I got yelled at on X by an Irish guy. I had made a little joke about having my surname changed as I didn’t want to be connected with Ireland – and this in regards to the President of Ireland sending a congratulatory letter to the new “President” of Iran – you know, the fanatic anti-Semitic thug chosen by the Mullahs to replace the previous fanatic anti-Semitic thug. I momentarily pondered pointing out that his government had expressed condolences to Germany over Hitler eating a bullet in 1945 but I decided I was dealing with a lunatic and so just blocked him. But then I started thinking about it and I came to an odd conclusion: Irish independence has been a mistake.
Don’t get me wrong here: I’m not excusing things like Cromwell’s depredations nor the vicious anti-Catholic laws the Brits imposed on Ireland. Injustice is injustice and is always wrong. But the bottom line is that while the UK – and, previously, England – had made a huge number of mistakes and committed innumerable crimes in Ireland, by the time the Irish rose in rebellion in 1916, the whole cause of Irish independence was a moot point.
The Roman Catholic Relief Act had passed in 1829 so you could legally be Catholic. The Representation of the People of Ireland Act came in 1832, enfranchising the Irish population equally with the rest of the UK population. Ireland had proportional representation in Parliament and, indeed, at times the Irish Members held the balance of power in the UK (that is, nobody could form a government without getting them on board). After the Famine (which wasn’t deliberate no matter what some Irish guy might yap on about) ended in 1852, Irish prosperity grew rapidly with the Irish having access to work and live anywhere in the United Kingdom and the larger British Empire. What all this showed was that for all of the UK’s flaws, it was a Rule of Law State which afforded its people – of whatever background – all the Rights that people should have, even if securing those Rights took some political battling (as it always has everywhere). Just before World War One – indeed, it was a massive political issue in the UK just as the War came in – the Brits had even agreed to Home Rule: that is, setting up an independent Irish Parliament much as Scotland has today. It was delayed by the War but it was still coming. Whatever lingering feeling remained of being “ruled” by the English was coming to an end…peacefully and with Ireland getting the benefits of local rule combined with those of being part of a larger political, social and economic entity. So, what was the fuss about?
Mindless tribalism. The Irish Nationalist leaders simply didn’t want to be part of the UK because it was dominated by the English. Because great-grandpa had been hung for stealing a sheep. In other words, nothing. No real cause. Just hatred – and hatred which was fueled by German arms provided to the Irish rebels while the UK was fighting for her life against those same Germans. They say the Brit reaction to the Easter Uprising in 1916 is what turned the Irish people in broad majority towards independence. If so, that actually makes the Irish out to be pretty lousy people. What they heck did they expect? Britain was losing thousands of men a week fighting the Germans and here comes Paddy armed with a German rifle to start a rebellion in the rear? Yeah. Guess what: the reaction to that isn’t going to be nice.
But it wasn’t all that harsh. Once the Easter Uprising was suppressed, the Brits took about 3,500 prisoners, about 10 percent picked up for looting. Nearly half were released in a couple weeks. Only 187 were put on trial. Remember, this was an armed uprising against the government during wartime that was supported by the enemy! Thousands of Irish participated – 187 went on trial; 16 were executed. That’s it. For armed rebellion during wartime…and rebellion against a government which was equal for all citizens in the United Kingdom. It just wasn’t a totally Irish government. That was the only objection.
And that is the real problem here: mindlessness. People pick their tribe – or are born into one – and just pigheadedly defend their side no matter what facts might say. Chesterton pointed out that saying, “my country, right or wrong” is like saying, “my mother, drunk or sober”. Patriotism isn’t chauvinism. Love of country means, at times, admitting your country is in the wrong and needs to be corrected. The Irish never seem to have got to that point.
The Irish stayed neutral in World War Two simply because they didn’t like the English…as if that mattered. Some credit to the Irish people – especially some Irish soldiers – who joined up with the British, but Irish society and the Irish government were very much “a pox on both your houses” as they pretended that anything other than an Allied victory would save them. Think about that: the most titanic struggle in human history against the personification of evil…and the Irish stayed out because they didn’t like the English. You know, Mexicans do have some cause to be upset with Americans over various historical events…but in WWII the Mexicans declared war and while unable to provide much, did provide something to the Allied cause. It wasn’t like anyone was expecting Ireland to conscript her entire manhood and send them into battle…a just about symbolic declaration and maybe a regiment attached to an American division. Oh, and don’t go getting weepy eyed at the Nazi embassy after Hitler offed himself. Not much of an ask.
And this is why the Irish are, perhaps even by majority, rabidly in favor of the “Palestinian” cause – simple thickheaded hatred. The Irish do see kindred spirits in Hamas and Hezbollah. Keep in mind that even after independence, Irish people were setting off bombs in the UK into the late 1990’s in service of the cause of bringing Northern Ireland under the rule of Dublin. Why? Because in the distant past (like 300 years) the land had been majority Irish. That’s it. Forget that a huge number of events came between, say, 1650 and 1950: it had once been Irish and Irish it must become again. For…reasons. Can’t really think of any. Whatever might have happened in the past, by the time of Irish independence the majority of the population wasn’t Irish and didn’t want to be part of Ireland. That’s an end on it. There was no just cause for anyone to complain about this. But there was the IRA setting off bombs in British pubs in the 1970’s because of some mythical past in Ulster. So, too, the “Palestinians”. Not quite as much time but what happened on 10/7 is that the great-granddaughter of a Jew living in 1948 was raped to death by the great-grandson of a Muslim who tried to kill the Jew in 1948…the modern Muslim trying to annul the last 75 years and make Tel Aviv Muslim…which it hasn’t been by majority population since some time in the mid-19th century. But it was Muslim once upon a time!
As if that matters. It ain’t now. Whatever wrongs happened didn’t happen to the people today (the youngest Muslim who can have a complaint against 1948 is, of course, 76 years old…just figure it out for the youngest adult Muslim who can have a legit complaint: 94 years old). We’re not talking a large number of people even if there was a legit complaint…and the people with a gripe (if there are such) did not take part in 10/7.
And that brings us to a stark realization that we have, for a very long time, allowed very stupid people to disturb the peace of the world for nonsensical reasons. We’re on the brink of a regional war in the Middle East – which could eventually drag in the Great Powers – because of a very stupid concept: that there is some cause “Palestinians” are fighting for. It isn’t a cause. It is an idiocy. It is twaddle. It is infantile nonsense. But we treat it with great respect. We hold conferences about it. UN votes. It is disturbing our own domestic politics. We’ve imported some of the problem so that we can now have “Palestinians” beating up Jews here in the USA. But not just the ridiculous “Palestinians”…time and time again around the world since WWII we have seen these fights emerge as idiots decide to go on murderous rampages in service of stupid causes based upon alleged injustices of the past. Think about the Rwandan genocide as the worst sort of example: Hutu massacred Tutsi…because of some bizarre complaint about who was better off under Belgian colonial rule decades previously. It was just mindless savagery…and the world sat back and watched it happen because for whatever insane reason it has been decided that stupid people acting like lunatics are to be treated with respect.
We have to stop that. Understanding that we live in a big world with lots of different people. Understanding that our understanding of what is true and beautiful might be different from someone else’s. Sure. All that. But nobody can be allowed to act like savages over the past. Did he, that person, do something to you? No. Then shut up and sit down; we have nothing to discuss unless he does. And when some person or group or even nationality decides to go on a violent rampage based on some alleged past action – true or not – then that person or group or even nationality should be punished with exemplary brutality to make sure they – and everyone else – learns the lesson. We will not have any more of this nonsense.
The world is becoming increasingly violent and teeters on the edge of conflagration. We have to call a halt to it. Back in the 19th century, a halt was called to it. The Great Powers simply did not permit lunatics to go on rampages. The British sent a whole army to Sudan in 1898 to overthrow a thug regime which was practicing slavery. Not because it threatened the British – but because it was a thug regime that needed to be overthrown. No worries about national feeling or the pride of the locals…they were selling slaves. Stop that or here comes our army. When the Rwandan Genocide happened the world knew within days what was happening…and the world should have said, “stop it or we’re sending an army in to hang every Hutu caught with a machete”. They would have stopped. Heck, if we had a world where that sort of firmness was common then it probably would not have started. A bunch of Hutu dimwits would have been sharpening their machetes and really, really wanting to dice a Tutsi…but then they’d remember that each time savages go on a rampage the savages all end up hung…so, maybe find something else to do that day.
And this isn’t difficult. It isn’t morally murky. We Americans might get it wrong from time to time but we’re not setting off bombs because Cromwell burned an Irish farmhouse in 1650. Not massacring people because they had a privileged position the past. In short, we’re better than that – and better than any “Palestinian” setting up a rocket launcher in UNRWA school. And that means we get to tell them what they may or may not do and if they act like pigheaded, disobedient savages then they will be punished. The world is on fire and it is time to put it out.
Blogs For Victory 
And that means we get to tell them what they may or may not do and if they act like pigheaded, disobedient savages then they will be punished. The world is on fire and it is time to put it out.
I agree that those who behave like “pigheaded, disobedient savages” need to be punished. I’m just not sure it’s our job to do so. I’d be happy if we could just figure out a way to punish public servants in THIS country who violate their oath to the Constitution.
Charity begins at home!
But you take the story that Iran is plotting to assassinate Trump. Could be just a false flag, of course: our government putting it out there so if Trump does go down they can point fingers away from their deliberate incompetence. But suppose it is real: it is only happening because since 1979 we’ve treated the savages running Iran as if they have a right to even speak without our permission. If we had a general rule – I’ll call it the Kitchener Rule, given that he chastised the savages in Sudan in 1898 – that barbarians are to behave or be punished, then none of this would happen. They simply wouldn’t dare.
You think about the passions unleashed at the partition of India in 1947 and you realize that they didn’t dare as long as the British Raj held authority. Ancestral memories of what the Brits did in response to the Mutiny of 1857 made sure that everyone cooled their jets…but as soon as the Brits were gone, the various peoples of India were at each other’s throats. These days we’re supposed to look back on the Mutiny and be outraged at what the British did…and, to be fair, the fact that the Brits were there at all is a problem…but the pragmatic facts of life are that in 1857 the collapse of Native Indian government starting in the 1730’s had created the situation where British rule was necessary just to keep society going…that without some insufferable Brit minding the store, the whole thing would fall apart. As it did in 1947. The Mutinous Sepoys simply had no cause for what they did…rising in rebellion which would disturb the life of the Indian people who had absolutely zero stake in the matter (it was an argument, inflamed by agitators, about religion and caste in the East India Company’s army). Nobody asked the common people of India – most of whom were subsistence farmers who needed absolute peace and security just to ensure India was fed – if it was time to go on a violent rampage.
We need to get back to that – not endless wars, but when some group of barbarians gets out of line, they are stamped on as an object lesson.
You’re still supporting the corrupt, cruel and stupid Ruling Class.
You have no standing to complain about our views.
One measuring stick on the health of the economy is business bankruptcies. This list below shows just a few of the bigger known names, though there are considerably more smaller businesses that have folded in recent years, some of which have been in existence for generations. While election voting trends sway for a variety of reasons, severe financial conditions are among the more consequential.
“Soaring Bankruptcies: Personal and business bankruptcies are on pace to set new records this year. The number is up 9.1 percent in the latest quarter over the previous.
Major Bankruptcy Filings: Big Lots, Bed Bath & Beyond, Red Lobster, Rite Aid, Vice Media, Envision Healthcare, Proterra Inc., Comcar Industries, SmileDirect Club, JCPenney, SVB Financial Group, First Republic Bank, Signature Bank, BurgerFi International, Inc, Tijuana Flats, Oberweis Dairy, Rubio’s Coastal Grill, Kuma’s Corner, SPB Hospitality, Buca di Beppo, Roti Modern Mediterranean, CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries, Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza & Wings, Tupperware, World of Beer.”
Well I guess those companies weren’t price gouging LOL
Speaking of stupidity, we have some American war hawks wanting to launch ICBM’s into Russia on behalf of “saving democracy” in Ukraine. What cold go wrong with picking a fight with the guy who has one of the largest nuclear arsenals?? All because of a dispute over a small strip of land on the Eastern flank of Ukraine. The only people advocating this, are the people who gain something from it, and that is not the Ukrainian people, but the war merchants. Sending people to slaughter so they can play with their military toys and their tax payer money. And if we don’t stop these morons, we will be in WWIII soon.
JD Vance and Stanley McChrytsal have a difference of opinion on who has the character to sit in the oval office.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/26/opinion/kamala-harris-president.html
“The character to sit in the white house”?? – wow. Coming from someone who has no problem with sitting someone in the White House who took in millions of dollars from foreign adversaries with no good explanation as to why, sitting someone in the white house whose son is a sex trafficker and convicted tax evader, and sitting someone in the white house whose daughter wrote about how creepy it was when he took showers with her.
I guess that’s what passes as character to this bonk piece of shit.
Well if anyone knows what “fever dreams” are, it would be you. And I’ll bet you’re considered the smart one in your family
Speaking of sitting in the White House reaping millions of dollars from foreign adversaries:
The private equity firm run by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald J. Trump, has been paid at least $112 million in fees since 2021 by Saudi Arabia and other foreign investors, even though as of July it had not yet returned any profits to the governments largely bankrolling the firm.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/25/us/politics/kushner-private-equity-saudi-arabia.html
Then there’s the bribe of $11 million that Donald Trump received from Egypt.
It’s kind of fun, for a while, to see what kinds of lies and stupidity are floating around out there. We already know the kinds of people who are attracted to them, like flies around an outhouse and for the same reason.
This is the pattern of the obsessives who keep slinking back onto the blog with different names and different ISPs or VPNs—a little pretense at an interest in actual political discourse, just to justify being allowed to post, quickly followed by a descent into lies, insults and more lies.
And then, of course, the shrill whining about not being allowed to use the blog as a litter box for their mental and emotional feces. Followed by a new name and new effort.
There is not a scintilla of evidence that Jared Kushner profited from his relationship to Donald Trump. And certainly none that Trump “received” a bribe from Egypt.
These people are so desperate, they are reduced to avoiding any comment on the economy, the disaster of open borders, efforts to rig this election (too) and the other issues that are kryptonite to the Harris/Walz campaign by slinging any mud they can invent in a pathetic game of “Well, your guy is bad, too” supported by a few lies and a lot of ginned-up fake outrage.
Of all the things thrown at Trump, not a single one has stuck. They have gotten their faux convictions on their bogus “felonies” but the longer this pile of Leftist fecal matter sits in front of the American public the more obvious is its stink and the more people see it for what it is and always has been. The thing about the truth is that, while it may be temporarily buried under a barrage of lies and personal attacks, it still tends to fight its way to the surface.
Kushner is an international businessman and has been well before the Trump presidency. Jared actually offers something of value. And Egypt tried to send the Trump campaign $10 million (not $11 million) and Trump rejected it.
You’re not intellectually equipped to comment on this blog. This is an adult conversation and you offer nothing.
He can get back to us when Jared snorts coke of a hooker’s a** while being a bagman for Daddy.
It’s kind of surprising that any Lefty has the chutzpah to even SAY the word “character” given their misbegotten cast of losers, sex offenders, drug dealers and addicts, near-prostitutes, cheats, liars, grifters, election fraud enablers, Communism apologists and serial violators of multiple federal laws—and that is just a partial list. One would think that the word “character” would be recognized as one that should be avoided at all costs, given the likelihood it will come back on whoever tries it.
And Egypt tried to send the Trump campaign $10 million (not $11 million) and Trump rejected it.
You are correct, it was a $10 million bribe not $11 million. Might as well go to the source reporting of the bribe:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/08/02/trump-campaign-egypt-investigation/
But no, there is no evidence that I know of that Trump rejected the bribe. Maybe what you’re thinking is that Trump political appointees rejected efforts to investigate the bribe.
As for Jared Kushner, we all know that if Biden’s son had “worked on” Middle East affairs in the White House, then left and received $2 billion from the Saudis to start an investment fund, you would be screaming to high heaven about it.
And if Kusher offered his investors “something of value,” apparently it’s not money, which is what an investment fund is supposed to produce. So what else could “something of value” be. Thinking, thinking…
cows: what thee is no evidence of is that he accepted it. And you KNOW there is no evidence, yet you still push a meme you know is false. How valid is your worldview if it can only be supported by lies? Valid worldviews don’t need as many lies because they actually reflect reality.
By the cow/rock metric, if someone were to offer to pay him to do something he would then automatically be guilty of being bribed to do it.
If we use “simple minded” as the base line for evaluating these people, some of them, like cow/rock, often drop well below that line.