I imagine it was extremely disturbing

Pew Research Institute (2023):

• Red State Texas has about 2.1 million undocumented immigrants

• Red State Florida has 1.6 M undocumented immigrants

• Blue State Minnesota has 130,000.

And yet only Minnesota is being occupied by masked thugs over "immigration."

It's *not* about immigration.

Immigration levels overestimated by public, says ESRI Many people believe immigration is happening in Ireland on a larger scale than it really is, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute.

Many people believe immigration is happening in Ireland on a larger scale than it really is, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute

Forgive me if I'm wrong, I can't think of a single politician who campaigned hard for Brexit who has since come out and said that they think it was a mistake. Surely, in their heart of hearts, literally one or two of them must know that. So is it that they can't admit it to themselves or just to us?

This paper examines the impact of the UK's decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) in 2016. Using almost a decade of data since the referendum, we combine simulations based on macro data with estimates derived from micro data collected through our Decision Maker Panel survey. These estimates suggest that by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time. We estimate that investment was reduced by between 12% and 18%, employment by 3% to 4% and productivity by 3% to 4%. These large negative impacts reflect a combination of elevated uncertainty, reduced demand, diverted management time, and increased misallocation of resources from a protracted Brexit process. Comparing these with contemporary forecasts – providing a rare macro example to complement the burgeoning microliterature of social science predictions – shows that these forecasts were accurate over a 5-year horizon, but they underestimated the impact over a decade.

Read 'em and weep. (www.nber.org/system/files...)

For those wondering here is the post from Joyce Carol Oates that got under Musk's skin big time

The Financial Times reports on Trump’s meeting with Zelensky on Friday:

“The US president tossed aside maps of the frontline in Ukraine, insisted Zelenskyy surrender the entire Donbas region to Putin, and repeatedly echoed talking points the Russian leader had made in their call a day earlier”

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Honestly though, defrauding tenants during a housing crisis *should* be the kind of thing that ends political careers and it's maybe a bad sign that the unserious, unprepared guy with no experience is the first politician in years to acknowledge that

She appealed the decision to refuse security clearance to a woman convicted of a gun crime in 2012.

This wrongly assumes good faith and intentions on both sides. That is simply not the case. It may take another few years for Klein to realise it. For the far right it's not about fair disagreement or "debate", it's about destroying your opposition through any means necessary.

'don't kick Israel out of Eurovision, the arts aren't political' variety.com/2025/film/gl...

Gareth Sheridan

Maria Steen

Conor McGregor

I've never held elected office but am ideally suited to be Head of State. Yes I could've run in Local, Dáil, Seanad or Euro elections in the past 15 mths but I'm more of a senior leadership type. Also, expecting me to get nominations from elected public representatives is undemocratic

#Áras25

Maria Steen tells us that she knows her decision to put herself forward to run in the presidential election will affect her children. It might also affect mine. I don't want a President who believes my daughter has too many rights. Bernie Linnane Dromahair, Co. Leitrim.

Irish Examiner...
#Aras25 #FeckOffIona

In a world of Elon Musks be more Donald Tusk.

Elon Musk has shared an obviously AI-generated image of the Unite the Kingdom rally in London.

The first AI error is that the Arc de Triomphe is in Paris, not London. And once you zoom in, you'll notice that the Union Jacks and the crowd have other errors typical of AI images.

Grok is being sent to the reeducation camp

So Kilmeade issues a weak apology about giving homeless people lethal injections and Fox just moves on with zero consequences. As usual.

Humphreys recalls attending Orange parades but says she now supports Irish unity Irish presidential hopeful Heather Humphreys has said she attended Orange Order parades as a child but stopped going when the Troubles broke out.

The Fine Gael candidate, who is a Presbyterian, said she is an example to unionists in Northern Ireland of Irish “tolerance and inclusivity”

"…and Magda Goebbels made a great strudel.”

I really want to make this clear to any passing journalist - being a LGBTQ person is not being left wing. Existing is not political, except to the political extremes. Those extremes do not dictate how humans should be accepted. This take js extremely dangerous.

this must be the end of Mandelson & in my opinion Keir showed bad judgement in not cutting him loose much sooner.

Good friends of Epstein are prob not squeaky clean!!

Unionism is treated with contempt by Sinn Fein... but the election of this Ulster protestant as president might start a change What does your average unionist punter make of the Irish presidential election? Answer, it would seem, not a lot.

"Why would you be attracted to a political settlement which sneers at you?"

A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.

Adam Raine, 16, died from suicide in April after months on ChatGPT discussing plans to end his life. His parents have filed the first known case against OpenAI for wrongful death.

Overwhelming at times to work on this story, but here it is. My latest on AI chatbots: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/t...

The exchanges between Adam and ChatGPT are devastating. This, in my mind, is the worst one.

One of his last messages was a photo of the noose hung in his bedroom closet, asking if it was "good." ChatGPT offered a technical analysis of the set up and told him it 'could potentially suspend a human."

Catherine Connelly in today's Irish Times made my head hurt.

“Then, as now, I was clear: our Defence Forces are defined by their civic duties at home and their peacekeeping work abroad.

“They are not, and should never become, an army."

The worst single-day crime spree in modern Washington history, of course, took place on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump issued no order to the National Guard to intervene -- Mike Pence did -- and later pardoned the perpetrators.

An aerial view of what the Gaza City area looked like this week. Taken from a Jordanian military aircraft, by our colleague Heidi Levine.