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Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

The Saker

Indymedia ireland

Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Army Sergeant Travis Decker Murdered His Three Children After Being Denied Mental Health Care at JBL... Sat Jun 07, 2025 04:52 | JBLM Whistleblowers
A corrupt military police force and incompetent Commander who denied emergency mental health care and crisis counseling to an American service member resulted in the murder of the sergeant's three young daughters

offsite link Gaza doctor grieves her nine children killed in Israeli strike Sun May 25, 2025 20:00 | imc
Israeli regime continues it's slaughter
'The children were completely charred'

Paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar was treating victims of Israeli attacks when her children were killed by an Israeli strike on their home

offsite link British doctors working in Gaza describe territory as a ?slaughterhouse? Sat May 24, 2025 00:23 | imc
There?s no food getting in so people are starving,? surgeon Tom Potokar says
British doctors working in Gaza have described the territory as a ?slaughterhouse,? where the patients they are treating are severely malnourished.

Plastic surgeons and orthopedic specialists from the UK are based at the Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.

Dr. Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon specializing in burn injuries, has worked in Gaza 16 times but said this mission had revealed a level of destruction far greater than his last visit in 2023,

offsite link It is time to talk about the Out of Control Immigration. Mon Mar 31, 2025 22:12 | imc
For the last few years since the CV19 scamdemic undocumented immigration into Ireland has surged. No one is allowed discuss it because they do not want any rational debate about it. If you do you are labelled an extremist. However this out of control immigration is fully facilitated by the Irish government and the EU and the shady figure behind the Neo Con movement pushing for endless war, wokeism and globalist agenda.

offsite link [Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine: End Israeli Apartheid & Genocide Thu Mar 06, 2025 22:35 | ipsc
Sat, 22 March 2025, 13:00 Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by over 150 Irish civil society organisations, has called another National Demonstration for Palestine on Saturday 22nd March.

The march will begin at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm and finish outside the D?il on Molesworth Street/Kildare Street to bring our demands to the Irish government?s doorstep.

The Saker >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link On Being a Young Male Immigrant Thu Jul 17, 2025 19:00 | Dr David McGrogan
The worldview of those who govern us is predicated on the 'denial of shit'. And when it comes to immigration ? particularly of testosterone-addled young men ? they deny it by the bucketload, says Dr David McGrogan.
The post On Being a Young Male Immigrant appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link How Masking Came to Our Modern Animal Farm in 2020 Thu Jul 17, 2025 17:05 | Paul Stevens
Paul Stevens of anti-face mask campaign Smile Free tells the sorry tale of how the wily racoon was co-opted into Covid masking propaganda. Animal Farm came to life in 2020.
The post How Masking Came to Our Modern Animal Farm in 2020 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Have You Been Cancelled? Thu Jul 17, 2025 15:06 | Dr Carole Sherwood
Have you experienced cancellation? If so, and you received help from the Free Speech Union, please complete this online survey exploring the effects of cancellation on mental health.
The post Have You Been Cancelled? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Starmer Gives Children the Vote: 16 Year-Olds to Vote Despite ?Rigging? Claims and Half of Teens Opp... Thu Jul 17, 2025 13:00 | Will Jones
Keir Starmer is to give children the vote as he lowers the voting age to 16 at the next?General Election, despite claims that it's "rigging" the result and half of teens themselves opposing the move.
The post Starmer Gives Children the Vote: 16 Year-Olds to Vote Despite “Rigging” Claims and Half of Teens Opposing the Move appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Jaguar Land Rover Announces Mass Management Redundancies: 500 Jobs Face Axe After Woke Rebrand Thu Jul 17, 2025 11:08 | Will Jones
Jaguar Land Rover has announced mass management redundancies, with 500 UK jobs facing the axe after its woke rebrand ? but the company insists it is just "normal business practice".
The post Jaguar Land Rover Announces Mass Management Redundancies: 500 Jobs Face Axe After Woke Rebrand appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Watching the Drunks and Insomniacs

category national | arts and media | opinion/analysis author Friday July 09, 2004 15:07author by seedot - Indymedia TV Review: Watching... Report this post to the editors

Despite the lack of a category, Indymedia should have a TV page. Why do when you can watch.

Oireachtas Report often lives up to Pat Rabbittes memorable description - he may have been talking about the audience but who can tell?

Saw it last night and heard some people bemoaning the lack of accountability for the Government during the next 3 months as the Dail was in recess. It is handy the day the decentralisation website stats are released all right, but have they ever watched the programme? I mean, given the level of editing (i hear they often shoot scenes and even endings that never make it into the final cut) you'd think it would be more exciting then 'Who's in the Doughnut'.

You see the idea is that this is where the affairs of the Nation get debated and decisions taken. So when they're not there all hell might break loose - anarchy even. To avoid this the Oireachtas has to be the place where the government tells the truth, where great men (usually men) make great speeches. Even with the general lack of greatness, yesterday they were all very upset that this would'nt be happening for the next few months - although we were reassured that the committees would still be sitting.

Now I am not the fiercest critic of electoralism. If they want to have their party, let them; as long as I don't have to go. But the whole thing seems a bit useless if the government can just say whatever they want in the Dail chamber and everybody just lets them. As we learn from the Indymedia feature today, Oireachtas Report is just FICTION afterall, which even Bertie, weight of the continent on his shoulders, prince of the church, partakes in. Do they not realise what this will do?

How can anyone defend electoralism and let the Taoiseach lie to them in the Dail Chamber? Maybe SKYs new Ashtown Gate Wet T Shirt Competition is what we should be watching. Oireachtas Report is not back until the Autumn: lets get rid of the liars and just let the Drunks and Insomniacs do their party piece.

For the sake of television.

To save us from committees.

author by Angryliberalpublication date Fri Jul 09, 2004 16:06author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The dail seems weak for a number of reasons.

1.The opposition are terrible and until recently didn't coordinate any of their questions or the time they get collectively.A weak opposition,which at the moment seems confined to sinn fein shouting and labour weak jokes,means the government can control debate.

2.The system in the dail,including a reduction of the days the taoiseach attends,is balanced against the opposition.Pat Rabbitte was right to point out the the chairman of the dail,a FF TD, constantly rejects opposition questions.The taoiseach isn't often required to sit in the dail and whenever the opposition have a one-sided issue to hit the government on they wheel out michael smith(minister of defence ranks somewhere between arts and culture and the ministry of funny walks in importance).Time to ask questions and to whom is limited.

3.the electoral and party system itself.In other countries members of different parties often vote against the official party stance,eg.America or labour in Britain.Ireland has a political history of extreme party loyalty,thus nearly every vote has the same result all FF and PDs against everyone else.A notable exception to this was the FG justice spokesman voting with the government on a criminal justice bill and this he got eaten alive for.This is a repeated thrend,backbenchers always end up supporting the government on fees,privitisation and the smoking ban despite their opposition.Thus if there is no chance of actually persuading other tds to change their loyalty for a single vote the dail changes audience to the public.All is PR dominated,the opposition seeking a tv3 news report and the government(also known as michael smith)trying to avoid an embarrassing quote.

author by Terrypublication date Fri Jul 09, 2004 19:08author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The use of the Party Whip by all parties to force their TDs on critical issues is essentially dictatorship by the Party Whip.

The Party Whip has been used quite often to get various bills and other stuff through the Dail even when there has been considerable opposition and resistance by back bench TDs in the government of the day.

The way it works is quite coercive and simple. If you vote against the whip, particularly on something that the government really wants to push through is that your chances of promotion to being a Minister in the next reshuffle or government will suffer. Not only that for back-benchers who might not be that material, there is always the threat of loosing the ear of important colleagues and of other TDs being favoured in terms of resources from your area in the next election. So for example, you might find your chance of being nominated to go up for your own seat next time is sabotaged.

They are many other subtle ways that the political parties impose their will. In some cases you can even be thrown out of the political party and it has happened.

The same thing happens in UK politics in the House of Commons.

For example the Bill a few years ago, which centralized all power regarding waste matters from the councils to central government was got through with the Party Whip.

It can be hard to know when it is actually being used, because there doesn't have to be any announcement, just the quiet word in the ear is enough, but often you will hear in a press-release or statement that the government had to use the party whip for a given bill.

There are many other flaws in the way voting works in the Dail, but this must be one of the worst, is probably the most coercive and as I said earlier is essentially dictatorial -at least when it matters.

 
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