tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50503122024-03-12T23:21:46.068+00:00Best of Both WorldsPerspective from here and over there.P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.comBlogger6596125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-57306442268220141712023-08-14T19:44:00.006+00:002023-08-14T19:45:19.235+00:00Rabaa Ten Years After<p>With human rights groups reminding us that there's been <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/rights-groups-call-accountability-over-2013-egypt-sit-in-killings-2023-08-14/">no accountability</a> for the Rabaa massacre, it's also worth noting how this episode became a kind of credential for Al-Sisi's toughness among US conservatives, with Ted Cruz providing the <a href="https://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2015/11/euphemism-watch.html">most buffoonish example</a>. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-57907879220403773272023-08-02T23:00:00.002+00:002023-08-02T23:00:38.040+00:00It sounds better in the original French<p> Ross Douthat has a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opinion/britain-populism-jacobite-politics.html">nice column</a> attempting an analogy between the Stuart rebellions in Britain and Ireland and the diffuse nature of populism today. But as with <a href="https://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-french-politics-theory-of-everything.html">a past effort</a>, he really should give in to the logic and acknowledge the primary of French politics for the templates of today. Especially this:</p><p><i>This specifically British story, in turn, is a type of the larger pattern of politics in Europe and the United States, where the gap between thriving capitals and struggling peripheries, between a metropolitan meritocracy and a nostalgic hinterland, has forged a right-wing politics that sometimes resembles Jacobitism more than it does the mainstream conservatisms of the late 20th century.</i></p><p>That's fairly close to a definition of Poujadism. And as the French example shows, the movement can fail but still trigger a realignment of the major political blocs. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-35640873008688801742022-07-23T14:16:00.001+00:002022-07-23T14:16:47.666+00:00Every day is No-Deal Brexit Day<p>[This is entirely a recycling of material from <a href="https://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2020/12/shakespeares-henry-v-st-crispins-day.html">18 months ago</a>, but then again, the traffic situation in Kent is a recycling of material from 18 months ago.]</p><p>Scene: The English camp on the M20 in Kent, bound for #Dover or #Folkestone, and on to France.</p><p>WESTMORELAND</p><p>O that we now had here</p><p>But one ten thousand of those men in England</p><p>That do work from home today!</p><p>KING HENRY V</p><p>What's he that wishes so?</p><p>My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:</p><p>If we are mark'd to tariff, we are enow</p><p>To do our country loss; and if to trade,</p><p>The fewer goods, the greater share of <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/markacc_e/qr_e.htm">quotas</a>.</p><p>God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.</p><p>By Gove, I am not covetous for turbot,</p><p>Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;</p><p>It yearns me not if men my garments wear;</p><p>Such outward things dwell not in my desires:</p><p>But if it be a sin to covet control,</p><p>I am the most offending soul alive.</p><p>No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:</p><p>God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour</p><p>As one man more, methinks, would share from me</p><p>For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!</p><p>Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,</p><p>That he which hath no stomach to this traffic jam,</p><p>Let him depart; his passport shall be blue</p><p>And euros for convoy put into his purse:</p><p>We would not wait in that man's company</p><p>That fears his fellowship to be stuck with us.</p><p>This day is called the feast of No Deal Brexit:</p><p>He that outlives this day, and comes home ever,</p><p>Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,</p><p>And rouse him at the name of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/enforcing-operation-brock-plans-in-2021/outcome/enforcing-operation-brock-in-2021-government-response-to-consultation-on-proposed-legislative-amendments">BROCK</a>.</p><p>He that shall live this day, and see old age pension,</p><p>Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,</p><p>And say 'To-morrow is No Deal Brexit:'</p><p>Then will he strip his sleeve and show his Kent Access Permit.</p><p>And say 'This paperwork I had on No Deal Brexit day.'</p><p>Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,</p><p>But he'll remember with advantages</p><p>What lay-by feats he did that day: then shall our names.</p><p>Familiar in his mouth as household words</p><p>Boris the king, Gove and Dominic,</p><p>Priti and Nigel, Rishi and Arlene,</p><p>Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.</p><p>This story shall the good man teach his son;</p><p>And No Deal Brexit Day shall ne'er go by,</p><p>From this day to the ending of the world,</p><p>But we in it shall be remember'd;</p><p>We few, we happy few, we band of lorry drivers;</p><p>For he to-day that looks for the nearest toilet with me</p><p>Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,</p><p>This day shall gentle his condition:</p><p>And gentlemen in England now a-bed</p><p>Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,</p><p>And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks</p><p>That queued with us upon No Deal Brexit day.</p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-14066993576128894412022-06-04T22:16:00.002+00:002022-06-04T22:16:22.694+00:00Ferry Across the Hudson<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/movies/mark-rylance-phantom-of-the-open-jerusalem.html">New York Times </a>culture reporter Dave Itzkoff interviewing British actor Mark Rylance, this is the final exchange after Rylance spoke about how to it was in some ways easier for him to learn about American popular culture in England --</p><p><i>Itzkoff: This makes me want to take a trip to England and learn what I’m missing about American culture. </i></p><p><i>Rylance: You could just take a day trip to New Jersey and get the same thing.</i></p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-78212752499079645862022-05-02T01:59:00.001+00:002022-05-02T01:59:26.650+00:00The French politics theory of everything<p>Ross Douthat in the Sunday <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/opinion/ohio-senate-trump.html">New York Times</a> --</p><p><i>Six years ago, under the pressure of Donald Trump’s insurgency, the G.O.P. split into three factions.</i></p><p>He goes on to describe the 3 factions: party establishment, "True Conservative" / reactionary, and populist / pugilist. </p><p>This certainly has descriptive power. But did it begin 6 years ago, and is it more general? The division is very easy to map into the famous classification by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_R%C3%A9mond">René Rémond</a> of the French right into Orléanist, Legitimist, and Bonapartist. The first looks for an accommodation with constitutional change and pushes market-oriented policies, the second is reactionary and dwells on perceived loss to social change, and the third looks to go forward, under an inspirational but combative and authoritarian leader. </p><p>Douthat looks at various plausible consequences of the factionalism and the complications caused by Trump's occasional drifting between them. But he doesn't focus on the ultimate outcome in French politics: the weakening of political parties and the evolution of parties into personal vehicles. It might be better to think of the Republican party has already having broken up and at this point more of a logistics vehicle for soliciting opinions. But that would need a different kind of political analysis than the American public gets. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-49272492367508092522022-04-24T00:57:00.004+00:002022-04-24T00:57:36.387+00:00Kevin McCarthy will be fine<p>Why has there been no reaction to Kevin McCarthy saying one thing in public and another in private, in this case about whether Trump should have resigned in January 2021 after the Capitol Riot? This is usually presented as "hypocrisy," per this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/22/us/politics/mccarthy-trump-republicans.html">New York Times</a> analysis. </p><p>In fact, the public assumes a divergence between public and private statements, and considers the private statements to be true. </p><p>It's all in <a href="https://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2016/08/political-performance.html">Niklas Luhmann</a>. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-41613448278844721312022-04-11T23:16:00.002+00:002022-04-11T23:16:46.107+00:00The Kinahans hit the big time<p> Here's <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/recent-actions/20220411_33">a link</a> to the latest action by US Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) regarding the "transnational criminal organization" consisting of the Kinahan Organized Crime Group. It will be seen as somewhat embarrassing in Ireland and UAE that it's gotten to this point; noteworthy in particular is that the gang members appear to have been able to establish local residency and companies in the UAE despite general knowledge of their activities. Perhaps they can compare notes with the newly arriving Russian oligarchs on how to work around these inconveniences. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-78703879268490550792022-02-25T19:43:00.002+00:002022-02-25T19:43:33.214+00:00Sometimes a trade deal is just a trade deal[Originally posted in 2014; reposting in light of Russian invasion of Ukraine]
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/10/statement-president-obama-progress-russias-wto-accession-talks" target="_blank">Barack Obama</a>, 10 November 2011 --<br />
<br />
<i>Russia’s World Trade Organization (WTO) accession would be yet another important step forward in our reset of relations with Russia, which has been based upon the belief that the United States and Russia share many common interests, even as we disagree on some issues. Whether cooperating to supply our forces in Afghanistan, securing nuclear materials, or achieving the New START Treaty, the United States and Russia have demonstrated the ability to produce “win-win” outcomes on security issues. Russia’s dramatic step today towards joining the WTO underscores our ability to cooperate also on economic issues of mutual interest.
</i><br />
<br />
[<a href="http://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2014/02/sometimes-trade-deal-is-just-trade-deal.html" target="_blank">previous item</a> in this series]</div>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-59617692490950663662022-02-25T19:39:00.001+00:002022-02-25T19:39:44.414+00:00Peace through trade[originally posted September 2016; reviving given the Russian invasion of Ukraine]<div><br /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">That was once the Obama Administration<a href="http://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2014/03/sometimes-trade-deal-is-just-trade-deal.html"> theory</a> about how to get Russia onside. From <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/05/26/obama-personally-engaged-in-russia-georgia-wto-dispute/">Foreign Policy</a>, May 2011; the context is that Russia was seeking to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), but since admission of new members is by consensus, Georgia, which has territory occupied by Russia, could have blocked it --<br />
<i></i><br />
<i>... Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in France. A senior White House official told ABC News after the meeting that Obama has "personally been engaged in" the issue for months, and actually set up the Swiss negotiations and convinced both the Russian and Georgian leaders to attend.
The senior official also compared the Georgians to the Palestinians, saying that, with regard to Georgia’s desire to end the Russian occupation, "[T]he WTO is not the forum in which to resolve this… like the Palestinians pursuing the vote at the U.N."
"We think that Russian accession to the WTO will be good for the Russian economy, will be good for the U.S. economy, it will be good for the world economy," Obama said today. "And we are confident that we can get this done."
There are also signs that senior administration officials have placed pressure on Georgia to make a deal
...</i> <br />
<br />
Bonus points for the Administration's then analogy between the Georgians and the Palestinians regarding how to resolve occupied territory!</div></div>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-61655882121466094822022-01-02T01:49:00.001+00:002022-01-02T01:49:37.702+00:00Nationwide<p>The Continental USA has a new winter storm according to the <a href="https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/2021-12-29-new-years-winter-storm-plains-midwest">Weather Channel</a>. It's named Frida. And <a href="https://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2021/12/storm-atticus.html">here we go again</a>. This "storm" is actually a weather system that is crossing the country on an approximately diagonal path. The weather conditions that it produces in a particular area depend on the ground and atmospheric conditions with which it interacts and there is no common thread except turbulence. But when you're competing with Covid case counts, you need a hook, and a named storm will have to do. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-6036551855061794612022-01-01T21:32:00.006+00:002022-01-01T21:32:55.878+00:00Connections<p>From the annual (if delayed) Maureen Dowd <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/01/opinion/trigger-warning-its-my-brothers-turn-again.html">New York Times column</a> where she hands the keyboard to her conservative brother Kevin --</p><p><i>That day was awful to watch because protecting the Capitol was our family business. My father was in charge of security for the United States Senate. He got summer jobs for me and all my four siblings at the Capitol when we were teenagers.</i></p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-46430233890707064592021-12-13T18:06:00.001+00:002021-12-13T18:24:32.486+00:00The UEFA Champions League draw<p> The easy response to the fiasco will be a lot of "You had one job" dunks on Twitter. UEFA had outsourced the technology for the draw for a third party service provider that really did only have one job. And that's the problem -- no one had checked whether all the individual one jobs that people had to do added up to a coherent draw. It's what "management" used to be about. Adam Smith famously titled a chapter of The Wealth of Nations "The Division of Labour is limited by the extent of the market." Now it's limited only by extent of the incompetence. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-66663901891715417572021-12-12T01:18:00.002+00:002021-12-12T01:19:19.120+00:00System Barra<p>One of multiple<a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/severe-flooding-kills-one-storm-barra-drenches-northern-spain-2021-12-10/"> news sources</a>:</p><p><i>PAMPLONA, Spain, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Severe flooding in Spain's Navarre region submerged cars and houses and killed at least one person on Friday as heavy rains from Storm Barra caused rivers to burst their banks.</i></p><p>But wait: how did a storm that formed near New Brunswick last Sunday, struck Ireland on Tuesday (named <a href="https://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2021/12/storm-finbarr.html">as Barra</a>), and then headed <a href="https://www.met.ie/winds-slowly-ease-as-storm-barra-moves-away-from-ireland">into the North Sea</a> supposedly never to be heard of again, cause severe rains in northern Spain on Friday? And why is it still called Barra, which is not in the <a href="http://www.aemet.es/en/conocermas/borrascas/2021-2022">naming rotation</a> of the Spanish Met Office? </p><p>Because this is what happens when you name unpredictable complex winter low pressure systems. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-48881456418712524042021-12-12T00:56:00.000+00:002021-12-12T00:56:19.198+00:00Storm Atticus<p>At some point, after Kentucky gets through all its funerals, there will need to be an assessment of public awareness of the dangerous weather that was to unfold on the night of 10 December. One thing to note is that there was considerable attention on a winter <i>storm</i>, named Atticus under the non-official naming system of The Weather Channel (long time readers of this blog will know our complaints about the naming of winter storms). </p><p>But the storm was seen as a snow event in the Great Lakes. It would have been better to see it as a <i>system</i> that was spawning various complex disturbances as it interacted with air flows in the mid-section of the Continental USA. That doesn't lend itself to the shorthand description of <i>storm</i>, hence the risk of applying the naming system for hurricanes to winter low pressure systems. The National Weather Service short-range public discussions are very careful to talk about systems, but local governments and media may not have understood it the same way.</p><p>For now, God save Kentucky. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-10074738936494417332021-12-07T01:13:00.002+00:002021-12-07T01:13:38.537+00:00Storm Finbarr<p>There is no reason to name North Atlantic low pressure systems. <a href="https://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2020/02/when-ciara-met-sabine.html">None</a>. There are several of them active <a href="https://ocean.weather.gov/Atl_tab.php">at the minute</a>. One of them -- now called Barra -- happened to hitch a lift from New Brunswick to Ireland via the jet stream. The speed at which it crossed the Atlantic and got to prominence among the other Ls on the pressure chart illustrates why the phenomenon is so different from summer tropical systems that make a leisurely trip across the Atlantic from Senegal and can be observed for a week before they strike land. Anyway, watch out for flying objects in Ireland today, as you would for any high wind event, even ones that never to rise to the level of a trendy HiCo name. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-7483507910171465562021-11-20T01:07:00.001+00:002021-11-20T01:07:20.040+00:00There's no word in French for Bobo<p><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4ae73c59-92b6-40ac-b9f8-970fc01bbd2a"> Financial Times</a> on Eric Zemmour --</p><p><i>His extraordinary rise since he emerged as a putative candidate in the summer is down to a Trumpian genius for picking simple themes that resonate with voters and an equally Trumpian insistence that the country is going to the dogs, all with an intellectual flavour and a smattering of history to appeal to the French middle class.</i></p><p>Noteworthy here is the implication that what distinguishes him from Trump is the manner of appeal to the middle class. While no one would ever use the word <i>intellectual</i> to discuss Trump's appeal, he and Zemmour share an instinct that the middle class is especially susceptible to polarization. Culture wars need an appetite for information, questions, and time to engage in those activities ... and that's what the middle class has. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-25980646021564534902021-11-14T02:22:00.000+00:002021-11-14T02:22:03.564+00:00Not Strange Brew<p> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/39lPj0Y97bM" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>With all the Eric Clapton antics, it would be too easy to riff on Strange Brew as a song about vaccines, so here instead is the Strange Brew precursor, a blues classic called Lawdy Mama that had circulated since the 1930s before being adapted by Cream first in this version and then reworked as Strange Brew. P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-19774703504422371122021-11-12T20:06:00.001+00:002021-11-12T20:06:25.386+00:00Agency<p> Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, used his <a href="http://nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A9/503833/%D9%86%D8%B5%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%89-%D9%87%D8%B0%D9%87-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B8%D8%A9-%D8%B1%D9%81%D8%B6%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A9">Martyrs' Day speech</a> to make clear that it's not respectful to Yemenis to impute external factors to the Houthi military situation --</p><p><i>Where is the Saudi suspicion at this point? He may have a suspicion and he has talked about it on more than one occasion. He imagines that the one who leads the fronts in Yemen is Hezbollah, and they are leaders of Hezbollah, and that these victories that are achieved are caused by Hezbollah, and the defeats inflicted on it are caused by Hezbollah, and all of this Illusions in illusions that have no basis in truth. The victories in Yemen were made by Yemeni leaders, Yemeni fighters, Yemeni minds, Yemeni wills, Yemeni faith, Yemeni wisdom, Yemeni miracles, and divine victory for Yemen.</i></p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-68580628543851396192021-11-05T21:59:00.001+00:002021-11-05T21:59:11.169+00:00How Heathers foretold the 2021 US election results<p> JD:<i> People will look at the ashes of Westerburg and say; "now there's a school that self-destructed, not because society didn't care, but because the school was society."</i></p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-17697799917453349422021-10-09T01:58:00.000+00:002021-10-09T01:58:02.386+00:00Pandemics with representation<p> From <a href="https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/78bcda26-0cdc-49cb-889d-f298102bc010">Financial Times</a> article on the relaxation of UK quarantine restrictions --</p><p><i>Tom Jenkins, chief executive of the European Tourism Association, said that despite the changes announced on Thursday foreign visitors would still be put off by the laborious form filling and cost of testing.
“There is now a real aversion to coming to the UK because of these restrictions. These regulations are almost entirely designed around the needs and wants of British voters wanting to go from the UK on holiday. Visitors wanting to come to the UK are off the agenda at the moment,” he said.</i></p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-45944610921459132902021-09-25T17:50:00.001+00:002021-09-25T17:50:47.566+00:00Quote of the Day<p> Janan Ganesh in the <a href="https://twitter.com/ftopinion/status/1441613787048538112?s=20">Financial Times</a> --</p><p><i>Social media’s mutation from Speaker’s Corner to Gin Lane roughly tracks the smartphone’s conquest of BlackBerry. </i></p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-59685114492011702682021-08-29T17:47:00.003+00:002021-08-29T17:47:39.471+00:00Defunct strategist<p> From the excellent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/28/taliban-takeover-kabul/">Washington Post</a> recounting of the collapse of the Afghanistan government as seen from Kabul and Washington DC, amid the usual suspects for these things (DC people on holidays), there's this insight into former President Ghani:</p><p><i>... told aides ... that the government just needed six months to turn the situation around ... "We're fighting there so that we don't have to fight here," he would insist ..</i></p><p>These (6 months, there / here) are the classic catch-phrases from the mid-2000s War on Terror. </p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-41050665561193075232021-08-14T01:13:00.003+00:002021-08-14T01:13:41.042+00:00We'll fight them in the apps<p> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/taliban-make-new-gains-in-afghanistan-putting-kabul-in-crisis-11628528482">Wall Street Journal</a>, 9 August (when things were just getting dire in Afghanistan) --</p><p><i>[President Ashraf] Ghani has been issuing wildly optimistic statements as government control collapsed in much of the country in recent weeks. On Saturday [7 August], as the Taliban began seizing provincial capitals, he held a lengthy conference on reforming the attorney-general’s office and then another meeting on implementing digitization reforms in the country’s public administration.</i></p>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-39213168490035075102021-08-07T15:29:00.001+00:002021-08-07T15:58:50.133+00:00Curragh Mutiny<div dir="auto"><a href="https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2021/0807/1239594-all-ireland-semi-final-delayed-due-to-traffic-issues/ ">RTE</a>: </div><div><br /></div><i> Today's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final between Limerick and Waterford has been delayed until 5.30pm due to major delays on the M7 in Kildare.
A lorry carrying a number of hay bales is understood to have struck a flyover bridge, scattering a number of bales onto the road in the process.
</i>P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050312.post-48897548597188275772021-07-31T23:47:00.001+00:002021-07-31T23:53:54.725+00:00We are so close to the singularity<div dir="auto"><div dir="auto"><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8b18d893-ec1f-4355-af53-6e98d6c852b6">Financial Times</a> on protests in Paris: </div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><i>Staunch Communists marched with supporters of the far-right Rassemblement National party and some from the gilets jaunes movement against a new law making Covid-19 vaccination compulsory for healthcare workers and requiring a health pass for anyone wanting to enter public places such as restaurants, bars and high-speed trains.</i><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">But it will be war, specifically Russian wars, that eventually brings them together. </div></div> P O'Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01211104603959476529noreply@blogger.com0