The Last True Gael

Let’s get a few facts straight about the so called petro dollar. There is no such thing as some official agreement anywhere that stipulates anything about petrodollar. It’s a mere name given to the phenomenon that oil is mainly traded in US dollars. Saudi Arabia has thus not ended the petro dollar. It has not decided to not renew some petro dollar contract. Nothing has happened there. I don’t know where this idea that the Saudis ended the petrodollar comes from as it never happened. What the Saudis are doing is to open up for the purchasing of Saudi crude and petroleum products using other currencies. Having before preferred to only sell in US dollars. Okay so what does this mean? Not much. It means that the Saudis have decided that to some customers they may consider to sell in non US dollars. Like China. The problem for them is, if we take China that China is notorious for not wanting anyone to take Chinese currency out of China. Also Chinese currency only has any value in China. And maybe as payment to another entity that trades with China. China mostly produces shit and low quality stuff. Limiting the usability of the Chinese currency. Which is why the dollar still reigns supreme. Almost all crude is will sold on the global markets in dollars. Doesn’t matter what Saudis decide. If the market offers dollars they’ll take dollars. Buyers are ok with holding into dollars as it’s the most usable currency out there. You can buy with dollars everywhere. No other currencies come even close. Buyers will not risk the forex fluctuations to sit on billions or millions of random currencies to buy from the Saudis. They’ll then buy from whomever sells in dollars. Saudi Arabia stands for roughly 20% of the world’s crude. That means that there’s 80% of the market still out there of whom the vast majority don’t want to sell on anything but the dollar. Maybe the euro. The high acceptance of US dollars as a payment method creates what we in economic call a huge moat for them. Meaning it’s extremely hard for anyone to break into their market. Just like Visa and MasterCard have moats around their businesses across the globe. Their cars are accepted everywhere when your local banks credit card issued by them isn’t. There’s also a geopolitical component to this. The US is a fortress in that it sits as the only super power on a separate continent. Meaning anyone wanting to invade them have to come by sea or somehow convince Canada or Mexico to do it. Which is t happening. Combine this with the US being an economic power house it makes it a safe haven for money. Every-time there’s increased tensions anywhere else in the world countries and businesses park money in US dollars. As the US is seen as safe and has the military power to protect its interest. The competing currency is the Euro. The EU has no military and borders Asia. No sea there to stop a land force. Just look at Ukraine. The day that the US dollar loses its position in the world will come sometime. Every empire goes through it. Just as Rome and the British empire. But in the case of the US it’s not happening any time soon. And some Arabs selling oil in Chine currency isn’t going to change that.

On the Natasha O Brien/Cathal Crotty case. I think that there are a few things going on here. The first is the observation: "Why has this crime and not other crimes done to women got the same level of media attention?" The reason for that is quite simple. Those other crimes are simply not socially acceptable to talk about, for the reasons we all know. Whereas this crime, is both unambiguous and quite rare in its nature. It's a particularly heinous offense; psychopathic behaviour, and the ruling of the judge was absolutely baffling here. Couple that with people's inabilities to express themselves due to the nature of Irish society, when the opportunity to do that happens, they will take it and run with it in this case. The social acceptability allows people to feel good, feel like they're doing something, job done. In some cases, its that cynical, sadly. The second is why this outburst happened at all in the first place. As I talked about with the Ashling Murphy case here, people become more and more addicted to these outbursts. Combined with the fact that as people are becoming more and more infantilized and as more of the institutions of the state are populated by these kinds of people, the more we would expect these kind of events to happen. Finally, remember the hate speech laws. They're not gone, and any excuse to weave them back into the social consensus will be looked at. It's like the book Bonfire of the Vanities. They want their story, their case, and they will do as much as they can to get it.

"Desmond Fennell was Ireland's finest modern intellectual. Luckily for dissidents, his body of work also lays out the essential intellectual project of modern Irish Nationalism." A comprehensive introduction to Desmond Fennell's works by Creeve Rua. https://meonjournal.com/read/an-introduction-to-the-works-of-desmond-fennell-fennellism-pt-0

Sorry, have to cancel, I'm having connection issues. I'll reschedule.

You should be able to leave comments for the stream under this post if you wish.

Going to do a livestream on the results of the local and European elections at 21:30 tonight. I'll open up comments later on.

A quick post on people working together. I'm delighted to see people are finally starting to understand how vote splitting works and is a real thing. The point I want to make, and it applies to a lot of things in general in lige. The perfect is the enemy of the good, and it helps to be as pragmatic as possible. The world isn't perfect. Get it done. At the very least, when the general election is called in the coming months, no vote splitting. People rally behind one person per constituency. And take it from there.

The media really are that shameless, that incompetent. FF are down by 11%. FG are down by 4%. GP are down by 53%. And yet, the media have been trying to portray this as a success for the government. Irish media says the Green Party are back with a "pip in their step" when more than half their seats are gone.

Local Elections Summary: Good: - People in the door. 5-10 people, as expected are now in. This is important. People might agree with you in person, but that's not the same as a vote. Now that people have been elected, you can point to this and people feel happier and more confident talking about this. Brand recognition, for lack of a better phrase. Don't underestimate the symbology of this. - Despite the organizational problems with the Irish right, it is still possible to get people in. Hard work, being normal, being a good communicator will get you very far. - Sinn Fein collapse as the grassroots of the party begins to buckle under the different contradictions in the party's direction and leadership. - Green party wipeout in South County Dublin in particular. Euros looks bad for them. - Irish alternative media successfully plugging the gap with ideas now becoming mainstream talking points. - Younger people proving themselves to be more competent than the older generation. This lends itself well to future growth. Bad: - Vote splitting. - Boomers propping up the FFG mess we see right now. - Simon Harris being more competent leader than Varadkar. Not even that he's good, just that Varadkar was arguably the most incompetent politician that has ever found himself in any position of influence in Ireland. - Low turnout hints at demoralization in terms of people voting. - Ideological splits as a result of certain candidates doing well. - Gerrymandering with the "open voting rules" pushing FG forward with better than expected results.