Mr Donnelly went to Washington.

And all he brought back was this:

These experts [IMF, World Bank, Harvard, etc] knew that no country had ever repaid that much debt without being able to print its own money. They knew that without a significant reduction in the national debt, a lot of people were not going to get paid back the money they had lent us.

They knew that economic growth and large-scale job creation would be next to impossible with the current levels of household debt. They knew that a country whose GNP was still falling by 2.5 per cent in the fourth year of a crisis was most definitely not on the road to recovery. .

 

We’re Mad As Hell And Need To Show It (Stephen Donnelly TD, Sunday Independent)

 

Thin Lizzy are set to record their first album in nearly 30 years, and their first without original frontman Phil Lynott, HotPress.com reports. Guitarist Scott Gorham (above) said the group will work with producer Kevin Shirley on the new album, and that recording will likely start next month. “I’ll be going out to Los Angeles at the end of the month to work on some songs with [guitarist] Damon [Johnson] and then I think we will start recording in October in our producer Kevin Shirley’s studio,” Gorham said.

 

Ok.

But only if Jim Fitz does the artwork.

Thin Lizzy to Record First Album Without Phil Lynott (Rolling Stone)

Thanks Barry H


Animator Luis Pelayo Junquera’s gory, trippy rotoscope-style fanimation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Punisher tale, “Do Not Fall In New York City.

Required, if slightly esoteric, viewing for fans of the mafia-snuffing Marvel vigilante.

slyoyster/io9

They’re calling him Reilly: Ace of Lies.

This week’s motion of no confidence in the Minister for Health is the only credible response to the reality of what is happening under James Reilly.  Before the election he personally led a deeply cynical campaign on health.  He promised that he and Fine Gael would make sure that no one lost any services and a whole new set of free services would be provided. 

After running a briefing campaign to protect his budget he announced that he had enough money to fully deliver his service commitments.

We never believed this and have been relentless during this year in questioning him about services and budgets.  He repeatedly assured us and the Dáil that everything was fine under his personal management.  He repeated like a mantra that frontline services were being protected.

This was untrue and health services are now being subject to a round of mean-spirited emergency cuts which Minister Reilly was denying while already implementing them.

Before the full force of his management has had its impact, waiting lists are rising, services are being closed and there is a deep sense of despair in the sector.
There is no precedent for a situation where the Taoiseach praises a minister for being brave in reversing cuts while the Minister is still claiming that the cuts never existed.

Extract From Michael Martin’s Speech At Today’s FF Parliamentary Party Meeting  (FiannaFail.ie)

Broadsheet.ie