other hand DIGICEL was just just accused of ripping off (raping) its customers by Prime Minister Gaston Browne-yeah I’m evil !

    “ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — Telecommunications company, Digicel, is seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Gaston Browne after he accused the Irish-owned company as well as another provider of “raping” the people of Antigua and Barbuda.”

    http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Digicel_seeks_meeting_with_Antigua_PM?profile=1325

    1. Lilly

      I don’t think he was calling you evil Johnny. It was a sarcastic ‘what an evil man Denis is for trying to rescue his company…’ or at least that’s how I read it.

      ‘I can smell the failure and bitterness from here, the frustration,the lack of hope, the dreams gone upon in smoke.’

      Haha, that’s me in a nutshell, minus the bitterness.

      1. rotide

        I’m guessing that’s how most educated people who don’t pretend to be powerful philanthropists living in NY read it.

    2. rotide

      That’s an impressively narcissistic wall of text Johnny.

      Of course close to none of it is in any way accurate, but hey who cares about accuracy when you’re slavering over an obsession.

      Generally I ignore your posts, sometimes I comment on them, but trust me when I say I have better things to do with my time than bully you. Regardless, you are choosing to post on a public forum and are clearly looking for approval on your endless ‘research’. With that comes the possiblity that people may reply to your comments with opinions or criticism that you might not like. Welcome to the internet, it’s been here for 30 years, glad you could join us.

      Anyway, Happy Christmas Johnny. Maybe you can take a break from your imaginary philanthropy to learn to read a little better and work on your assumptions a little more (remember what they said about when you assume something ? It ain’t me that’s left looking like an ass, so it must be ‘u’), research the many many many different types of editors there may be and much more importantly, get a hobby that doesn’t involve stroking yourself daily to DOB.

      1. bisted

        ‘…Generally, I ignore your posts’…but you don’t lowtide…you continually sneer from behind that facade that impresses Bodger but noone else (funny use of a pronoun…but who am I to argue with the Ed.)

  8. SOQ

    Anyone know what is going on with Wall Street today?

    Philip RuckerVerified @PhilipRucker sez Just in from Pelosi and Schumer: “It’s Christmas Eve and President Trump is plunging the country into chaos. The stock market is tanking and the president is waging a personal war on the Federal Reserve – after he just fired the Secretary of Defense.”

    The S&P 500 is now in a bear market, a 20% decline from the all-time high in September. Technically, this ends the longest bull market in post-WWII era.:

    No idea what this means but it doesn’t sound good.

  9. millie st murderlark

    Happy Christmas folks. May it be long, merry and wine flavoured.

    I’ll see you all on the other side ;)

    1. Ger Mc

      Happy Christmas Broadsheet. Thanks for all the work and for giving us water protesters the support we needed.

  10. Giggidygoo

    Happy christmas to one and all here. Nice to trade debate and insults under the watchful eye of Bodger.

    But in all fairness, this place is one of the few that questions the status quo. The quality of reporting isn’t questionable, unlike most other media.

    Thanks Bodger &Co.

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