Observations. Satire. Politics. Interviews.
Before we get to Mr. Harris and the ease and comfort with which he and the group managing coronavirus Ireland are adapting to unlimited power, we should start at the beginning. Also, from the outset, I do acknowledge that all concerned found themselves in the midst of a crisis not of this country’s making, a…
France added 23,000 new cases yesterday (April 03 2020) to it’s official COVID-19 statistics. It points to the value of journalists, opposition and ordinary people consistently asking questions. France’s first cases started to appear on or around February 15th 2020. For close to 7 weeks they were only reporting coronavirus patients that were going through…
Sinn Fein Head Office is on Parnell Square in Dublin 1. Earlier today I spoke to a new, young recruit manning the phones to gather some Sinn Fein membership information. Last weekend a Sunday Times opinion poll put Sinn Fein support at 35%. This is an almost 11% bounce from election day. The Sinn Fein…
Miriam O’Callaghan had the Chinese ambassador to Ireland on Prime Time last night. The questions were pretty softball as the ambassador laid out the extreme measures China utilised to contain the virus in Wuhan and the rest of the Chinese provinces. Then O’Callaghan asked a question, the phrasing of which annoyed me intensely. She was…
I spent the morning chatting with the HSE on-line support and as I suspected Ireland doesn’t really have a plan to deal with an outbreak of the coronavirus. Basically, if you have any of the symptoms stay at home. And most definitely do not rock up to a hospital or GP Surgery. There could be…
Three Wall Street Journal reporters have been expelled from Beijing by the Chinese Communist Party this morning. Superficially, it follows a number of harsh opinion pieces in the WSJ critical of the Chinese handling of the Coronavirus outbreak. In particular Chinese authorities are aggrieved with one article – an opinion piece entitled ‘China – The…
Chinese communist party officials are reeling today after announcing the death of Dr Liu Zhiming from the novel coronavirus. Dr Zhiming was head of surgery and director of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital. Zhiming was at the forefront of Chinese organisational efforts to fight the outbreak in the Hubei province. Chinese officials initially refused to certify the…
The World Health Organisation have finally changed their approach to reporting Coranvirus cases today. All laboratory cases and clinically diagnosed cases are from today reported together as ‘Confirmed Cases’. While the technical change is welcome to simplify the reporting the underlying data underpinning the W.H.O. reports is still completely unreliable. Consistent examination of the W.H.O. reporting…
I have been taking a browse through the official coronavirus figures on the website of the World Health Organisation. The latest figures for February 16th 2020 have just been published and are broken down below by Chinese province. There are a number of curiosities. Some might say deliberate falsehoods. As you can see from the…
” This Virus is a demon and we cannot allow this demon to Hide ” President Xi of China I’ve been waiting. Waiting for the Irish media to take a proper run at the corona-virus. As we don’t currently have a government, it’s pointless lashing politicians for the moment, although it would be no harm…
The full violence of Storm Ciara swept into Ireland overnight bringing with it heavy rain, high winds and the full force of leftist populism. The Irish electorate wake up this morning to a changed landscape. The early tallies back up last night’s RTE exit poll. Sinn Fein and the left have made huge gains across…
Mary Lou McDonald is going to face a few difficult questions come Monday morning. The immediate reaction on Twitter to the RTE exit poll from GE2020 is one of delight by Sinn Fein supporters and many on the left. No doubt it is a big moment for them, but by the middle of next week…
Mary Lou McDonald and Sinn Fein have already made one mistake that Labour Leader, Dick Spring made in the moments before the General Election campaign of 1992. She still has time to avoid the other. Sinn Fein will be secretly hoping that they do not climb much higher than 25% of the national vote next Saturday….
There is significant evidence emerging that the coronavirus outbreak in China is the result of a leak from one of it’s leading Biosafety laboratories. Dr. Francis Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as…
The US economy added 145,000 new Jobs in December 2019 ending the year with 2.1 million new jobs created for 2019. The US unemployment rate remains unchanged at 3.5% for the year. This following a bumper 2018 that 2.7 million new jobs. The manufacturing employment numbers were down 12,000 for the month of December this…