Stephen Cusack retweeted
The US and the world do not need anything from Russia other than for it to stay inside Russia's borders. Any negotiations that don't begin with that principle only guarantee more war. Which, not coincidentally, is what Putin needs to survive in power.
Stephen Cusack retweeted
What makes the Church’s defence of human dignity coherent across abortion, family support, healthcare and the end of life?
Pope Leo has just connected the dots on the first day of his South American Apostolic Journey.
Speaking to Uruguay’s authorities on 6 November, Pope Leo explicitly defended unborn children, the responsibilities of fathers, support for families, access to healthcare and care until natural death: "Protect life at all stages".
The Pope makes the essential point that a child does not acquire dignity by becoming wanted, a patient by recovering, or an elderly person by remaining independent, their worth precedes our preferences and survives the loss of their abilities.
This is why Catholic social teaching challenges the increasingly familiar assumption that dependence diminishes a human life. Every one of us began by relying entirely on the care of others and none of us can be certain that we will not end our lives in the same condition. To make autonomy the measure of dignity is therefore to make our worth conditional upon circumstances we cannot control. The mother who needs support, the disabled person who needs assistance and the dying person who needs someone to remain beside them confront society with a claim that cannot be reduced to a calculation of costs and benefits. They belong to us, and we have obligations towards them, before they have achieved anything or offered anything in return. A civilisation reveals its understanding of the human person most clearly when caring for someone offers no prospect of repayment, because it is then that we discover whether we believe a life is precious in itself or only while it remains useful to someone else. if society trains us (as it seems to be) to see individual worth as being intrinsically linked to self-reliance we are all in serious trouble!
Stephen Cusack retweeted
So, let me flag a few things, traitor.
1. "European security architecture" is a phrase the Kremlin uses. We already have one: it's called NATO.
2. You conflate (as you always do) the victim of this war with the aggressor. The aggressor is Russia.
3. "Root causes" is Russian for "do it our way" and you know it.
4. Nothing a word about Russian withdrawal, the occupied territories, POWs or deported children. Weird.
5. Lavrov wrote this for you.
6. Fuck Putin, fuck Russia, and fuck you.
President Trump today advanced an important discussion with several European leaders about the need for a broader European security architecture that can help establish the conditions for lasting peace.
Building on his leadership and the substantive work undertaken this week in Brussels with Ukraine, NATO, and our European partners, @SEPeaceMissions and I wanted to share some of the objectives guiding our ongoing discussions.
For more than 30 years, Europe and Russia have struggled to establish a sustainable security framework. Decades of mistrust, competing security concerns, and the devastating consequences of this war make this an extraordinarily difficult challenge, but one that is essential to lasting peace.
Our objective is to develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict, and create a more stable and predictable security environment.
We are exploring five principal goals: permanent security consultations, reliable crisis communications, greater military transparency, reciprocal measures to reduce escalation risks, and an enduring framework for long-term European security and stability.
Any arrangements must fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independent decision-making of every nation. Each country will retain authority over its own security and alliances, and no country would have a veto over another’s sovereign choices. NATO will remain central to European collective defense, and this initiative would build upon existing institutions and commitments.
We will continue consultations through the Shell Bay format with Ukraine, NATO, the EU, and our European partners, expanding engagement to ensure that all relevant perspectives and ideas are considered. We will also engage Russia as part of the peace negotiations.
Next week in Abu Dhabi, the United States will convene the first trilateral peace discussions with Ukraine and Russia since February. All parties remain intensely engaged in preparing for substantive and productive negotiations. We will consult closely with our European partners on the sidelines and, if progress is made, aim to move toward a broader multilateral format with their direct participation.
These ideas continue to evolve, and we welcome thoughtful input. Creating the right structure will be critical to ending this war and transitioning from conflict toward conditions that make possible a durable peace.
This is difficult, detailed work. There are no easy solutions. But the opportunity to help end this devastating war and build a foundation for a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous Europe for generations to come makes it a challenge well worth undertaking.
We will see how these discussions develop and continue working intensively with all parties toward President Trump’s objective of a comprehensive and lasting peace.
Stephen Cusack retweeted
Can Helen McEntee please go and join the Social Democrats? They would suit her much better.
Important meeting today with UN Special Rapporteur @FranceskAlbs. Ireland will not forget about Palestine and will continue to stand up for the UN, its representatives, and international law.
Stephen Cusack retweeted
Russia does not need another security agreement. It has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, and absolutely nobody in Europe has the slightest desire to invade or occupy that miserable country.
What Kushner is describing as some magnificent new European security architecture is, essentially, the security system Europe already had before Russia decided international law was optional and its neighbours’ territory was available for collection.
We had treaties. We had security guarantees. We had diplomatic consultations. We had internationally recognised borders.
Russia violated them, invaded Ukraine, annexed its territory and turned European security into a catastrophe.
The problem was never a shortage of agreements. The problem was Russia’s refusal to honour them.
And now Washington apparently believes the solution is to sit down with Moscow and invent another agreement.
Brilliant. Perhaps this time Putin could promise to behave himself in writing.
Oh, wait. He already did.
Stephen Cusack retweeted
Someone didn't get the 'neutrality' memo. Targeting the Irish state's official broadcast media is very deliberate, very symbolic.
There are seemingly no actual bombs attached to these threats. This is designed to get us to drop our guard, start, for pragmatic reasons, to ignore these threats. That then facilitates others to strike with a real attack and deliver far more catastrophic consequences than might be the case in a tighter security environment. These bomb threats, to @rte @rtenews, and to Irish airlines, are straight up acts of terrorism. They are being done to spread fear, 'terror' and enable terrorists to have greater chances of 'success'. If there is a state actor behind these threats, there needs to be serious consequences. Best wishes to those at RTE, I know I haven't been your biggest fan this last 18 years but 100% with you all here. Thank you all of you. ☘️
RTÉ buildings in Dublin have been evacuated following a bomb threat
rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/110…
Stephen Cusack retweeted
This is how you create leverage to end the war, not with lifting sanctions
Stephen Cusack retweeted
So he spends longer repeatedly telling a reporter he won't answer the question because he doesn't care about those viewers than he would have spent answering the question 🙄
Michigan's Democratic candidate for Senate Abdul El-Sayed confronted @jamesmatthewsky, telling him he wouldn't answer his questions as he wants "zero" votes in the UK.
Watch the heated exchange between the two.
Watch our live coverage of the US midterms➡️ trib.al/BikRSb2
Stephen Cusack retweeted
Incredibly tiresome to see the national broadcaster reporting on itself about…a sports podcast.
More seriously, politicians giving the issue so much attention in a parliamentary committee points to a political class increasingly detached from voter concerns.
This, border poll/reunification issues, care/family referendums, Israel/Palestine get huge attention from politicians and media, while polls show that these are not big issues for voters. Something out of kilter.
Stephen Cusack retweeted
I simply want one politician with the required cojones to say to the Caribbean nations, "Reparations are never going to happen. We owe you nothing. You are asking people who never owned slaves to pay people who were never slaves for something we abolished, at enormous cost to this nation, 200 years ago."
Stephen Cusack retweeted
Donald Trump is now on course to become the least popular sitting president to face a midterm election in modern American history. Quite an achievement for a man who has spent his entire life telling everyone how enormously popular he is.
According to CBS News, after surveying nearly 80,000 voters, just 38% approve of his performance. Even George W. Bush managed better in 2006, when Republicans were unceremoniously thrown out of control of both houses of Congress.
NBC’s latest polling puts Trump’s disapproval above 60%.
Imagine commanding the attention of an entire nation, and somehow persuading six out of ten Americans that they have had quite enough of you.
Trump promised to make America great again. Instead, he appears to have made George W. Bush look popular.
That takes a very special kind of genius. The sort that Trump himself would undoubtedly describe as unprecedented, historic, and quite possibly the greatest failure anyone has ever seen.
Stephen Cusack retweeted
My Times Radio monologue on The Times at One with ANDREW NEIL today: @TimesRadio
Vote as if my name is on the ballot, President Trump urged Americans in the run up to yesterday’s midterm elections.
Americans did as they were told — and delivered the most decisive repudiation of a sitting president in modern times.
Make no mistake this was a referendum on Donald Trump — which he lost, big time.
His Republican Party was washed away by a blue wave in the House and the Senate. The Democrats will now have comfortable working majorities in both.
There are still about 60 House seats to report. You need 218 for a majority. The Democrats already have 231.
They’re projected to end up with 258 — the widest House victory margin since 1993. In terms of the House popular vote, the Democratic share was 54%, the Republicans 44%. It doesn’t get much more definitive than that.
The Senate was a tougher nut to crack. But with two seats still to report the Democrats have picked up seven gains, lost none, giving them a 54:44 clear majority.
Mr Trump immediately defaulted to rewriting history. As he does.
‘I wasn’t on the ballot,’ he suddenly claimed. ‘If I was, we would have won BY A LANDSLIDE.’ Of course by his own words we know that not to be true.
The man in the Oval Office is almost entirely to blame for his party’s defeat.
At a time when ordinary American families — the kind who re-elected Trump in 2024 — were reeling from soaring prices at the petrol pump and supermarket check-out counter, Trump was droning on about a reflecting pool in Washington, men’s bodies and his White House ballroom project.
Compared to Trump’s delusional campaigning, Marie Antoinette had the common touch.
He had been elected on a promise to foreswear forever wars, especially in the Middle East. A year after his inauguration he launched yet another forever war — in the Middle East.
He promised to get on top of inflation. It rose. All the higher because of what his attack on Iran did to fuel prices. And because his tariffs pushed up prices too.
China would pay the tariffs, he insisted. It was always a lie. By the time they voted yesterday Americans knew it to be a lie. They, not the Chinese, were picking up the tab.
A massive nationwide poll taken yesterday found that 90% of voters saw the cost of living — affordability — the biggest midterm issue. They thought Trump’s war and his tariffs had made inflation worse.
Six in 10 specifically mentioned the price of food, petrol, diesel; 60% opposed his war, which was unpopular from day one and grown even more unpopular.
Trump responded with a tin ear. ‘Inflation is solved’, he insisted, bizarrely, as the campaign came to an end. Americans knew otherwise.
There are times when the Trump administration and its cronies look like the ruling class in the Hunger Games — living the life of Reilly in palatial splendour and bling while most folk struggle to make a living.
Corruption was an issue in these elections for over 70% of voters.
They see the Trump administration as something of a kleptocracy, the Trump family and its cronies enriching themselves with lucrative multi-billion dollar deals with foreign potentates and billionaires while plain folk struggled with diesel at over $6 a barrel.
Thus did Trump reap what he had sowed. The Democrats won all their target Senate seats and a few others — Kansas, South Carolina — besides.
They will have a majority in the House beyond their wildest dreams.
Stephen Cusack retweeted
Dear MAGA, let me explain something.
You have been taught that anything with the word social in it is communism. It isn’t. Social Security isn’t communism. Medicare isn’t communism. And neither is the public school your children attend or the fire department that saves your house.
Norway and Denmark are capitalist countries. People own businesses, buy houses, make fortunes, invest in stocks and own guns. The difference is that their governments make capitalism work for ordinary people, not just billionaires.
Here is what that means in everyday life. You get cancer. You receive treatment without facing a ruinous hospital bill. Your wife has a baby. She gets months of paid parental leave. Your child wants to attend university. Tuition is free at public universities for eligible students.
You work hard. You get five weeks of paid vacation. You lose your job. There is a safety net to help you get back on your feet And none of this requires giving up your house, your truck, your religion or your freedom.
Now here is the part you really need to understand.
You are already paying taxes. The question is what you get back.
In Europe, more of that money comes back to ordinary families through healthcare, education and financial security.
In America, politicians have convinced millions of working people that asking for those things is socialism, while demanding lower taxes for billionaires is freedom.
You have been persuaded to fight against benefits you would personally enjoy, in order to protect fortunes you will never possess.
Elon Musk does not need you to defend his wallet. Your family needs you to defend yours.
Stephen Cusack retweeted
As respect for authority declines, expect more disorder like this. It was not social conservatives who undermined respect for authority (of parents, teachers, gardai etc). thejournal.ie/dublin-hallowe…
Stephen Cusack retweeted
That utterly nonsensical idea , pushed by a few NGOs and supported by a fraction of a fraction of the actual Carribean population, is somehow getting traction reflects the degree to which a tiny fringe has control over the public discourse in the west.
Britain is open to discussing an apology for its role in slavery, but has ruled out financial reparations.
As King Charles prepares to address Commonwealth leaders, Caribbean governments say an apology alone would not be enough.
jrnl.ie/7212421
Stephen Cusack retweeted
Ireland a hell of an outlier here
Power is Power
The chart below shows electricity prices in Europe just now, priced per MWh. Just horrific and economically ruinous for any modern economy.
The world spends about $4.2 trillion on electricity and this is split between:
• Generation (2/3
• Transmission & Distribution (1/3)
The world spends around $1.5 trillion on capex and $2.7 trillion on opex. The $1.5 trillion capex gets you 1-2% capacity growth each year. So a rough rule of thumb is that every 1% of GDP you spend on power infrastructure gets you 1-2% more electricity.
If you wanted to grow your power supply by eg 8%, you might expect that to cost 6% of GDP. Nobody has the supply chain to do that, if you want to grow this particular supply chain it will cost you more GDP points on second order things.
Now…
Demand for power around the world is booming, because of 3 big technology trends.
1. Air Conditioning (yes still) +20% consumption
2. Electric Vehicles +80% consumption
3. AI Data Centers +XYZ% consumption
Different regions have different progress on these three trends. US has a lot of AC, little EV and a lot of DC, Europe has little AC, lots of EV little DC. China has a lot of AC and EV.
Now generation splits into fixed costs for the generator plant (site and technology specific) and variable costs for fuel.
Dispatchable Power Cost, by Fuel Type
1. $6 / MWh - Uranium
2. $19 / MWh - Nat Gas 🇺🇸
3. $22 / MWh - Coal 🇺🇸
4. $40 / MWh - Coal 🇨🇳
5. $90 / MWh - LNG
6. $130 / MWh - Biomass
7. $160 / MWh - Nat Gas 🇪🇺 🇯🇵
8. $200 / MWh - Oil
Fracking has given the US a structural energy cost advantage. If you talk to people in China about what is the most impressive thing the US has done they say “fracking”. The challenge with US Nat Gas is that it’s now fully developed and expansion is sort of tapped out.
What the 21st Century demands is a lot of power, you either have it or you don’t. When you look at planetary scale energy and compute trends you see myriad gigantic arbitrage opportunities.
Interesting times!
Stephen Cusack retweeted
Political leaders' approval ratings.
For reference, Donald Trump is currently polling 39%.
As ever, the same issues dominate voter concerns in Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll.
Noteworthy that border poll/Irish unity is usually included as a question offered to those surveyed. In a week when the government launched a major initiative on it, says something that it doesn't even register.
