John Barry

On this day in 1798 at moonrise, Presbyterian and Catholic militia men in Belfast and its hinterlands left their homes. They commandeered and burned post coaches which were carrying tax documents and military orders. Ireland's first republican revolution has begun.

In a nation destroyed by rampant capitalism. Where housing is unreachable to so many. Where homelessness is rampant and 20% of kids live in poverty. Our government and its supporters now rush to welcome AI as if it's a saviour. It'll cast many aside and enrich a tiny few.

This is what I call 'money-market power', in this case instutionalised in the IMF, the global loan-shark of last resort. Never believe that money markets are neutral, logical investment systems working on behalf of individuals - they are political means of subjugating nations.

Long live the Cuban Revolution! 🇨🇺

Banks now refer to the working class as "lower-value human capital". Meanwhile you'll hear the Irish government running radio adverts telling you to "get AI ready"....

@SkyNews “Lower-value human capital” is how they describe the working class. The proliferation of AI has given the capitalists free rein to express their contempt for us, and we should reciprocate. Hate thy enemy!

UK-based bank to replace 'lower-value human capital' with AI trib.al/COxXrSi

Urge the NI Assembly to Allow Free Travel for Disabled People with Half Fare Smartpass - Sign the Petition! c.org/qhzJK8GqfZ via @UKChange

@PJTheEconomist Yes

Lost for words. Never thought I’d see a British govt trying to set food prices. If there is one highly competitive sector it is food retailing. Do we really want to live in a country where the state sets these prices? thetimes.com/article/3ec704…

From Jenkinson in 1815 to Sunak in 2023, the UK has seen five major periods of mandatory food-price capping. As the neoliberal usury/market-power system falls apart, academics and journalists will lie harder and more often. Until they look silly. Keep the pressure on them.

Spot on:

A president who has used his office to blatantly enrich himself and his family is now immune from any actions to hold him to account. And the USA talks about "freedom and democracy".... It's a violent oligarchy. Simple as

“Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.” Happy Birthday Malcolm X!

Corbyn was an MP for 32 years until he was elected Labour leader in 2015. Number of accusations in the media of antisemitism from 1983-2015 = 0 Number of accusations in the media of antisemitism from 2015-19 = 11,251 Media Lens on how the establishment is revisiting its smear campaign, this time against the Greens, to stop a leftwinger from reaching power: medialens.substack.com/p/starmageddon…

A commenter recently asked me how we build a new left in the face of increasing fascist repression within the U.S. and abroad. I answered that this new movement, were it to form, would need to be characterized by two guiding principles — anti-capitalism and and anti-imperialism.

The Vietnamese resistance was not anti-American in the way the story told it. It was not hatred of American people. It was refusal of American power. There is a difference so important that the entire imperial propaganda apparatus was dedicated to collapsing it, making it invisible, making sure that resistance to the system looked like hatred of the people so that the people would close ranks around the system to defend themselves. "They hate us." Not: "they are resisting an arrangement that is harming them." We never hated the farmers from Georgia. We fought them because they were sent to our country to kill us and we had no other choice. But we understood, because we had to understand in order to survive, that the enemy who needed to be defeated was not the boy in the jungle. It was the logic that sent him there. That logic did not love him. It spent him. The same way it spent our people. The same way it spends everyone it touches who isn't holding the contracts. That was what it means to fight the logic rather than the people. We were fighting for them too. Not out of forgiveness, exactly. Out of the understanding that the same hand was holding both of us down.

Comedy palate cleanser. Robert Jenrick about to grandstand but reminded of his defection from one party to another this year is gold. The timing. First line great. Second line superb but crowd not recovered from the first to fully appreciate it 😊

Mayor Zohran Mamdani mocks Ronald Reagan’s infamous quote. “I can think of nine words more terrifying than ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help…’” “I worked all day and can’t feed my family.”