General Current Affairs Chat - Global and Local

[isha]

I don't know if it is useful having a different thread for each and every thing happening, some things are not really a whole thread in and of themselves. They are just general current affairs.
If it's not suitable to have a general thread, feel free to put it in a separate thread.

For a start I saw this today and to be honest I found it very moving what happened to this young man. I think the accused should have gotten custodial sentences - even some months in jail would have highlighted the gravity of their bullying. One of my lads was physically assaulted by school mates. No sexual assault, but they tied him up too to give him a battering out of the blue. It does very bad things to a young lad's head to be set upon by people they think they know, and it takes a long time to get over. I have also heard about this kind of story with quite a few other young fellas. Really awful school bullying. And I have heard how the same bullies take that activity onwards into their grown up lives and do terrible things. I know one group of local young men who were school bullies and as adults they set about a special needs person living in my area, and basically tortured him one night - they should all have been put in jail. But they were not. We allow very bad things to go unpunished. It took guts for this young man to speak out.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-sty ... um=twitter

[Del.Monte]

With friends like that who needs enemies - depressing stuff.

[kadman]

I really dont know what the world is coming too. It seems such a violent place now everywhere. It cab be really depressing if you let it get to you. But it appears now to be part of the journey of life sadly.

[isha]

I really dont know what the world is coming too. It seems such a violent place now everywhere. It cab be really depressing if you let it get to you. But it appears now to be part of the journey of life sadly.

It can be depressing. But the world has always been a harsh place. It is not new. I was sad reading about this but also heartened that he spoke up.

What is different now is we are supposed to be somehow more grown up, or civilised. And I think that should be reflected in law and order issues. One of the Mongolian Khans, Kublai or Genghis, or I cannot remember who and it is attributed to other cultures by some, had this claim (supposedly! - it could be mythological, but it was written about by a historian, Juvaini) that a virgin carrying a pot of gold would be able to walk from one end of the empire to the other unmolested. Of course (supposedly again!) this would have been because the penalty for assault or stealing from her would be so severe that it would protect her.
Not that I am in favour of some terrible tyranny - absolutely not. But we do have to have proper solid systems in place to keep people upright. I get very weary of the weak sentences meted out by Irish courts.

[kadman]

There is absolutely no sentencing that fits the crime in Ireland for sure. If there was, then we would have no domestic violence taking place, and there would be no crimes against children. But thanks to the catholic church's hold on the state, the latter crime still prevails.
Its both abhorrent and laughable that people can commit heinous crimes against children and women in particular, and still manage to hang on to their liberty.

I was always of the opinion that crimes against children should be heard by a women judge, in the hope that the maternal instinct would give rise to harsher sentencing from women judges in such cases, as sentencing up to now borders on a slap on the wrist. I don't believe the punishment ever fitted the crime here.

[95438756]

read this article in IT today from link posted on Twitter.

..

pithy but his "friends" careers are RUINED. Whatever outstanding Leaving Cert results they got.

[isha]

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/inews.co.uk ... 300303/amp

If this is accurate it seems a Liverpool taxi driver, David Perry, spotted the bomb, locked back doors of taxi to stop the bomber getting out, and just managed to get himself out of the car before the device or at least part of it, was activated by the bomber. If true, David Perry saved people from death or terrible injury. Hope he gets proper recognition.

[quodec]

Video of Liverpool taxi explosion below. Taximan miraculously escapes from car around 35 seconds!

[Del.Monte]

Considering it's a hospital the lack of staff coming out with fire extinguishers seems odd.

[CelticRambler]

Considering it's a hospital the lack of staff coming out with fire extinguishers seems odd.

The types of fire extinguishers you'd find in a hospital lobby would be pretty useless against an engine/whole-vehicle fire - as demonstrated by the one guy's effort from 1m45s onwards.

As there's no camera sound, it may also be that the staff working near the door recognised the situation as a (potential) car-bomb and told the other people working there to stay put.

[Del.Monte]

There was certainly little sign of panic or people taking selfies.

[isha]

What happened to Kevin Lunney was absolutely nauseating. Horrible to think that such savages live among us.

He published a letter today giving his impact statement.

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2021/112 ... statement/

Details of the assault

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-50303002

[isha]

A 12 year old girl was stabbed to death after an argument in Liverpool last night. 4 young teen boys arrested. Horrible.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/c ... 64646.html

[quodec]

Regarding the tragic loss of migrants in the English Channel the other day, I want to ask a genuine question. Why is the UK this Shangrila that they are all being told about? Is France making life so unbearable around the camps in Calais that the traffickers are easily convincing them the land of milk and honey is just a couple of hours on a dinghy across the water? No one seems to be discussing this politically or diplomatically. Curious and maybe Johnson & Co have a point in trying to prevent this!

[Del.Monte]

This mess is entirely an EU generated problem and there will be no solution to it until borders are secured properly.

[Hairy-Joe]

I've read interviews with the migrants. The reason for their wish to get to the UK is multifaceted.

First, most trying the UK are from the Middle East or further east, eg Afghanistan. Most speak some English. This makes it easier to get a job, etc. However, sub-sahara Africans have some French and these prefer France to the UK

Second is that getting a job "off the books" is very hard in Germany. There's paperwork and also German language requirements. It's much easier to get a job in UK off the books.

Third is the UK is a melting pot of cultures making it a lit easier to find people of the same culture to point them in the right direction when they try to get off the ground in the UK

So, basically the UK having a "relaxed" outlook on working off the books and having one of the most common second language means they are the most attractive. If you were in their shoes, the UK is the most attractive.

[isha]

I did not know about this Kelloggs strike in America
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... orkers-pay
And now Kellogg's is talking about permanently replacing 1400 strikers. This is union breaking, pure and simple. I will boycott Kelloggs. (Well, I would if I actually bought stuff from them, but as far as I can see in this list, I don't.) Anyway, other people should boycott them too!

[Hairy-Joe]

I did not know about this Kelloggs strike in America
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... orkers-pay
And now Kellogg's is talking about permanently replacing 1400 strikers. This is union breaking, pure and simple. I will boycott Kelloggs. (Well, I would if I actually bought stuff from them, but as far as I can see in this list, I don't.) Anyway, other people should boycott them too!

I've been reading that. I know my actions won't make a dent but I've stopped buying Corn Flakes as a result.

Back to the porrege for me....

[isha]

I've been reading that. I know my actions won't make a dent but I've stopped buying Corn Flakes as a result.

Back to the porrege for me....

We might be surprised how everyone's small actions joined together makes a difference. I see that a group of Redditors have spammed Kellog's job portal with loads of fake applications. One of the things I like about the transgressive side of the web is how groups of weirdos get together and do unexpected novel stuff that has a good effect - like that time when they bought stock in GameStop and made the value sky rocket and created a bubble to stick it to the hedge funds that were intent on shorting Gamestop* (I know a lot of these places like Reddit have seedy dodgy stuff baked into them from the beginning, but I like a good news story)

* reductive explanation, I know feck all about it, except it was cheeky.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/10/228 ... -subreddit

[isha]

I honestly do not get why this man is in prison. He is a whistleblower who showed the public the corruption at the heart of power. Now he has had a stroke in prison. How he has been treated absolutely baffles and disgusts me.

[knownunknown]

I honestly do not get why this man is in prison. He is a whistleblower who showed the public the corruption at the heart of power. Now he has had a stroke in prison. How he has been treated absolutely baffles and disgusts me.

Part of the rationale for going after him might be that he published the full unredacted cables back in 2011. This exposed many people to harm and probably many deaths. He was working with newspapers to publish this material, redacted, but then decided to publish everything. As far as I can remember someone had hacked his hacked material, or he was not careful with it and were threatening to scoop him. That was his rationale for publishing them.

I'm not saying I agree with his treatment but he didn't have to do that. I can understand the US military types out for vengeance. He could have been a proper legitimate whistle blower without doing this. Then I would feel alot more outraged at his treatment.

He also tweeted in 2016 that he would accept US prison if Manning was granted clemency, which she was and he didn't. Alot of the information released was very important and rightfully belonged in the public sphere. That footage of the helicopter killing those poor journalists was atrocious and really woke alot of people up to what was happening in the middle east, but the way he went about it reeked of a motive of personal ambition rather than the greater good.

Here's a Guardian article from the time to sum it up better that I just found. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/ ... ted-cables

Diplomats, governments, human rights charities and media organisations had urged WikiLeaks's founder, Assange, not to publish the full cache of cables without careful source protection.

[isha]

Fair observations, 2u2me. He may have put people in harm's way by being impulsive. I take your point.

I still think overall that what is happening is wrong. It is malevolent and not in appropriate measure. It intends to send a message to people who might ever blow the whistle on government corruption.

And on the basis of putting sources etc in harm's way, then the whole US administration starting with their President should be in Belmarsh's US equivalent right now for how many they have left in harm's way in Afghanistan from only a few months ago.

But you do have a point.

[isha]

Sinead O Connor's 17 year old son dying of suicide is heartbreaking for her and to hear about it.
People have long said crap things about Sinead. She is of the same vintage as me, and I have loved her amazing work and admired her formidable talent since we were both younger! I also have sympathised with her enormous mental health struggles, and admired her braveness in having been at times a lone voice in the wilderness standing up against societal wrongs. I have worried about her over the years - I do not know her though we spent one afternoon in company together. To think it has come to this for her beloved child is so very, very sad.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 89177.html

[Scotty]

Tragically sad. His father is musician Donal Lunny of Planxty.

[Banshee Bones]

If theres a person I don't admire it's O'Connor, despite being a fan of her talent