This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… Springsteen Covers January 30, 2021
Posted by irishelectionliterature in This Weekend I'll Mostly Be Listening to..., Uncategorized.add a comment
Heard the Low version of “I’m on Fire” recently and really liked it. So a selection of other Springsteen Covers….
Irish Election Projections Site January 29, 2021
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.7 comments
Interesting new site giving analysis, projections on seats and so on. Lot’s to agree and disagree on in the constituency analysis but worth looking at.
Signs of Hope – A continuing series January 29, 2021
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Gewerkschaftler suggested this recently:
<blockquote>I suggest this blog should have a regular (weekly) slot where people can post happenings at the personal or political level that gives them hope that we’re perhaps not going to hell in a handbasket as quickly as we thought. Or as the phlegmatic Germans put it “hope dies last”.</blockquote>
Any contributions this week?
Delusion January 29, 2021
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.3 comments
Thanks to BH for pointing to this, from Nick Cohen and a heart-felt plea about Covid conspiracies and how both in their strong form (outright denialism/anti-mask ‘activists’) and weaker form (media scepticism) they endanger life. Cohen (who has actually been a little bit back on form in recent times) points to the tragic story of one anti-masker and how he eventually succumbed to Covid. Tellingly those of a like mind with him have been unwilling to accept that reality (stewing in anti-vax, anti-semitism, conspiracy ‘theory’ viciousness). As Cohen notes, for them…
Covid can’t have killed him, it just can’t. No hard fact can be allowed to break through the defensive walls of an enclosed ideology, even after the death of a friend. “The cause of death is currently listed as Covid-19,” Parker told his followers. “It is now the duty of those he has left behind to ensure that his name is not used to further this gargantuan fraud.” Parker hinted that Matthews had asthma and it might have killed him. (This is news to his family.) Others suggested he took his own life. I’ve seen screenshots of a WhatsApp conversation where a Shrewsbury conspiracist says he “could have been murdered” by shadowy figures – Bill Gates, maybe, or the head of an intensive care unit – because he was “part of the movement, one of us”.
But Cohen rightly – and sympathetically to Matthews – pulls back the focus to others:
How mad and how different from what passes for respectable opinion. But shift the conversation just a little and the conspiracy theories are not so different from the propaganda pouring out of rightwing radio stations and newspapers. Their claims that masks and lockdowns don’t work, that Covid is no more deadly than the flu, that 91% of so-called Covid cases are false positives and that there are no excess deaths are as false as imagining Gates wants to microchip the world and just as deadly. It’s not that they are made by people who know nothing that makes them so objectionable. They are made by people who can never know anything. Just as the anti-vaxxers of Shrewsbury had to deny the reason for the death of their comrade, so the presenters on Talkradio and LBC and the columnists on the Telegraph must maintain their ignorance and scream down all who try to enlighten them or their audience will look elsewhere.
To lose four is… January 29, 2021
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The Phoenix recently noted that:
South Dublin County [Green Party] Councillor Peter Kavanagh is the latest out the door following Dublin City Councillors Liam Sinclair and Sophie Nicoullaud last week.
Lorna Bogue had already left the party due it seems to by support for the CETA agreement by the Green Party. No others are mentioned as about to leave but what are the implications of the four who have already left for local government, and what about the Green Party?
Mixed messages January 29, 2021
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.4 comments
Telling isn’t it how on the one hand we hear that:
The Tánaiste has said the country will not be moving from Level 5 to Level 3 in March and the easing of restrictions will resemble the reopening after the first wave of the virus last year. Leo Varadkar also said the number of daily cases would need to fall “to the low 100s”, and the number of people in ICUs needs to drop to, or around, 50, before the Government would ease restrictions.Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, he said those who are considered to be the most vulnerable would need to have received a Covid-19 vaccine before any restrictions are eased.
And on the other:
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party on Wednesday night that the country may move to Level 4 measures or “Level 4 with modifications” after March 5th.
I wonder is it far too premature for any discussion of these matters and would it not serve the Government better to perhaps not offer any hostages to fortune particularly after the Christmas debacle?
….he told the NPHET briefing, we had to accept that in this country, no such system would guarantee complete exclusion of any new variant or any new disease. In this context, Prof Nolan said it was an “utterly false promise” to suggest we could go to Level Zero or Level One, in the Living with Covid framework, in a matter of weeks or months. He said it was much better to “work to get the level of disease down, keep it down and continue the vaccination programme”.
Does anyone believe it would be weeks. Months surely, possibly many, and it would have to be outside the ‘Living with Covid’ framework entirely. Moreover, of course there’d be no guarantee of complete exclusion. Neither New Zealand nor Australia have managed that fully. But the point is that the disease is controlled and constrained to the lowest possible extent. Indeed he himself admitted…
“there are two shared “pieces” between a Zero Covid strategy and the actual strategy that’s being adopted now.
One is that the only safe position to be in is to have a level of community transmission that is as close as practicable to zero. The second element is to have only essential travel taking place.
He said we should be doing everything we can, through whatever mix of testing and isolation, to limit the risk of introduction of new variants or further infection.”
But isn’t that fundamental to Zero-Covid in any case? Not sure why one is attainable and the other that is almost identical isn’t?
Slumped on the sofa after another day of home schooling, many families will have longingly eyed adverts for getaways: sun, sandy beaches and glittering pools, a much-needed reward after a year in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.But ministers are becoming increasingly concerned they may have to ask the British public to sacrifice their hopes of a break abroad this summer. On Thursday, Priti Patel became the latest cabinet minister to say it was too soon to book an overseas break; Matt Hancock has already announced he is going to Cornwall.
Again how could anyone at this point make any fixed decision about a holiday – particularly abroad? We’ve heard a lot of about resilience and the need to live with the virus but in truth given we see a Europe that is closing down travel – and it is Europe where these UK ‘sun holidays’ are usually located – one has to wonder at who seriously thinks that is going to happen? Again, what is it about a global viral pandemic that people are not getting?
In fairness – at this point – the ROI government seems to have the right idea in this respect with the following: Irish people going on foreign holidays must stop, the Taoiseach has insisted.
They can dish it out but… January 28, 2021
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Mentioned last week how the Biden Administration wasted no time in letting some of the most egregious Trump appointments go, from the National Labor Relations Board. Apparently there’s no end of wailing and gnashing of teeth. But, as Mark Joseph Stern on Slate.com notes:
Twenty-three minutes after assuming the presidency, Joe Biden demanded the resignation of Peter Robb, the notoriously anti-union general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board appointed by Donald Trump. Robb refused to resign, so Biden fired him. Alice Stock, another anti-union Trump appointee, then assumed the role of acting general counsel—and Biden demanded her resignation the next day. Stock also refused to resign, so Biden fired her, too. Both Robb and Stock, who relentlessly undermined unions’ ability to organize and bargain, are now complaining that Biden fired them without just cause. Stock went so far as to suggest that Robb’s firing was illegal. She is wrong. Robb and Stock were at-will employees of the executive. Like the countless American workers whom they prevented from unionizing, they had no guarantee against termination without just cause. Biden did not violate any laws. He simply gave the nation’s chief union busters a taste of their own medicine.
This is no small thing. It is genuinely appalling how much damage those appointees could do…
Given his vocal support of unions on the campaign trail, it’s no surprise Biden acted quickly to clean house at the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency tasked with enforcing labor law. The NLRB is governed by a five-person board and a general counsel. Its general counsel is immensely powerful: He has authority to interpret federal labor laws and decide which unfair labor practice charges the agency should prosecute. Robb, a management-side lawyer and longtime union foe, used his powers to hobble unions’ ability to organize and bargain while destroying the agency from the inside. Over the last two years, Robb slashed the NLRB’s staff, hampering its ability to do its job, and attacked its own union. He championed the rights of managers to suppress free speech and refuse recognition of unions. Incredibly, Robb even prevented employers who support unions from helping their workers organize. During the pandemic, he has consistently ruled against employees’ ability to demand safer working conditions through collective action. The situation grew so dire that many unions stopped filing complaints with the NLRB for fear that Robb would exploit them to establish radical anti-labor precedents.
Poetic justice.
Shifting towards Zero January 28, 2021
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.7 comments
Intriguing to see a few straws in the wind from within the current Coalition articulating a pro-Zero Covid approach.
Government TDs have urged Ministers to look at adopting a “zero-Covid” strategy in response to the pandemic. The remarks by Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan and Fianna Fáil’s Christopher O’Sullivan come in the wake of the latest Government announcement on Covid-19 restrictions. Mr O’Sullivan also said he is “disappointed” that the Cabinet stopped short of the kind of mandatory quarantine measures in place in Australia and New Zealand for people travelling to those countries.
And in the Seanad:
Minister of State at the Department of Health Anne Rabbitte…warned the Green Party, Fianna Fáil’s partners in government, of the need for the need to avoid “mixed messaging” on Covid-19. Green Party Senator Vincent P Martin said the current strategy to combat the virus was not working but the Government would not give “proper and due consideration” to a realistic proposal by the Independent Scientific Advisory Group of academics and experts calling for a zero-Covid strategy. The group he said described the strategy as “simply doing what is possible to suppress this virus towards elimination”.
Mentioned before that even something short of Zero-Covid would in and of itself be worth the effort – that being an approach that sought to suppress the virus to the lowest possible level even in the current context. One wonders why there’s such hesitation, such aversion, to this approach given the lamentable track record of the status quo?
Stupid beyond comprehension… January 28, 2021
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This from the Guardian yesterday evening, reports of…
Lives are being put at risk and the care of patients disrupted by a spate of hospital incursions from Covid-19 deniers whose online activity is channelling hatred against NHS staff, say healthcare and police chiefs. In the latest example of a growing trend, a group of people were ejected by security from a Covid-19 ward last week as one of them filmed staff, claimed that the virus was a hoax and demanded that a seriously ill patient be sent home “He will die if he is taken from from here,” a consultant tells the man on footage, which was later shared on social media. Following contact by the Guardian, Facebook took down footage and other shocking posts in which conspiracy theorists described NHS staff as “ventilator killers”.
These people are incredibly dangerous and it really is time they were treated as such. And social media platforms who allow video to posted up by those people should be sanctioned too. This is a workers rights issue as much as it is a public health issue.
The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK), a union representing frontline medics, said it was unacceptable that staff working themselves into the ground to keep patients safe were having to worry about a new threat from Covid deniers and anti-maskers. It said Twitter and Facebook had a responsibility to ensure those breaking into hospitals to film footage were not given a platform. “Staff are exhausted and are running on fumes. They should not be having to deal with abuse and even death threats on social media,” said Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, the president of the DAUK. “Nor should they be worried about turning up for their shift due to crowds of people chanting ‘Covid is a hoax’ outside hospitals full of patients who are sick and dying. This is decimating morale, but worse still, could be obstructing patient care.”
A bad Brexit January 28, 2021
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From the moment of the referendum was passed this site argued that Brexit was going to happen, that any talk about otherwise on foot of the referendum was delusionary, not least given the Tories were driving it, and that likely whatever form taken would be reactionary. Well, reactionary it most certainly has been, but I’m not sure anyone quite saw how stupid matters would be. For example, at the weekend there was this from the Guardian:
British businesses that export to the continent are being encouraged by government trade advisers to set up separate companies inside the EU in order to get around extra charges, paperwork and taxes resulting from Brexit, the Observer can reveal. In an extraordinary twist to the Brexit saga, UK small businesses are being told by advisers working for the Department for International Trade (DIT) that the best way to circumvent border issues and VAT problems that have been piling up since 1 January is to register new firms within the EU single market, from where they can distribute their goods far more freely.
The heads of two UK businesses that have been beset by Brexit-related problems have told the Observer that, following advice from experts at the Department for International Trade, they have already decided to register new companies in the EU in the next few weeks, and they knew of many others in similar positions. Other companies have also said they too were advised by government officials to register operations in the EU but had not yet made decisions.
And if those examples of taking back control don’t suffice there’s this from Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer:
The bill for Mr Johnson’s Brexit is coming in and that bill is a punishingly steep one. It is being paid by the fishing fleets in Scotland and the West Country that are tied up because they are unable to export their catch. It is being paid in a slump in activity at Welsh ports because the trade they used to handle is being diverted to France and Spain. It is being paid in billions of pounds worth of transactions disappearing from the City of London, which may not be much loved by all that many Britons but employs a million people, because the deal was so threadbare for the financial sector. It is being paid in car manufacturers shutting down some production because they can’t get parts across borders in time. It is being paid in tonnes of British meat exports rotting at European harbours. It is being paid by many UK businesses, especially the kind of smaller, exporting enterprises that the Tories always profess to love, which are being overwhelmed by the heavy burdens and high costs of the thin deal the prime minister rushed through parliament at the turn of the year.
Meanwhile in the SBP this weekend Brian Keegan of Chartered Accountants Ireland offered this insight:
The Brexit referendum result was partly viewed as an expression of a desire to curtail immigration, and you cannot have cross-border services without allowing people to move. If anything, the EU line on services is hardening as evidenced by the European Commission’s strategy for the European economic and financial system launched last week. The problems for cross-border trade in goods do not derive from what the Trade and Cooperation agreement contains but, rather, from what is missing from the agreement, such as the removal of customs paperwork. Customs compliance is proving to be more challenging than many businesses, even those who had geared up for it, had expected.
And:
Agri-food imports and exports are worst affected, because agricultural projects and foodstuffs require additional sanitary checks as well as customs inspection. The sanitary checking and customs checking systems are not integrated, thereby duplicating the virtual paperwork and increasing the scope for error.Things will be much worse in the coming months because trade volumes were artificially depressed by pre-December 31 stockpiling, and also because Britain is not implementing the full rigours of its customs regime until next June. These problems cannot be lobbied away.
What is most distinctly striking is how some of those who sincerely placed their hope in Brexit are being directly impacted very very negatively by the process – as with fishing fleets. Fed inflated and exaggerated tales by those who had no attachment to their welfare, they now face a dismal prospect.
But while the extremity of matters is a surprise, the broad thrust is not. As Rawnsley notes:
What Brexit has actually done is impose a vast amount of cumbersome and costly new bureaucracy on exporters and importers. British companies have been put in a chokehold of regulations, customs declarations, conformity assessments, health and rules-of-origin certifications, VAT demands and inflated shipping charges. While some ministers talk about reducing worker protections in the name of “cutting red tape”, a move for which there is little demand even from employers, Brexit is ensnaring British businesses in writhing snakes of the stuff.
Which suggests once more that Brexit was never a practical or thought-through process of disengagement from the European Union but rather something emotional and uncontrolled. It is not that there were not those who had actually thought about this in considerable detail. Richard North’s Flexcit was a sensible and considered effort to square some circles around the issue of that disengagement. But in the crucible of those emotions such a plan was always going to be sidelined.
And the disengagement now being seen – and Rawnsley is particularly good on noting how far from passing ‘teething troubles’ many of the worst aspects are going to persist because they are precisely what this form of Brexit demands, means that of course British companies are going to have to, as noted in the first quotes, find workarounds that in essence see them having to establish a very real presence in the EU.
Perhaps Keegan sums this up most succinctly: We are all having to change the way we trade with Britain, whether by learning and applying the customs rules, or by developing new supply chains and trading routes to get around the rules in the first place…The sooner we all make these changes, the better. Trade with Britain is not going to get any easier.
