Londubh

What a joy it is to know music exists and does so with limitless possibility

I've been in Tokyo the past 14 days, in a population of near 38 million people, and in the entire trip I've seen less homeless people here than you'd see in Dublin in a single day.

Of course Xi Jinping should be recognized for his efforts to eradicate poverty in China; however, he shouldn't win the Nobel Peace Prize. That's reserved for war criminals.

Next time I see someone protesting genocide I'll remember to tell them that they're making a "self-cancelling statement expressed in the idiom we might call Notspeak."

The absolute callousness of announcing a 44% trade tariff against Myanmar this week, of all weeks.

God help me, I caught a glimpse Ireland AM this morning.

Alan Hughes: "The opposition are acting like Animals, they're like toddlers."
Tommy Bowes: "But the government are taking away speaking ri..."
Alan Hughes: "I don't care, they have no right to be causing a scene."

Democrat resistance be like "I simply cannot believe they would be so irresponsible exposing our top-secret plans to bomb brown people in the middle east. Smh."

"A negative nothing is however something affirmative" - Georg Willhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Science of Logic, 21.89

"Whatever you say, say fuckin nothin" - Dad, encouraging me to avoid a row with my Mother

Amazing things happening to language and meaning over at @theguardian.com

That's why I'm past blaming Mícheál - our error was not the hour long chat with Trump, but the years to this point. What independence had Ireland in that meeting? Connolly would be rolling in his grave.

We idled, believing the US and Europe would never fall out (despite the past century of war).

The state alone has the motivation, land, finances, and legal powers to realize these potentials. With state planning we could have moved beyond independence to become a net exporter! If we abscond our responsibility to ourselves, we shouldn't be surprised that others are doing the talking for us.

1 example. Ireland is the least energy independent nation in Europe. Since 2002 the private sector developed plans for offshore wind with the capacity to power 5 million homes. Enough for each home on the island and 2 mill besides. These weren't realized for profits sake, and now we've carbon taxes.

Sadly we're a vassal state that has ceded all economic independence in favor of intl business. Ireland is one of the most vulnerable nations in the EU for this exact reason, and we keep refusing to do anything about it. Government policy, for a century now, has sleepwalked us into this subservience.

Imagine leaving behind such a disastrous political legacy that, rather than giving people the benefit of the doubt, you start a political analysis podcast that proves you've been wrong your whole life.

How it started:
How it's going:

The virtue of keeping my camera off in zoom is that nobody saw me dying laughing when the old guy in my Hegel seminar scolded the younger students for asking basic questions: "You must understand, I am 77 years old, my time is precious!"

Dua Líofa - bhí an teanga agat, ach an t-anam, níl mé cinnte. Ar deireadh, fuair muid dua ó bheith ag breathnú ort. Tá tú ag dul abhaile.

Feb 22 marks 62 years since the Fiddlemaster Pádraig O Keeffe died. This Postcard from 1914, the work of Castleisland photographer TW Wrenn, was taken near Adriville Bridge Scartaglin where people used to meet for set dancing.
Is the fiddle player a young Pádraig O Keeffe? They hold it the same way!

"Small risk of stroke and death but other than that everything goes fine" - Irish Neurosurgeon, not an episode of Father Ted.

Fair plé daoibh go léir 👍

Furthermore:
- any peace must guarantee the war won't reignite, the responsibility of which lies with troops in a “non-NATO mission”

A country in ruin, countless lives lost, and everything for sale to the highest bidder. Liberal centrists take note that maybe "tankies" had a point about neutrality.

Hegseth Says Return to Ukraine’s Prewar Borders Is ‘Unrealistic’ In his first trip abroad, the new U.S. defense secretary told allies, including NATO officials, that a durable peace could only come “with a realistic assessment of the battlefield.”

July 2023, NATO Secretary General said:
"unless Ukraine wins this war, there's no membership issue to be discussed at all."

Trump admin just stated:
- A return to pre-2014 borders is “an unrealistic objective”
- U.S. doesn't support Ukraine entry to NATO
- No American troops will deploy to Ukraine

Will be interesting to see which supposedly "Left-wing" organizations cease their operations after this.

This marks, for now, a change from using soft power to sow discord to just going in with hard power, i.e. explicitly stating their hegemony with military build up and direct intervention. This won't be the end of clandestine ops, but perhaps a shift towards something more reactionary.

USA: Trump’s foreign aid freeze throws journalism around the world into chaos President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including over $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information....

Perplexing that the U.S. is casually ripping up decades of soft power projects around the globe. USAID funding over 6'200 journalists across 707 media outlets and 279 media NGOs, including 9/10 media outlets in Ukraine, confirms everything "tankies" were saying these past 2 decades.

No surprise on the timing of China's AI model release — dropping just as Trump takes over and promotes AI business. Though Biden was asleep at the wheel, his admin would have raised bloody hell on China's entry in the race that ultimately targets the US hegemony's core: finance capital and tech.

Friends, family, relationships; these are the 3 demons you must slay to become a decent uilleann piper.

"I'll be back soon to buy one" I spuriously lie while I bask in the shame of wasting everyone's time

Tig linn dearmad a dhéanamh ar an nGaeilge anois agus Verona Murphy mar Cheann Comhairle againn. Ní chloisfear ach béarla Fhine Gael i seomra na Dála as seo amach.

Irony of ironies that those ministers voted in by nationalist sentiment will now cement English as standard in the Dáil.

Hear me out... Brehon law tradwife