89 thoughts on “Wednesday’s Papers

  1. jonjoker

    Councils have suddenly “discovered” 89 buildings that can be used to house people in great need.
    It’s wonderful that those people will now have a roof over their heads.

    But the question needs to be asked:
    Where were all those buildings when Irish people (and others already living here) needed to be housed?

    1. scottser

      If they are large buildings, then most aren’t designed to be housing and may have been intended for other uses in the community. Large buildings are usually old buildings too and they come with all sorts of problems from conservation to insulation to disability access.
      It would cost a fortune to turn say, a carnegie library or a convent building into housing. A better question to ask is whether the state’s value for money protocols are going to get fukd out the window for the sake of short term optics.

      1. SOQ

        Agreed- I lived in Hybreseal in Kilmainham for years. It was a convent which was converted into apartments- beautiful old building with manicured private grounds- but, it would absolutely freeze you in winter time, with crazy heating costs.

        And that had been redeveloped so up to spec with building regulations and installation etc. God knows what those buildings would be like in winter time.

        https://search.brave.com/images?q=hybreasal%20kilmainham

    2. Kin

      No where
      Point is the EU have instructed the Irish government to house 100 thousand Ukrainian refugees
      And they are doing what they are told and they need Irish people to do what they are told

    1. TenPin Terry

      Damn your eyes.
      Just when I think I’ve forgotten that image of Angela Rayner’s Ginger Growler™ along comes someone to remind me of it again…

  2. f_lawless

    Article worth considering, in my opinion.

    https://off-guardian.org/2022/04/25/5-signs-they-are-creating-a-food-crisis/

    “You’d be forgiven for thinking that – since the food crisis is always expected but never arrives, and is always blamed on the current thing – that it doesn’t really exist. That it’s nothing but a psy-op designed to spread panic and give suppliers an excuse to jack up their prices in response to fake “scarcity” created by the press.

    However, there are indications that this may be about to change…”

    1. Mad

      I’ve been thinking the same for some time
      There have also been unsubstantiated food panics before, I’ll see if I can dig up a link for you mate

      1. K. Cavan

        Yeah, the media did the same with Pandemics, then one day Bill Gates, having bought loads of Pharma shares, decided to run with it.
        Gates has since become the largest farmland owner in the US.

    2. Covid19000

      Who are “they”? I almost wish that English didn’t have a third person plural from the way it’s thrown around

    3. Mr .T

      Quite a number of food processing plants have suffered fires in the past 24 months, including 2 in NI

      Perhaps the Chinese are trying to destabilise the west

      1. SOQ

        Ah here- I know weird poo goes on up north but leave the Chinese out of it.

        Interesting fact: the Chinese are the largest minority population in NI- great business people.

      2. K. Cavan

        The West would have to be stable, in the first place, for the Chinese to try to destabilise it.

  3. stephen moran

    Good article from Politico on how Russia is basically buggered financially if Europe stops buying its oil – he goes into the technical reasoning behind this bold claim – its particularly relevant in the light of Germany Robert Habeck (Minister for Economic Affairs) surprise comments that a full embargo (of Russian oil) would be “manageable” and that Germany could be fully independent of Russian oil “within days” – which given he was dragging his heels, this is a quite the volte-face – Germany also announced that they’d be sending heavy weaponry to Ukraine today and training their armed forces in Deutschland – so as case of the Prussians being better late that never again.

    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/26/sanction-russian-oil-without-hurting-west-00027478
    Michael Every (Rabobank) made some very similar points today in his daily ZH posting today.

    1. f_lawless

      I have a different takeaway. To me it reads as an example of corporate media serving its underlying primary function – moulding public opinion to align with elite vested interests even though it’s to their own detriment.

      “this (Russian) dependency gives the West the leverage needed to impose smart oil sanctions that can achieve Western objectives while minimizing self-harm.”

      So ordinary European citizens who get to bear the brunt of sanctions, should feel glad because the sanctions are being repackaged as “smart sanctions” and glad that “Western objectives” can be achieved – which in reality have little to do with their own best interests.

      And speaking of adopting top-down opinions as one’s own, when you’re applauding more heavy weaponry being sent to Ukraine which inevitably will lead to a more drawn out conflict and pointless deaths, then it should really be pause for thought.

      1. stephen moran

        With reference to “pointless deaths” – there certainly is one side (the hostile neo-Czarist invader) doing all the heavy lifting in that department since late February- as Japan realized after Pearl Harbour , Russia has awoken the slumbering western giant and that will result in the country being set back a generation economically and it will remain a pariah state until Putin is deposed.

        1. bisted

          …I feel so sorry for Ukraine that it has been chosen by NATO to fight this proxy war against Russia…not content with heaping humiliation after humiliation upon a country that paid such a high price in the last fight against nazism the US have expressed their objective of relentless regime change…this is an existential moment for Russia…they have lost the propaganda war in Ukraine…it’s time to remove the kid gloves…

          1. SOQ

            You know they have lost the propaganda war how? Putin’s ratings are at an all-time high so certainly not in Russia. As for China and India – who knows? The west basically thinks the planet spins around them, but even Israel is now diversifying its reserves from Dollars into roubles.

            Either way, propaganda wars do not win real wars, and it is looking like what will be left of Ukraine- meaning the resource light west, a land locked basket case full of armed to the teeth Nazis, will be left to the EU to deal with. Plus a yearly bill of EIGHTY-FOUR BILLION of course- and that is probably a conservative estimate.

          2. stephen moran

            Personal rating in a totalitarian autocracy – just like big boy Kimmie – spare us the plainly idiotic self delusional false equivalence with a democracy – Russia only choice is how badly it loses this war – do they want to set the country back 20 years or 40 years. Rosneft failed to sell 37 million barrels of oil yesterday. FACT – not a counterfactual piece of editorializing based on bunkum conspiracy theories

            https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/russias-largest-oil-maker-failed-sell-millions-crude-barrels-oil-2022-4

          3. SOQ

            And Ukraine is such a shining example of democracy now isn’t it?

            Six opposition parties banned and three TV station closed one year before any of this even started. And that is not even thinking about the state funded Azov Nazis butchering the Russian speaker populations in the west for eight years.

            As for the energy supplies- China and India are already picking up the slack- in Euros and CNY of course. BRICS is establishing itself and unlike the west, it is growing.

          4. bWildered1

            Ah, more nonsense from SOQ.

            ‘China and India are picking up the slack’ for oil not being bought by Europe.
            Russia just failed in a auction of their flagship Urals oil – 37 million barrels.
            And they had to turn Polish gas supplies back on.

            Yea, Russia is not feeling the effects of Europe’s sanctions at all.
            /s

            And as for Ukrainian democracy, isn’t it a gem compared to Russian democracy, don’t you think?
            And don’t you think any nation should ban groups whose allegiance is to another, enemy, country (aka traitors)?

            Have you considered that you just might not be the deep thinker you believe yourself to be, if you buy into blatant Russian propaganda so willingly?

          5. Kin

            I agree bisted
            Watched the press conference and when the US head of defence made his speech he first quoted he congratulated zelensky for his defeat in Kiev then backtracked to victory
            This is a boom for the USA and WW2 and ever since has just got more and more indebted
            I only hope of WW3 starts then the nukes Russia targets the USA first

          6. K. Cavan

            The EU is presided over by an unelected, ex-MP from Germany & most Europeans couldn’t name more than one or two of the Commissioners who rule them. We’re not living in democracies, so are in no position to lecture anyone else about it.
            India is getting Russian crude at $35 a barrel, good for India but of little use to us. If anyone thinks any of these sanctions will make a blind bit of difference to Russia, they’re living in the cloud cuckoo land of The West’s Media-generated Clownworld.
            This is truckloads of cope, we’re on the road to oblivion, sheep led by donkeys.

          7. Nigel

            ‘chosen by NATO’

            Chosen by Putin, you mean.

            ‘it’s time to remove the kid gloves’

            More war crimes? Chemical attack? Tactical nuke?

        2. K. Cavan

          Attaching a series of ill-fitting monikers to Russia, trying to imply that they’re doing anything other that looking after their own interests, is just silly, stephen. Thinking that they’ll be bothered by being called a “pariah” by one-eight of the world’s nations is delusional, especially since those nations are already virtually at war with them.

          1. stephen moran

            Your trademark fact free rubbish – 37 million barrels went UNSOLD yesterday – India will up its demand from 1 to 3 percent as it plays the geo-strategic game (as China is still their main foe) -if you read the article is goes into a lot of detail precisely why this trope of China and India stepping up their demand is complete garbage – the that logistics (yes details old boy) simply render that impossible and will take many years and vast capital investment to change that FACT – Russia doesn’t have that time – China has far too much on its plate with an imploding domestic economy and Covid – you can continue to inhabit a parallel world of counterfactuals that is a heady mix of naivety and idiocy if you wish but Russia is buggered – the leaders of the rest of the world whatever their hue are paranoid about rocketing food prices and not getting overthrown by coups / uprisings not poxy Russia – bar such bastions of sound governance like Eritrea (whom i believe are the latest bit of bottom of barrel scrapping Russia has to prostrate itself before to beg for mercenaries as it simply doesn’t have the manpower in its beaten matchbox / Airfix army

      2. Rob_G

        “And speaking of adopting top-down opinions as one’s own, when you’re applauding more heavy weaponry being sent to Ukraine which inevitably will lead to a more drawn out conflict and pointless deaths, then it should really be pause for thought.”

        To follow that line of reasoning, Britain should have just the Nazis invade unopposed, as fighting them resulted in more deaths and more drawn-out conflict than simply handing them over the keys to the shop would have done.

        1. K. Cavan

          Invade where, Rob G? If Britain hadn’t come to the aid of other nations in Europe, it’s unlikely Germany would’ve ever considered invading across the Channel. You actually think the result of WW2, with the creation of the Iron Curtain & the Cold War was a win?

    2. K. Cavan

      Halbeck, unsurprisingly, is lying. The current German government hasn’t long left but if he actually believes that utter nonsense, it’ll be even shorter-lived than I’d assumed.
      The EU’s incoherent “energy policy” has been driving European industry towards the cliff for decades but their current actions make it seem they plan to throw it out of the car, to its death, even before it reaches the cliff.

  4. Boe_Jiden

    when will these bog-brained idiots get it into their heads that the planet will LITERALLY die if we continue using fossil fuels like turf? lock them up until they see sense.

    1. Mr .T

      “the planet will LITERALLY die”

      Uhh, no it wont. Planet earth will keep on being a planet, keep on hosting life etc regardless of our actions. Whether it continues to host humans is another story, likely humans will continue to survive, albeit in much lower numbers. Which is a good thing for nature tbh

        1. Kin

          Paul the greens are very silent about the global footprint from a war
          I wonder if the governments put a carbon tax on it and as such stop going to war
          Can you imagine offsetting the carbon emissions by planting trees or even artificial carbon capturing trees
          Imagine the fines put on the USA GermanyUK and others for the supply of arms ?

          1. K. Cavan

            Well, Kin, our Greens oversaw the construction of numerous ghost estates, last time they were in government, that’s some enormous carbon footprint from houses that were never even occupied. The road to hell is paved with Good Intentions & that’s what the Green Party specialise in.

      1. Ian - oG

        While I’d tend to agree with the idea that life will carry on in some form, we’d still leave some mess behind us that would take 100s of 1000s of years before it was wiped clean by natural processes.

        Old nuclear plants and missiles stuffed with fissionable materials, toxic dumps, plastic everywhere and so on.

        Still though, I suppose the rodents are due their shot, the primates were looking good for a while but then we discovered social media and the end was writ truly large on the global wall.

        מנא מנא תקל ופרסין

        1. K. Cavan

          The point is, Ian, that Climate Change is not a serious problem, compared to the other ecological damage you’ve mentioned, yet we’ve had our focus directed at it, by a media controlled by the people doing most of the other polluting, not to mention using most of the fossil fuels.
          CO2 has been far, far higher during long periods of Earth’s existence, it actually played a huge part in the evolution of life, as we know it, by allowing hard shelled marine life to develop.

          1. paul

            you’re not wrong there. Thankfully we’ll all be dust by that stage. Then we’ll be burnt dust, then squeezed dust and then who knows.

            (I’m thinking in terms of our sun and the heat-death of the universe, I hope we’re on the same page).

          2. Ian - oG

            Sorry Janet but according to current cosmological thinking there is actually no end in sight, ever.

            Matter will just drift further and further apart, photons will cease and there will be thermodynamic processes so no light, heat, movement etc.

            Eventually, the entire universe will be one enormous, dark, freezing nothingness, the ‘heat death’ which Paul speaks of above.

            Anyway, have a lovely day!

            ;)

          3. paul

            I’m divided but gladly moving in that direction, Janet. I see a lot of death in my job, which muddies the water, but there is always clarity to be had if you go looking with an open mind :)

            edit: Ian – oG: I always thought the ‘heat death’ was a death by heat. You’ve given me something to look up over lunch.

          4. scottser

            ah now ian, THIS universe might be gooched one day, but there are infinite universes.
            be grand

          5. Ian - oG

            @ Paul/scottsers/Janet – tis just a theory really and not one anyone will ever be around to prove right or wrong.

            But yes scottser, alternate universes are possible, an unending myriad of them without end and Janet, maybe we are already in YOUR universe!?!

      2. Nigel

        ‘Whether it continues to host humans is another story’

        To us, it’s the main stroy, not a trivial side-effect.

    2. K. Cavan

      Well, Boe, if we stop using fossil fuels, we will LITERALLY die, Mr. T has covered the rest.

    1. Kin

      So we are going to build all those homes for Ukrainian refugees to be used for a few years then of course what is done with them?
      Maybe build them on wheels then they can move them to Ukraine job done then back to what Ireland really dose well
      Homelessness
      It’s a growing industry
      It cost the state €19 thousand last year to look after each homeless person
      That’s some potato’s

      1. K. Cavan

        It’s another NGO scam, like Racism, Sexism, Gender Waffle, etc.
        90% of the State funding to “homeless charities” is eaten up by wage bills, employing some of the excess middle-class kids with degrees in obscure Social Sciences, which our useless university industry churns out, for no good reason.

    2. K. Cavan

      In reality, there never was a queue. Homelessness in the West has gone hand-in-hand with our current regimes, our governments don’t give a toss about it.

  5. TenPin Terry

    Delighted to read the editor of the Mail on Sunday has told the increasingly pompous Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to go whistle Dixie out of his backside.
    Hoyle – who is beginning to suffer Bercow-like delusions – had said he’s summoned the journo over the Ginger Growler™ story.
    Editor David Dillon told him to get lost saying journalists should ‘not take instruction from officials of the House of Commons’.
    Absolutely right.
    Unlike the tame hacks in Ireland the UK media is not a branch of government.

  6. TenPin Terry

    Racist Ireland in action once again.
    The country that likes to fling the R word at our neighbours on the mainland has rather a significant plank of wood to take out of their own eye.
    ” Foreign nationals and people from non-white ethnic backgrounds are receiving significantly longer prison sentences than their white Irish peers for sexual offences and drug offences, new research has found.
    ” The study, published on Wednesday, reveals people with an ethnicity other than white were sentenced to 32 months longer in prison for sexual offences than those of white ethnicity – 81 months compared with 49 months.”
    Truly shocking statistics for which this country should hang its head in shame.
    Own it Paddy.
    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/foreign-nationals-and-non-whites-get-longer-jail-terms-for-sex-and-drug-offences-study-shows-1.4862709

    1. Broadbag

      Wait until you see how lightly female offenders get treated here compared to their male counterparts, it’s quite mind boggling in some cases.

    2. GiggidyGoo

      The report, commissioned by IPRT from the Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology, presents the findings of a small-scale exploratory study examining the rights, needs and experiences of prisoners and people with experience of probation who are from foreign national, migrant or minority ethnic backgrounds. The research comprised a literature review, legislative and policy analysis, data analysis, professional stakeholder interviews, and interviews with people in prison and people who have experience of probation.

      Launching Wednesday 27 April 2022, 4pm – 5.45pm via Zoom.
      =================================================================
      And, you tans aren’t so good now are you?
      https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/643002/david-lammy-open-letter-to-prime-minister.pdf

    3. K. Cavan

      When you read the phrase “new research has found” in the IT, you know the stink of bourgeois bullcrap is about to assault your nostrils.
      It’s virtually impossible to compare levels of criminality between two criminal convictions, never mind hundreds.

  7. TenPin Terry

    Did you hear the one about the Irishman who walked into Walmart ?

    Today’s DIPSTICK OF THE DAY is Irish journalist Padraig Belton, currently hacking for the BBC and Guardian so you probably know what to expect.
    In a tweet from America he snobbily bemoaned his inability to buy an adaptor for his UK laptop in Walmart but still being able to purchase a rifle and ammo.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/PadraigBelton/status/1518980573007597568?cxt=HHwWgMCyrZCywJQqAAAA

    Only trouble is it’s not a real rifle but a toy BB gun, a bit like a spud gun , and one of the toys featured in the classic movie A Christmas Story.
    From that point on Belton the Bonehead has had the piss ripped out of him on American social media.
    Morto, Paddy, morto …

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10757687/BBC-reporter-roasted-Americans-mistaking-BB-gun-real-shotgun-Walmart.html

    https://www.irishinbritain.org/who-we-are/our-staff/padraig-belton

    1. K. Cavan

      Bitcoin represents a risk that is now worth taking because our fiat currencies have been printed into worthlessness.
      Modern Monetary Theory signals inflation as the delimiter & German industry just announced 30% inflation on wholesale prices.
      Things are about the get very hairy, we probably have until early next year.

      1. GiggidyGoo

        @ K Cavan

        I know nothing about bitcoin.

        Normal currency is backed by gold reserves.

        What places such high values on bitcoin? What is it backed by?

        1. SOQ

          US dollar is not backed by gold anymore, which is why they can keep printing it.

          And if the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) keep trading in other currencies, it is in big trouble.

          1. stephen moran

            More fact free garbage. The $ is king – with USD interest rates on the rise and China imploding economically TINA. How do any of the other countries get around the Triffin paradox to become a reserve currencies – economic 101.

      2. stephen moran

        Bitcoin can go to zero – the $ can’t therein is the difference – the $ is backed by the legislative and coercive power of the US government. People have been righting off the $ since tricky Dickie took it off the Gold standard 50 years ago and they have all been wrong time and time again. TINA. Solve the Triffin paradox for me in relation to the CNY as a reserve currency and I’ll nominate you for the Nobel Prize for Economics. Bitcoin is being gradually squeezed by regulators to the point it will lose its usefulness as a tool of anonymity and if you are a real libertarian as opposed to an a la carte one (like most who make such claims) then you should be very very afraid of digital currencies (particularly those issue by those countries you’re such a fan of) – if you had an issue with wearing a mask or thought self indulgent truckers had a point then look away.

    1. Ian - oG

      All my local supermarkets are mostly selling baby/plum tomatoes, haven’t seen a decent beef tomato in a few weeks now.

  8. TenPin Terry

    Channel migrant update.

    It has now been a week where not a single migrant has arrived into the UK by small boat, as recorded by the MoD and the Royal Navy.
    7 full days. Not a single migrant has risked their life and paid people smugglers thousands of pounds for the pleasure of doing so.
    The Rwanda agreement, as a deterrent, appears to be working.
    So up yours Archbishop.

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