Category: Current affairs

The state of the world, now, as it happens.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigns over misuse of private jets for business trips

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US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has resigned from his post, amidst fierce controversy over his use of private jets to travel on business trips.

Price, a former surgeon with an estimated wealth of $14m, is currently under investigation by watchdog authorities in the US, after choosing to fly on private jets on routes covered by commercial airlines and clocking up a $400,000 bill in chartered aircraft. As comparison, Price’s predecessors in the Obama administration, Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Kathleen Sebelius, always flew commercial.

Mr. Price’s actions, while far from unique among top political figures in the Trump administration, have further eroded public confidence in the changes proposed by Mr. Trump, particularly the ‘drain the swamp’ pledge.

The scandal echoes a similar misdeed here in Ireland back in 2001, by the then Minister for Health Mary Harney. In that instance, Ms. Harney availed of an Air Corps plane to attend the opening of a friend’s off-licence in Co. Leitrim.

Ms. Harney did not resign over the controversy.

 

Leslie Van Houten: Natural Born Killer, or Victim?

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Photo: Leslie van Houten, circa 19 years old

The recent news that Leslie Van Houten has been approved for parole after almost 50 years of incarceration has been met with huge debate worldwide.

The former Charles Manson follower was born into a middle-class but dysfunctional existence. Her parents divorced while she was quite young, and Van Houten eventually transformed from wholesome all-American Homecoming Queen into a completely divergent being; her life changed irrevocably. After dabbling with various drugs, further misdemeanours led to her involvement with Charles Manson, and down the path which would eventually ruin her life and those of numerous others.

In 1968, she was introduced to the “Christ-like” Manson by her new-found friends, Bobby Beausoil and Catherine “Gyspy” Share. Soon, Van Houten joined “The Family” at their ranch in Los Angeles. Charles Manson, who had already been convicted multiple times for various felonies, was also bitter and hateful, having tried but failed to secure a music career (despite having one of his songs recorded by The Beach Boys). His talent for manipulation turned this following, his “Family”, into a cult – a conduit for his malevolence, which saw him carry out crimes through them.

The Family listened to The Beatles, to Manson’s predictions of a “race war”, and to his plans to incite one, starting with the murders of Sharon Tate and others, in which Van Houten was not involved. She did however play an active role in the following night’s bloodshed, when Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were brutally assaulted and murdered.

The “Family” were finally arrested and charged towards the end of 1969, leading to a trial widely regarded as a chaotic circus, due mostly to the behaviour of the defendants, in particular Van Houten and her numerous attempts to exculpate Manson.

Van Houten was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and received the death penalty. This was later commuted to life with the possibility for parole, following a ban on capital punishment in 1972.

While imprisoned at California Institute for Women in Frontera, California, Van Houten married and got divorced, obtained a degree in counselling, and participated in regular counselling sessions for other inmates. On 6, September 2017 the board granted her parole a second time, starting a 150-day review process, during which California Governor Jerry Brown will decide whether or not to release her, having already reversed a successful parole hearing the previous year.

So, what of a pending decision to grant parole to a person who is causing such a divide in public opinion? There are those who say that her involvement in one of the most heinous crimes in American history is enough to keep her locked up for life, as called for by her sentence. Certainly, the remaining family, associates, and friends of those killed would be of this opinion. She did directly cause the violent death of another human, and so the argument might be that this can never be mitigated simply by reason of manipulation and subsequent “good behaviour”.

Then there is the suggestion that Van Houten was a vulnerable young girl who, though born into a comfortable life, had experienced a difficult childhood, which had led to bad decisions including drug taking and a downward-spiral lifestyle. If she was “groomed” by Manson and moulded through brainwashing and drugging into becoming one of many killer puppets, the arguing point arises that she was not fully aware of her actions and their consequences while in Manson’s thrall.

Manson himself has never shown any outward signs of remorse, but Van Houten has, and told her two-person parole panel, “To tell you the truth, the older I get the harder it is to deal with all of this, to know what I did, how it happened”.

Is she likely to be a threat to society now, if released – or is that even the point? Does remorse and turning her life around in prison exonerate her to a degree, if she was indeed the victim of a clever manipulator? Should she be afforded the opportunity as with any other released prisoner to try and integrate back into society to live the rest of her life, and attempt to reconcile with her past as best she can?

Had she never met Manson, one has to wonder if she would ever have committed any crime, compared to the man himself – a multiple felon, with a dogged hunger for disorder and carnage. Perhaps she was a victim too, a troubled young woman who became radicalised by a man with whom she was infatuated, and for whom she would have done anything.

Even if she had turned down a similar path, but never known him, would public opinion be so harsh if she had been convicted of crimes never connected to the notorious Manson?

It is hard to have a black and white opinion on a story comprised of such a spectrum of events and chaotic circumstances. What is certain is that a decision needs to be made and whatever that decision is, it will be one of the most talked about points for many years to come.

POTUS v The Rocket Man: A study in Government-sponsored lunacy

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I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man…

Thus goes the song Rocket Man, written by Elton John back in 1972. Itself inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story ‘The Rocket Man’, John’s ballad talks about the conflicting feelings of an astronaut traveling to Mars, as he ponders whether or not is worth to leave his family behind to fulfill his job.

Yet, this well known song was likely not in Donald Trump’s mind when he branded North Korean’s leader Kim Jong-Un a ‘little rocket man’.

The two men, and I’m using the term ‘men’ very loosely here, are engaged in regular name-calling nowadays, a sort of tit for tat routine pitting two bullies who forgot to grow up locking horns in turf wars around the schoolyard.

POTUS v Rocket Man is now a thing, a melodramatic reality with fathomless viewership prowess. It would almost be funny, were it not for the rather sinister overtones that permeate this international tug of war.

So the world watches as these two sycophant-ridden leaders take to the airwaves to pour scorn on each other. POTUS uses tweet to unload his crude verbal vitriol. Half a world away, Kim uses the more traditional approach of televised speech to retort, and his words resonate with the cheap bubble gum quality of Google-translated foreign speech: ‘I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.’

POTUS recently used a perhaps overly-generous time allocation at his maiden UN speech to proclaim that the US would ‘totally destroy North Korea’ if the latter ever dares to attack US soil, or any of the country’s allies. During the same speech, POTUS actually referred to the North Korean leader as ‘Rocket Man’. Well now. Take that, UN protocol and statesmanship.

It is hardly news that world leaders do sometimes get a little hot under the collar while speaking inside the UN chamber. Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev starred in the infamous shoe-banging incident at the UN in 1960, for instance. Krushchev started banging his shows hard against his desk, in angry response to comments uttered by the then Filipino leader Lorenzo Sumulong. And in 2006, inflammatory words spoken by President George W. Bush about Fidel Castro’s ailing health prompted the entire Cuban delegation to storm off the chamber, throwing down their ear pieces as they did so.

All those high-profile shenanigans notwithstanding, no US President had ever used any pejorative term when addressing another head of state. The words ‘rocket’ and ‘man’ had certainly never been used in such derogatory fashion at Chez UN. Say it isn’t so, Kim perhaps thought, but nonetheless took POTUS’ speech as a ‘declaration of war’.

And what’s with ‘dotard’ anyway. Is it perhaps a portmanteau or ‘doting retard’? Or maybe a poor translation of an ancient North Korean insult? Not so. Turns out that such obscure term means ‘an old person with declining mental capabilities’. In the slightly unhinged POTUS v Rocket Man theater of horrors, the dotard is king, it seems.

The latest episode in the POTUS v Rocket Man serial sees the man with the weird black bouffant brand POTUS a ‘mentally deranged megalomaniac’.

The world tunes in, Truman Show style, to watch as both world leader caricatures blast each other with rhetorical salvos.

And all the while, the unspeakable gravity of war smears the men’s cartoonish faces.

 

Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten has been granted parole after almost 50 years behind bars, but State Governor Jerry Brown may still deny her freedom

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Leslie Van Houten, the youngest member of the so-called ‘Charles Manson Family’, has been granted parole after spending nearly five decades in custody.

A two-person parole board ruled that Van Houten, now aged 68, is no longer a threat to society. Her release now hinges on the decision of California Governor Jerry Brown.

Van Houten was raised in a privileged but troubled family. Her parents’s divorce when she was just 14 triggered a pattern of erratic behavior. She began using drugs at a young age, became a hippie, and joined a commune. Van Houten then followed another of Manson’s disciples, Catherine Share, into Charles Manson’s own commune.

On August 9, 1969, Van Houten and several others headed into Los Feliz, a wealthy hillside district of Los Angeles, under Charles Manson’s orders. There, they committed murder when they savagely killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Van Houten was convicted and sentenced to death for first degree murder. Her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

During her 14th parole hearing, Van Houten spoke about the events, saying that “I feel absolutely horrible about it, and I have spent most of my life trying to find ways to live with it“.

According to the parole board, the decision to grant Van Houten’s request for freedom was supported by her exemplary behaviour and accomplishments while incarcerated. She has reportedly earned a bachelor’s degree in counselling, and has spearheaded a large number of related programmes for inmates.

Governor Brown will issue a final ruling on Van Houten’s bid for freedom in the near future. Nobody involved in the Tate-LaBianca’s murders has ever been released from prison.

 

Tensions rise further in the Korean Peninsula, as South Korea conducts live-fire drills simulating an attack on a North Korean missile launch site

North Korea’s latest nuclear test, which the Government-run official news site KCNA deemed ‘a complete success’, has sparked a new wave of retaliatory military moves in the region.

In response to the test, South Korea conducted a live-fire exercise on Monday, simulating a full-scale attack on one of North Korea’s main nuclear test sites.

The drill took place after North Korea reportedly set off a nuclear device on Sunday last, an act carried out in blatant defiance of UN-imposed sanctions.

The event, which was independently verified, involved a “two-stage thermonuclear weapon” with a yield of about 100 kilotons. North Korea claims that the warhead was small enough to be transported inside an Intercontinenal Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The two-stage weapons signifies a major advancement in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

In the immediate aftermath of the test -the first since Donald Trump took office-, South Korea has authorized the deployment of four additional THAAD launchers at a site some 300 kilometers south of Seoul. THAAD batteries are mobile weapon platforms that target incoming missiles in their terminal approach. THAAD rockets have no warhead, relying on sheer kinetic energy instead to destroy an incoming missile before it reaches its intended target. A kinetic impact minimizes the chances of detonating conventional weaponry, and a nuclear warhead will not explode after a kinetic strike.

Also, the US has entered talks with South Korea about deploying ‘strategic assets’ to the region, in the form of aircraft carriers, long-range bombers, and special ops personnel.

It is also suspected that North Korea may be preparing to conduct yet another missile test on Saturday, which marks one of the country’s major holidays. Pyongyang favors displays of military might during marked ocassions.

Meanwhile, the war of words between the US and North Korea, after US President Donald Trump branded the country a ‘rogue nation and a threat.’

Tensions might reach boiling point in the Korean Peninsula, after North Korea conducts sixth nuclear test despite international condemnation

The situation in the Korean Peninsula may soon reach the point of no return, as North Korea has conducted yet another nuclear test, its sixth.

The device detonated is understood to be a hydrogen warhead, small enough to be fitted into an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The explosion caused a 6.3-magnitude quake in the country’s north-eastern region.

KCNA, North Korea’s official mouthpiece, has deemed the test ‘a complete success’.

This latest test marks a rapid escalation in the region, making an already tense situation that much more unstable.

International reaction has been swift, with Japan, South Korea -countries within reach of North Korea’s military reach- issuing strong statements calling for the ‘complete isolation’ of North Korea.

The US Administration has not yet issued any response to the event.

Tensions mount in the Korean Peninsula, as South Korea conducts bombing drills in response to its northern neighbour’s latest test missile launch

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The drums of war keep getting louder around the Korean Peninsula, as tensions mount between all sides.

The latest missile launch by North Korea has been answered by a simulated bombing raid by its southern foe.

The exercise, ordered by the South Korean president Moon Jae-in, called for a squadron of F15-K to drop MK84 ordnance on practice targets on a shooting range sited near the border.

The -K variant of the F15 series is specifically manufactured for the South Korean Air Force by Boeing. It can carry almost 14 tons worth of weapons, including the MK84 multi-purpose bomb.

Second only in size to the largest Daisy Cutter weapon, the MK84 -deemed ‘the Hammer’ by F-117 pilots who dropped it during the First Gulf War- the MK84 delivers over 400kg of explosive power to the target.

The bombing drill was intended as a show of ‘overwhelming force’ to the Pyongyang regime.

The move comes hours after North Korea conducted another test missile launch. The weapon, believed to be a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile, flew over the northern Japanese territory of Hokkaido and triggered a planned response. Air-raid sirens blared, trains stopped, and people received text messages urging them to seek shelter immediately.

The missile is believed to have experienced a mid-flight malfunction and splashed down on Japanese waters.

The move marks a dangerous escalation in the ongoing conflict involving North Korea and the US’s allies in the area, South Korea and Japan.

 

Two next-generation Russian Kilo-class submarines set to begin operations in the Mediterranean Sea

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Two brand new, next-gen Kilo-class subs will soon join the Russian fleet currently deployed in the Mediterranean sea.

The craft, named Kolpino and Velikiy Novgorod, feature ultra-silent diesel-electric engines, and are designed to operate against surface and submerged vessels.

These new additions to the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean pack a powerful punch. Their weapon loadout includes Type 53 torpedoes -each equipped with a 700lb high explosive warhead-, mine laying capabilities, and Kalibr cruise missiles.

Kilo-class vessels first entered service in 1980. The design was intended for anti-shipping and anti-submarine warfare in relatively shallow waters.

Russia maintains a large maritime force on station in the Mediterranean, including the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, from which the Soviet air force carried out a number of bombing sorties into Syria.

Trump v Kim: Warmongering rhetoric escalates between the two leaders, as the US President now retorts that North Korea ‘will regret any action it takes on Guam’

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have been playing a high stakes poker game for some time, using world peace as a bargaining chip.

A few days ago, the US President said that North Korea would be met with ‘fire and fury like the world has even seen’, if the Pyongyang regime threatened US soil.

In response to such inflammatory comments, North Korea retorted that it is planning to launch an attack on the Pacific island of Guam, which is both a popular tourist destination and home to Andersen Air Base. The 36th Wing is housed there, providing mission support duties to a large number of civilian and military aircraft. Crucially, a significant portion of the US’ long-range capability (six B-1B bomber aircraft) are based at Andersen.

Trump, incensed at such low blow, today said that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, will ‘truly regret’ any action it takes against Guam.

Against such warmongering background, China stepped up and said that, should military conflict actually break out, the country will remain neutral if North Korea strikes first. However, if the US and/or South Korea are the ones to start the conflict, China will intervene militarily to defend the current socio-political landscape in the region.

Far from shying away from provocative rhetoric, Trump resorted to Twitter to say “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”

The standoff carries dark and ominous undertones not seen since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, and the escalation of the Cold War after the Able Archer European wargames of 1983.

North Korea is profoundly resentful of the latest raft of sanctions set against the country, over its ongoing testing of missiles, and both it and the US remain locked in a high-risk game of nuclear intentions, after US intelligence sources claimed that North Korea had developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit into a missile that could theoretically reach US soil.

Still, despite the highly charged rhetoric, there has been no discernible change in the state of readiness of US military assets, so the next steps remain unclear.

The Great Irish Mortgage Rip-off: Interest rates in Ireland far surpass the average across the Euro zone

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If you are lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view) to have a mortgage, a large chunk of your monthly income is probably being gobbled up by it, preventing you from living the life you want while funding a bank’s speculation game.

The word mortgage literally means ‘death pledge’, and such device is designed to keep people in hock to a financial institution for the best part of their lives.

Mortgages are big business for these institutions, and in Ireland, they make an extra buck or two by keeping interest rates artificially higher than the average across the Euro zone.

Here, you can expect to pay an average of 3.5% variable rate, whereas in most of Europe, it stands at 1.83%, on average.

Financial gurus here say that the reason for such disparity is the higher funding costs in Ireland, and that the volatility of the Irish market makes lending a much riskier proposition.