Government – Page 10 – Public Inquiry

Political lies cause suffering and death. Enda Kenny is a political liar

Political lies cause suffering and death. Enda Kenny is a political liar.

War is the most obvious and most deadly consequence of political lying. Over the centuries, countless millions have died because politicians lied when they should have told the truth.

But war is not the only cause of death as a result of political lies. There was a massive increase in the suicide rate following the economic collapse in 2008 (Recession directly to blame for up to 566 suicides).

These desperate people died, at least in part, because our politicians lied to them.

In Ireland, alone among Western democracies, political lying has become a fully accepted part of political discourse. It is also common right throughout the civil and public service.

Political lying has become part of Irish political culture principally because lying politicians are rarely challenged by the media.

Here’s Pat Rabbitte casually demonstrating this truth when asked about election promises regarding child benefit:

Sean O’Rourke:

You didn’t go into all that detail before the general election, you kept it really simple – Protect child benefit, vote Labour?

Rabbitte:

Well, I mean, isn’t that what you tend to do during an election?

The criminal politician Haughey lied right through his decades long career, including lying under oath at various tribunals and investigations. Despite the enormous damage done to Ireland and its people by this criminal’s lying he was, largely, fawned upon by large segments of the media and members of the establishment.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern almost certainly lied under oath at the Mahon Tribunal. My assertion that lying is the accepted norm in Irish political and administrative goverance is confirmed by the disgraceful fact that no action has been (or ever will be) taken against Ahern by any state authority.

Political lying is the principal cause of the catastrophic economic collapse of 2008 that resulted in thousands of suicides, massive emigration and the horrific destruction of the wealth, hopes and ambitions of hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens.

And yet, a disturbingly large section of the media and most of the establishment appear to be more than happy to live in comfortable denial amidst the wreckage and suffering caused by political lying.

The following is just a sample of various journalists, commentators and politicians who, for whatever reason, cannot or will not make the obvious link between political lying and the infliction of great hardship.

Caroline O’Doherty: Irish Examiner:

Kenny’s lie was:

A fisherman’s tale.

O’Doherty then went to use most of her article to advise Fine Gael on how best to present their (lying) leader to best advantage in the upcoming election campaign.

Caroline O’Doherty is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Editorial: Irish Examiner:

Kenny was, while dishonest, just a Walter Mitty character using:

Folksy parables.

The editor warned that Kenny must act quickly if he wants to be re-elected and, as always, took the opportuntiy to take a swipe at Gerry Adams/Sinn Fein.

The editor of the Irish Examiner is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Eilis O’Hanlon: Sunday Independent:

Kenny ruined it by going a ‘a little bit too far’ in attempting to portray himself as the man who saved the country from anarchy and, predictably, O’Hanlon blamed the media:

So why the outcry last week? The media, having got bored with the feel-good narrative which the Government has been pushing since the Budget, saw a chance to put the Taoiseach on the back foot.

Eilis O’Hanlon is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Michael Lehane: Morning Ireland (RTE):

On being asked did the whole issue matter:

It doesn’t matter but there is a political vacuum there because the Dail isn’t sitting so the focus didn’t come off it (but) it has gone the distance now.

Michael Lehane is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Pat Rabbitte: Labour TD: (Speaking on RTE):

The Taoiseach makes the point, perhaps in a folksy, homespun way.

Pat Rabbitte is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Noel Whelan: Irish Times:

Mr. Whelan believes that Kenny is a storyteller whose utterance was no accident.

It was part of a cleverly designed but clumsily implemented strategy from Fine Gael to remind voters of how serious the crisis was so as to talk up its part in turning it around.

Noel Whelan is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Gerry Adams: Sinn Fein president:

Mr. Adams accused Kenny of being a spoof who tells tall tales. Mr. Adams said he was not accusing the Taoiseach of lying but of just getting carried away with himself.

Gerry Adams is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Fergus Finlay: Chief Executive of Barnardos and former Labour Party advisor: (Late Debate RTE):

Why are we getting our knickers in a knot about it? Mother of God, this kind of thing happens all the time. It’s a bit of craic, that’s all it is, a bit of political craic and I don’t see how it affects anything other than the gaiety of the nation for a week.

I think it shows that we don’t have a sense of humour. You know, let’s get a grip for heaven’s sake, it’s about nothing.

Fergus Finlay is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Gary Murphy: Professor of Political Science, DCU (Late Debate RTE).

The Taoiseach does have a habit of self-aggrandisement or over-egging situations. He’s guilty of guilding the lily so to speak.

Professor Murphy is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Catherine Halloran: Political Correspondent Irish Daily Star: (Ryan Tubridy Show, RTE):

I think it’s his folksy way of trying to relate to people.

It’s better than telling lies. At least we know he has his finger on the pulse he met the man or woman who told him this and I don’t doubt for a second that he has met those people, he’s a politician… The fact that Enda does take the time out to stop and talk to people and listen to their experiences means he’s in a position to make judgement on them.

Catherine Halloran is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Shaun Connolly: Irish Examiner:

Mr. Connolly believes Kenny was simply caught out telling an over-excited porkie. He was guilty of a slightly embarrassing, but ultimately harmless, comment.

Shaun Connolly is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

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Why the State is targetting Sinn Fein

In recent times I have written several articles on the very obvious anti Sinn Fein propaganda campaign being conducted by the mainstream political parties and state agencies aided and abetted by a large segment of the media.

I am aware that writing such articles can be seen as supporting Sinn Fein and, by extension, supporting violence both political and criminal.

This article is to make my position crystal clear.

The core philosophy of this website is that Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state. By this I mean that, unlike functional democracies, the Irish state actively defends, supports and protects those involved in corruption.

Corruption, to one degree or another is, of course, present in every country on the planet. Corrupt behaviour is an intrinsic aspect of human nature, it will always be with us.

But there is a huge difference between a country that suffers from a degree of corruption and a country that is, in and of itself, intrinscially corrupt.

A state is corrupt when its powers and resources are principally utilised for the benefit of a tiny but very powerful minority of individuals and organisations at the expense of the people and the greater good.

This is overwhemingly and indisputably the case in Ireland.

The corrupt regime is made up, principally, of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour with the unquestioning support of most state agencies and a disturbingly large section of the media.

Family dynasties constitute the core of the corrupt political system. Over the decades the corrupting influence of these families has spread the disease of corruption right through the influential pillars of the state and society such as the legal system, higher civil servants, the police and so on.

At some critical point, which I believe was during the 1980s when the criminal politician Haughey was at the height of his powers, the state flipped from being a democracy with some corruption to a state that that had become corrupt in and of itself.

From that moment right up to today state power does not, for the most part, operate for the good of the people. It works to maintain, protect and enhance the power of the corrupt elite.

This corrupt political/administrative regime is directly and wholly responsible for the economic catastrophe that has wreaked so much damage and loss on Ireland and its people since 2008.

And this is where Sinn Fein enters the picture.

The 2008 economic catastrophe caused serious panic within the corrupt regime. For a short period it was feared that the power, influence and wealth built up over many decades would be lost as the people began to transfer their alligience to political forces outside its power base.

Sinn Fein is being targeted because it poses the greatest threat to the power of the corrupt regime. It is the best organised, best financed, most powerful political force outside the mainstream. It is united, focused and led by a cohort of articulate and committed politicians.

It is for this reason and this reason alone that the corrupt political/administrative system, in cooperation with its many friends in the media, has targeted Sinn Fein.

The corrupt regime knows very well that if Sinn Fein gains power, even partial power in a coalition, the game is up. The cosy golden circle that has abused Irish democracy and its people for the last several decades will no longer hold sway.

People from outside the ruling elite, dangerous people with principles, people who will actually do what’s right for the country rather than vested interests will be exercising power within the corrupt citadel.

It is therefore absolutely crucial, from the corrupt regime’s point of view, that Sinn Fein’s power is destroyed or, at least, damaged to such an extent that it becomes an irrelevant political force.

It is this black propaganda campaign that I write about. It has nothing to do with Sinn Fein’s politics/policies per se but rather to challenge and expose the continuing efforts of a ruthless and diseased political system that will do anything, even commit criminal acts, to preserve its power and influence.

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Sinn Fein: Hypocrisy and propaganda by the bucket full

There is only one genuine fact surrounding the latest so-called crisis in Northern Ireland – Fear of Sinn Fein’s growing power.

Everything else is spin, propaganda, lies and hypocrisy all laced with tiny nuggets of truth to keep all the bullshit together.

When the PSNI first triggered the ‘crisis’ they were merely doing what they always do when elections approach – smearing Sinn Fein.

On this occasion, however, the propaganda was slightly overdone which gave the more extreme wing of Unionism, who genuinly want to collapse the Peace Process no matter what the consequences, all the ammunition it needed.

Peter Robinson’s crowd then had no choice but to pretend that they too were outraged by events.

So here’s the first question:

Is there anybody out there who seriously believes that Unionists are genuinely outraged by the murder of two IRA men? If such a person exists I would advise immediate psychiatric treatement.

The other interested parties – the UK government, the Irish government and mainstream opposition parties all got a bit of a fright because, while these parties want to destroy Sinn Fein, they do not want the Peace Process to collapse, that would be fierce inconvenient for all concerned.

So the propaganda plan was simple. Select one of the numerous crimes that are routinely committed by ex IRA members and present it as if it was something new. In this way politicians could express their absolute outrage at Sinn Fein’s criminal connections in the run-up to elections.

As the plan began to go askew there was panic within officialdom. Something had to be done quickly to get the propaganda plan back on line.

The obvious response was, of course, an investigation. The PSNI and MI5 were ordered to check if the PIRA had managed to stay in existence without the security forces ever noticing a thing.

So here’s the second question:

Is there anybody out there who seriously believes that the the PSNI and MI5, who conducted the farce inquiry, didn’t already know everything contained in the report? Is there even one moron out there who thinks that an MI5 official, shocked at what he found, utttered sentences like:

Oh my goodness, some structures of the PIRA still exist.

On my goodness, some ex members of the PIRA are involved in criminal activity.

Oh my goodness, the PIRA are operating a secret bomb-making factory on the moon.

(Yeah, bet you didn’t know about that. ‘Independent’ ‘Journalist’ Jim Cusack is, as I write, on the moon digging up the dirt on this latest IRA plot).

The PSNI/MI5 report hit all the right buttons allowing the ‘outraged’ politicians to resume their propaganda attack on Sinn Fein’s alleged colllusion with criminals while waffling knee deep in hypocrisy about the Peace Process.

And that’s all we’re going to hear from now until polling day when, suddenly, the entire incident will be forgotten – until the next propaganda campaign.

Data Protection Commissioner farce continues

The farce that is administrative/political governance in Ireland continues with the latest episode surrounding the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC).

When Austrian law student Max Schrems first made his complaint to the DPC regarding the transfer of data by US companies to data centres outside the EU he was arrogantly dismissed as being vexatious and frivolous.

But the European Court of Justice thought otherwise and ruled that the practice was invalid.

Now the High Court has quashed the DPCs decision and ordered her to conduct an (real) inquiry into the matter.

The DPC has now pledged to the court that it will investigate the original complaint as quickly as possible.

Max Schrems will not be holding his breath on that promise. He was (rightly) contemptuous of the DPC today over the fact they she took three years to deal with his initial complaint.

Drumm: Rueing the day he fled Ireland’s corrupt shores

Here’s a sentence that has never been uttered in Ireland.

Wearing ankle shackles and handcuffed behind his back, former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm shuffled into a US court.

In Ireland, Drumm would have arrived at court in a limo after receiving a polite invitation from an apologetic policeman.

In Ireland, if Drumm was, by some miracle, found guilty it’s likely he would hear the same words from a judge as his criminal friends, McAteer and Whelan, heard when they were found guilty:

It would be “incredibly unjust” to impose a custodial sentence.

Indeed, Drumm, as he sits manacled in a US jail must be reflecting about the enormous mistake he made in fleeing a corrupt state where he would surely have been ‘looked after’ to a country where law enforcement is real and police and judges operate independently of the political system.

The budget reality

News headline on Denis O’Brien’s radio station today.

Today’s budget will leave us all better off.

Wrong.

Millions of words will be written and spoken analysing the budget but it’s all a complete was of time.

The budget is nothing more than a confirmation of what we are as a country.

A disturbingly dysfunctional democracy that has as its centre point, not the good of the nation and its people, but the buying of votes by a corrupt political system that is ruthless to the point of criminality.

The reality headline is:

Ordinary citizens will be bought off as a temporary measure until the corrupt political system is returned to power. When returned to power the corrupt system will resume its abuse of democracy and the people for the benefit of the ruling elite.

Nothing will change under new Central Bank governor

Irish Times columnist Cliff Taylor has a piece in today’s edition on what skills the next governor of the Central Bank will need to do his/her job.

Here’s the key point in the article:

Whoever gets the job, the public verdict – rightly or wrongly – will quickly form on whether Ireland is going back to the old days of a central bank “captured” by Government and the banks, or whether the institution’s independence is underpinned for the future.

Here’s the reality:

For decades there has been a corrupt nexus between the political system, the Central Bank and the banking sector. The principal function of this corrupt nexus is to allow bankers to rob and plunder the resources of the state and its citizens at will.

The Central Bank has never acted independently; it will not act independently under the new governor, no matter who gets the job.

Independent Newspapers can’t handle the truth regarding political violence

Decommission your tongue, Mr. Adams

This was the headline of a recent editorial in the Sunday Independent in which Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams was taken to task for daring to make a favourable comparison between the violence of the 1916 rebels and those involved in the recent 1968-1998 conflict.

The editor didn’t spare the insults:

Mr. Adams should decommission his tongue preferably for a millennium or two.

The Sinn Fein leader has soared to new heights in self-delusion.

But it is the editor who’s occupying the heights of self-delusion when he tries to argue that the 1916 rebellion was:

Formally and massively endorsed (By the Irish people).

This, of course, is utter rubbish and is based on the ridiculous myth that the violence of 1916, War of Independence and the Civil War was all, in some magical way, different from the violence of the 1968 – 1998 conflict.

The editor goes on to ask:

Had Mr Adams been an IRA man and put himself forward as a car-bombing murderer, does he really believe he would have been handed a mandate?

When the 1916 rebels were being led away after surrendering they were spat upon by the people of Dublin for causing so much death and destruction.

So here’s the obvious retort:

Had Mr. Pearse been an violent rebel and put himself forward as a bringer of massive death and destruction, does he really believe he would have been handed a mandate?

And it is worth noting that the people of Ireland were generally content under British rule in the lead up to 1916 in stark contrast to Catholics/nationalists barely surviving under the exteme Unionist apartheid system prior to the 1968-1998 conflict.

In making the following quote the editor seems to be completely clueless about the obvious parallels between Sinn Fein’s rise to power in the aftermath of 1916 and the party’s current rise to power in the aftermath of the 2008 economic catastrophe.

Legitimacy was conferred on 1916 when Sinn Féin received its mandate in the 1918 general election. It was retrospective, but it was real. The election was the first democratic plebiscite to pass judgment on those events.

The course of today’s political events is an exact parallel with those of 1916.

Prior to 2008 Sinn Fein struggled to achieve significant political traction in the republic. Since 2008 they have become ever more popular principally because citizens are searching for an alternative to a political system that is corrupt to its core.

In other words, Sinn Fein received an overwhelming mandate as a direct result of the brutal response of the British government to the 1916 rising and now the party is receiving a similar democratic mandate as a result of the brutality inflicted on Irish citizens as a direct result of political corruption.

The editor ends with a quote about the truth.

You can rewrite history, but the truth is always the truth.

Indeed, the truth is always the truth. But it has been many years since
‘Independent’ Newspapers practiced truth.

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Editor Sunday ‘Independent’

Dear fellow citizens…

Dear fellow citizens,

We live in a state where the Prime Minister can casually and illegally dismiss the most senior police officer in the state without the slightest worry that he will be brought to account for his corrupt act.

We live in a state where a judge, employed to investigate the matter, makes a finding that the guilty Prime Minister can easily manipulate to suit his defence. This is despite the fact that the average five year child knows very well that the Prime Minister is as guilty as hell.

We do not know whether the judge was acting out of fear or favour and we never will but we do know that his report is a disgrace to the principles of democratic accountability.

We live in a state where the media, and in particular the state media, readily allowed itself to be used and abused by the guilty Prime Minister in his cynical manipulation of the reporting of the judge’s report.

There was no angry, embarrassed or protest reaction by the media so it is reasonable to assume that the majority of our journalists are docile sheep more interested in careers and scoops than making the state accountable.

We live in a state where the chief legal officer, the Attorney General, can inform the guilty Prime Minister that the police had been involved in serious criminal activity for years and then turn around and deny to the commission that she ever made such an allegation.

We live in a state where the most senior police officer, who was involved in some very serious controversies one of which led to his sacking, can casually destroy large amounts of documents on the day he was dismissed by the guilty Prime Minister. It is almost certain that the destroyed documents would have provided the investigation with crucial evidence.

We live in a state where every single regulatory/law enforcement authority operates under the all embracing, all corrupting influence of our corrupt political system.

And because there is no law enforcement authority operating independently of our corrupt political system there will be no accountability. The state, as always, will act to protect the interests of the wrongdoers at the expense of democracy and the interests of the people.

We live in a state where the political/administrative system operates exclusively for the benefit of the corrupt ruling elite.

Fake regulatory authorities still betraying consumers

Grainne was on Liveline during the week telling the nation how she felt ripped off by a company that placed a limit on the life of her gift voucher.

She had a voucher worth €200 for a sky dive but because of bad weather there were several cancellations. Eventually, the company told her that she would have to pay a further €120 if she wanted to do the jump. It was all legal, all in the small print, she had no comeback.

For decades gift voucher scams have been endlessly discussed on shows like Liveline but nothing is ever done.

And nothing is done because all our so-called ‘regulatory authorities’ are fake. They are not set up to actually enforce the law but rather to give an impression of law enforcement. (See Irish cowboy town and fake regulatory agencies)

The fake authority in this case is the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). There seems to be an inverse law that the more useless a regulatory body is the more cumbersome its title. It’s as if the organisation is trying to compensate for its complete lack of effectiveness with a long fancy title.

The CCPC also has a complex structure (again, it must be complex to impress and allow for buck passing) including an executive chairperson assisted by no less than four commissioners. All, no doubt on high salaries and generous expense accounts.

The CCPC was spawned from the merger of two other fake authorities – the Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency.

So what will this super quango do if it’s not actually engaged in law enforcement?

Well, it’ll do what every other so called regulatory authority in Ireland does.

Conduct polls, carry out surveys, produce shiny/expensive annual reports and advise consumers to shop around while gobbling up millions in taxpayers’ money.

And it’s easy to monitor fake authorities like the CCPC. All we have to do is listen to victims like Grainne telling their stories on programmes like Liveline.

As soon as the airwaves go quiet regarding such scams we’ll know that consumers are receiving the protection they pay for.

Ripped off consumers are strongly advised not to hold their breaths.

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