Daniel Ó Coileáin

Some useful websites for anyone wishing to send donations for medical/psychological aid, drinking water, food supplies, shelter and hygiene kits for the people of #Palestine: •msf.ie/occupied-pales… •map.org.uk/donate/donate •donate.unrwa.org/gaza/~my-donat… •pennyappeal.org/appeal/gaza-em…

Rest in power Michael Parenti (1933-2026), a giant among Marxist historians and political scientists. His writings and speeches are an invaluable resource for the study of – and struggle against – imperialism, capitalism and social chauvinism. A true working class intellectual, Parenti remained true to the principles and positions of global class struggle, never watering down his analysis for the sake of respectability, popularity or a well-paid job. He supported the socialist countries, he supported anti-imperialist struggle, he supported the oppressed and exploited everywhere. He never fell for “neither Washington nor Beijing” or other variants of Western ultra-left posturing. His analysis of “siege socialism” and the extreme challenges of building socialism in a hostile imperialist world remain as relevant today as ever. Importantly, and in contrast to most leftist intellectuals, Parenti wrote and spoke in order to communicate ideas of liberation, not to make himself look clever. He had an unparalleled ability to condense important ideas into accessible, easily-understood language. This quote from ‘Blackshirts and Reds’ is a searing indictment of the US-led imperialist system, and powerful riposte to the ridiculous “victims of communism” narrative. “In pursuit of counterrevolution and in the name of freedom, US forces or US-supported surrogate forces slaughtered 2,000,000 North Koreans in a three-year war; 3,000,000 Vietnamese; over 500,000 in aerial wars over Laos and Cambodia; over 1,500,000 million in Angola; over 1,000,000 in Mozambique; over 500,000 in Afghanistan; 500,000 to 1,000,000 in Indonesia; 200,000 in East Timor; 100,000 in Nicaragua; over 100,000 in Guatemala (plus an additional 40,000 disappeared); over 700,000 in Iraq; over 60,000 in El Salvador; 30,000 in the ‘dirty war’ of Argentina; 35,000 in Taiwan, when the Kuomintang military arrived from China; 20,000 in Chile; and many thousands in Haiti, Panama, Grenada, Brazil, South Africa, Western Sahara, Zaire, Turkey, and dozens of other countries, in what amounts to a free-market world holocaust.”

rip michael parenti, he was a fantastic author and orator, and i don't think anyone has ever put imperialism so succinctly.

RIP to Dr. Michael Parenti, who died today. I interviewed him for my book on the media war on Venezuela. He was very friendly, and was much more interested in asking me about my work, research, and the political situation in Scotland. His death marks the passing of one of the West's most important public intellectuals. Anyway, here is what he said about the role of the media in engineering public support for regime change abroad -- something all the more significant given the current US attack on Venezuela 🇻🇪: "I think the mainstream media does an excellent job for the people that they represent, which is corporate America. The mainstream media are not close to corporate America, they are not supportive of corporate America, they are corporate America. The media are owned by the super-rich and are a component part of power and wealth, so their job is to paint a threatening and pejorative picture of any leader, movement, or government that tries to chart an independent course, that tries to use the land, the labor, the markets and human resources of a country for its own development. Any country that does that, its leader is denigrated, sullied, and demonized. So I think what we are seeing in Venezuela is a perfect example of that.”

Imagine the sheer level of ideological indoctrination you need to live under to write this headline

Two nobodies, desperately hoping the US will bomb their countries into accepting them as dictators.

How can you say this? This whole time I gave Carney the benefit of the doubt that he was just a racist sociopath. I assumed that he actually agreed with the US' Israel's genocide in Palestine cause he is a Zionist & a racist, that he was perfectly fine with the US illegally intervening in Venezuela, that what the UAE wants to do and is doing in Sudan is "not Canada's business, also cause Black people who cares right?". But the fact that he admits that he turned a blind eye as to benefit from that complicity and only now that we are not benefitting?!?!??, he says,"it was all a lie, so time for a change". Absolutely no guilt and taking any responsibility whatsoever over enabling and complicity in massacres of 100s of thousands of people and children because "well, it used to benefit us, so" *shrug*. And people are lauding him for that? Have you all lost your minds?

Canada buys $19bn worth of war machinery from the US annually, sells the US four million barrels of oil a day, has a deep military intelligence partnership with the US, just signed a cross-border cooperation agreement with ICE. Think Carney will give this up? Get real

For years, European liberals pontificated about the “appeasement” of “dictators” in Moscow and Beijing. Meanwhile, they not only appeased, but actively fuelled the imperialist monster in Washington. When Washington beckoned, they dutifully sent troops to kill their share of Arabs and imposed sanctions to kill their share of Latin Americans. They joined hands across the Atlantic to destroy nations in West Asia and Africa and opened their borders to US torture camps. Like imperialists before them, they plotted to carve up Eastern Europe with Malthusian agendas of deregulation and austerity — and they threw all their diplomatic, media, and military prowess to back our generation's Holocaust in Palestine. They subordinated their foreign policies to NATO and their economic policies to the IMF and World Bank — all frameworks largely drawn up in Washington. They abandoned trade partnerships with neighbors in favor of dependence on US monopolies. And they surrendered their land to US bases and nuclear weapons, which suppressed oppositional currents within their countries. This subordination has become so deeply embedded within European institutions that Europe began to produce cookie-cutter leaders who were little more than spokespeople for Atlanticism. The only competency required of a Kaja Kallas, Radosław Sikorski, Annalena Baerbock, Ursula von der Leyen or Mark Rutte is to recite imperialist mantras on command — preferably with that sneering air of supremacy that guarantees their alienation from the global majority. Meanwhile, every sovereign nation violated, every Global South life shortened, every sanction imposed, every bomb dropped, every refugee drowned, and every protest repressed accelerated the return of fascism to the political center. This is what Eastern European socialism held back — what the Berlin Wall defended the German Democratic Republic against. Now, these bulwarks are gone and the world is reaping the consequences. Europeans will one day need to contend with the fact that it was their civilization — and its rotten outgrowth in Washington — that has been history's main instigator of violence. Slavery, the colonial genocides, two world wars, a global counter-insurgency that spent centuries violently suppressing struggles for decolonization — this is Europe's inheritance. It should come as no surprise that these policies are, once again, turning against their architects.

"We helped you kill people in your imperialist wars, please don't do imperialism to us."

@BBCRadioFoyle I've touched down in Birmingham and am ready to race. 👊 x.com/BritishRowing/…

In advance of flying the flag for City of Derry and Ireland at this weekend's British Indoors, I discussed with @BBCRadioFoyle my journey from battling an eating disorder to becoming an Irish champ. I hope my story can give hope to anyone in need of it.🙏 bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

Obama bombed 7 countries, dropping 26,171 bombs in his last year as US president. He waged non-stop war, and destroyed the government of Libya, the most prosperous country in Africa, making it a failed state with slave markets. He also supported violent coups in Latin America.

Would the BBC or any western media consider this newsworthy? Nazi style execution in broad daylight of unarmed men. This is what genocide looks like. This is what the West is complicit in. instagram.com/reel/DRkMx-_js…

Once upon a time, even mentioning the Istanbul talks would earn you years of harassment and smearing as a "stooge." Now, after 4 years, with 1.4M dead and Ukraine destroyed, IT finally acknowledges this horrific war could have been ended, with better terms for Ukraine, in 2022.

Let's not rebrand Niarac as some sort of charismatic and romantic historical enigma. He was a bloodthirsty psychopath who operated for the British state in the North who murdered innocents in their dozens at will. @bbcradioulster

It’s up there with Houghton in Stuttgart & New Jersey; Sheedy in Cagliari & Quinn in Palermo; O’Leary in Genoa; Keane in Kashima; McAteer & Long in Dublin & Brady in Lille. A never-to-be-forgotten moment. What makes international football so special. 🇮🇪☘️

Hook it to my veins!

90+5mins: 🇭🇺 2-3 🇮🇪 Ireland holds its breath, on the last throw of the dice... Hattrick for Parrott 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮 📺 @rte2 @rteplayer shorturl.at/X2pcP 📻 @rteradio1 shorturl.at/gi0y8 📱Updates: shorturl.at/BX36M

Match Day 🇮🇪 And it's a big one ✊

@JEyal_RUSI x.com/DanielCollins8…

A neutral country contains people who know nothing about defence or neutrality