Messages

Yeah unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

America's primitive voting system is vulnerable to being hijacked by extremists if people are divided between multiple moderate candidates. Ireland's STV system is not friendly to extremists and favours the centre. I'd be very surprised if McGregor made much headway in a campaign.

Is there a housing crisis?

Of course. But the roots of that are not in immigration. It's got a long list of causes, such as the planning system, the oversized power of the NIMBY lobby (it only takes one person to get a court injunction to block a housing development that would have added hundreds of housing units), etc.. Immigrants are not the cause of that.

Is there an immigration crisis?

Certainly not.  A country like Ireland needs more immigrants, who skew towards working age, to support the growing number of dependents who are now living longer. Occupations like nursing are labour intensive and very hard to automate, so I can't think of any way of filling those roles without immigration.

Is there a healthcare crisis?

Yes, but see above. There are many issues with the way the Irish health system is managed, but it's hard to see how immigrants are at fault for that.

Is there a law and order crisis in certain parts of Ireland?

Local people commit crimes. Immigrants commit crimes. I've yet to see any evidence that immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than locals. But an immigrant committing a crime will get many more acres of news print and generate far more outrage than a local doing the same or worse.

Is the housing crisis, the healthcare crisis, the law and order crisis caused or exacerbated by immigration?

It's a clever argument that immigrants are putting pressure on the housing market, but there are many factors feeding into it. Local people having children are also increasing demand for housing. Do we blame people for having children? I would argue that local NIMBYs who block construction of new housing are far more culpable in separating housing supply from demand, but it's ultimately the system that empowers them that needs to be reformed.

For healthcare, I would suggest that inept management is the biggest factor, and immigrants who can increase the supply of labour in that sector are part of the solution, not part of the problem.

For crime, the question is a bit loaded in that it presupposes that there is a law and order crisis. Crime comes in many categories, some of which will show increases and some will show decreases. Easily-accessible CSO stats on their website go back to 2003. Homicides seemed to peak in 2007, and haven't shown a discernible increasing trend since. Sexual offences seem to be increasing, but it's hard to know if that's down to increased incidents or increased reporting as people feel more free to speak out about it. It wasn't so long ago that church-run institutions were hell-holes in which today's sex offending stats would probably be dwarfed, but it all went unreported for years. Child abductions seem to be holding steady. Ditto for robberies.

Adjust it all for population and we're probably looking at a steady decrease in crime, which tracks with the rest of the developed world. ... Yup, just checked it. Overall per-capita decrease since 2007. I'd feel pretty confident in saying there is no "law and order crisis," to say nothing of anything we could blame on immigrants.

Support your local shops and family businesses.

Tesla dealership in Belfast attacked with 20 of Space Hitler's shitty cars damaged, oh dear, how sad...

Can't be real surely?

I had a hard time believing it too, but...

https://www.instagram.com/pearlmania500/reel/DHJIce7xw_t/

Fair enough. Though this week I'm more horrified about the administration defying court orders, and also refusing to readmit a Lebanese surgeon on a legitimate work visa, with no reason given.

I read this morning about an ethnic Hmong woman from Milwaukee who has lived in the US since she was a baby (born in Thailand to refugees from the Vietnam War), but after getting mixed up in and serving time for some kind of illegal marijuana  criminality, she lost her green card and was deported straight out of prison to Laos, a country she had never previously set foot in. Leaving behind her US husband and five kids, and with her documents seized by the Laotian government and running out of diabetes medication.

Brought to you by "the party of family values."

"He was a smart guy. You know Tesla. First the light bulb and now this. Seems like a modern-day Isaac Neutron."

"Sleepy Joe" oversaw the biggest stock gains in US history, 9 straight quarters of GDP growth, 12 straight months of inflation decline... and "the greatest businessman ever" crashed it all in 45 days.

Is someone trying to argue that Trump cut taxes? What do these people think a tariff is?

[SOS a good one too]

The winner takes it all
I do, I do, I do, I do, I do
Knowing me, knowing you (ah ha!)

SOS a good one too

I preferred Kate Kestrel's version of that

Put him on ignore. It'll be better for your own mental health.

My approach to MAGAs now on social media is to just blanket block them.

1,500,000,000 kg = 1,500,000 tonnes

Watched the whole interview. Zelensky talking over the President inside the Oval Office when you arent getting your way is not a good look. If watching the West Wing taught me one thing its that.

You know the West Wing is fiction, right?

Hopefully there'll be no peace deal and we can join Ukraine in their war against Russia.

The more lives lost the better

Tell Putin to stop invading his neighbours if you're so opposed to war.

He doesn't wear a suit to remind people that his country is at war.