Paul Staunton

Cavan man long time exiled in Brussels.

[Paul Staunton @Offsetbxls]

@DeadlineDayLive Fu*k the absolute fu*k off please.

[Paul Staunton @Offsetbxls]

@KNEECAPCEOL 👏

[Alternative MUFC. @AlternativeMUFC]

https://t.co/JNbY0cPvFx

[Marc Owen Jones @marcowenjones]

🧵🚨1/ This is nuts. After mysteriously deleting a package covering the Amsterdam protests, Sky News have put up a new version. The new version completely changes the thrust to emphasise that the violence was antisemitic. See the opening screenshot change below

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point.

Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soulless candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it.  It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this.

But these are all just symptoms.  The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned.

Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even *basic* steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future.

Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment.  At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development.

The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital.

And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism.  They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative.

So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.

[Susie Dent @susie_dent]

Word of the day is ‘recrudescence’ (17th century): the return of something terrible after a time of reprieve.

[Alternative MUFC. @AlternativeMUFC]

https://t.co/d0ZXogdy0R

[Paul Staunton @Offsetbxls]

@SunderlandAFC Best of luck, Aaron

[Paul Staunton @Offsetbxls]

@conorleeson @eoghanwalsh @philipoconnor @stfnjvnvc @BelgiumGAA @MichaelAodhan @UnionStGilloise Someone say beer & football @FC_Irlande

[Paul Staunton @Offsetbxls]

@MaryLTrump Don't want them, regards, Europe

[Tehran Tadhg @TadhgHickey]

Neighbours from hell

[FC Irlande Brussels @FC_Irlande]

Closes midnight tomorrow night

[Paul Staunton @Offsetbxls]

@VMSportIE Spot on, Gary 👏

[FC Irlande Brussels @FC_Irlande]

Club shop now open for a limited time

https://t.co/7e4NL4zofg

[FC Irlande Brussels @FC_Irlande]

1sts, 2nds & Vets 2 yesterday, good 4-1 win for the 1sts, 2nds unlucky to go down 1-2 & Vets 2 had a nice 2-1 win. Great to back at it in Nossegem, 1sts were showing off our hard earned trophies @kcjFlynn @BonaldiDaCosta @TheFrenchRed71 #abssa #amateurfootball #brusselsfootball

[FC Irlande Brussels @FC_Irlande]

Delighted to announce some new, bespoke leisure wear exclusively designed by our friends @cico_sports will be available soon.

[FC Irlande Brussels @FC_Irlande]

Some nice re season stuff, follow u on Instagram @IrishEmbBelgium https://t.co/MX3kE0k5ZZ

[Tim Brannigan @tim_brannigan]

Watch this fantastic 1970s news report on the slow demise and then death of ‘porter’ - the poor man’s drink. A poignant eulogy to ‘the dark stuff’. Brilliant.

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

We just dropped in on Liz Truss’s pro-Trump speaking tour with a remote-controlled lettuce banner. She didn’t find it funny. 🥬

[FC Irlande Brussels @FC_Irlande]

Seconds promotion winning team, 97-98, a few still around & a few have left us @conorleeson @Offsetbxls