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Dr John Coulter ✍ Now that Red Andy has become a Westminster MP again after his comprehensive win in last week’s Makerfield by-election in England, could Northern Ireland’s sensible Left finally be within a political stone’s throw of seeing the British Labour Party contest elections in the Province.

Whilst Andy Burnham is viewed by a section of Unionism in Northern Ireland as being on the Hard Left of Labour, during the Makerfield campaign, he clearly portrayed himself as being Soft Left.

But maybe that was a convenient tactic in any plot to oust current Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stressing that Red Andy is really a broad church of socialist opinions when it comes to appealing to the present crop of Labour MPs in the Commons.

Given the fact that Red Andy secured 55 per cent of the vote in Makerfield, some 9,000 plus votes ahead of the Right-wing Reform UK, the perception is being fuelled that Burnham is the man to ensure the political future of the so-called Red Wall of Labour-held constituencies.

There can be no doubting that after Labour’s electoral mauling in May’s elections in mainland Britain, when hundreds of Labour councillors lost their seats, the Scottish Nationalists remained in power north of the border, and Welsh Nationalists finally took control of the Welsh parliament, the clock was ticking rapidly on Starmer’s premiership.

Many Red Wall MPs were looking over their shoulders about the impact on their Commons seats if May’s disastrous results were replicated in the General Election, with Labour potentially losing dozens of seats on the Right to Reform UK and on the Left to the Green Party.

Okay, so it was only one by-election in England and the proverb states - one swallow does not make a summer. But Burnham was able to fend off any swing to the Right as happened in the council elections. The combined Right-wing vote of Reform UK and Restore Britain could only muster 42 per cent, while Burnham pushed the Labour showing up 10 per cent from the 2024 General Election.

Put bluntly, is Red Andy the man who can stop Reform UK boss Nigel Farage getting the keys to 10 Downing Street at the next Westminster showdown? More significantly, what would be the political implications for a Burnham administration for Northern Ireland?

A couple of generations have passed since there was a significant Labour presence in Ulster. The original Stormont Parliament saw the development of the Northern Ireland Labour Party as potentially a credible opposition to the Unionist Party.

But with the proroguing of Stormont in 1972, the NILP faded. For years, Northern Ireland socialists were told to join the moderate nationalist SDLP if they tried to join the British Labour Party.

There have been a few attempts at forming a Labour Party in Northern Ireland since 1972, but what is really needed is for British Labour to not just organise in the Province, but to contest elections.

Perhaps the fear among the Labour leadership at Westminster is that any move to contest elections could end up crashing and burning politically like the same fate which has befallen the Northern Ireland Tories.

Ulster socialists really don’t have much of a choice at the moment. Most parties are on the looney Left. Sinn Fein is communist; People Before Profit is a Trotskyite movement; the SDLP is Sinn Fein light, and Alliance is an integral part of the pan nationalist front.

On the unionist side, the Left-leaning Progressive Unionist Party is closely aligned to the terror gangs, the UVF and Red Hand Commando.

And long gone are the days when the pressure group, Unionist Labour, was a key component of the original Ulster Unionist Party which ran Northern Ireland for decades since partition in the 1920s.

Tactically, Burnham will have noted that on the night of his return to Parliament, the Scottish Nationalists also held their two Westminster seats in Commons by-elections.

If Burnham does manage to topple Starmer and become PM, he will have to put the brakes on the Reform UK bandwagon as well as combat the nationalist swings in Scotland and Wales.

With some opinion polls suggesting a hung Parliament after the next General Election, perhaps 18 constituencies in Northern Ireland becomes a key link in the chain for retaining Labour’s Commons majority - especially when Sinn Fein MPs still maintain their historically outdated abstentionist policy of not taking their Westminster seats.

If Burnham was to give the green light to Labour contesting elections in Northern Ireland, which council areas, Assembly seats and even Commons seats are winnable?

With many working class loyalists abandoning the ballot box and becoming part of an increasing ‘stay at home brigade’, could Labour be the key to encouraging the Protestant working class to re-engage with the electoral system?

Again put bluntly, has Burnham - if he does finally get his hands on the keys to 10 Downing Street - the ability to create a Red Wall in Northern Ireland?

In Unionism, the DUP historically under the late Rev Ian Paisley and currently the TUV under Jim Allister both gave a voice to working class loyalists.

If Burnham was to allow Labour to contest elections in Ulster, would it force the present Ulster Unionist and DUP leaderships to take more notice of Northern Ireland’s working classes?

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

Will ‘Burnham Bounce’ See Labour Contest Ulster Seats?

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Ten

 

A Morning Thought @ 3183

Cam Ogie ✍ The Difference Is In The Spelling, And The Art Is In Turning Conquest Into Belonging.

One of the most striking features of modern political discourse is the willingness of certain societies to condemn historical injustices committed by others while remaining reluctant to confront the foundations of their own existence. Nowhere is this contradiction more apparent than in the relationship between sections of Ulster Unionism, American political culture, and their unwavering support for Israel.

Throughout history, settler societies have often presented themselves as pioneers, civilisers, or victims seeking security, while indigenous populations have frequently viewed the same processes as conquest, dispossession, and colonisation. At first glance, these may appear to be entirely separate historical experiences, differing significantly in time, context, and scale. The Plantation of Ulster was a seventeenth-century colonial project; European settlement of the Americas unfolded over several centuries; and Israeli settlement in Palestinian territories belongs to the modern era. It can be argued that they share common characteristics associated with settler colonialism. Beneath the differences lies a common thread: the establishment and consolidation of settler societies on lands already inhabited by indigenous peoples, followed by the creation of legal, political and cultural narratives designed to legitimise the outcome.

A recurring feature in all three cases is the arrival of a population supported, either directly or indirectly, by a powerful state. The Plantation of Ulster involved the confiscation of land from Gaelic Irish families and its redistribution to settlers from Britain. European settlement of the Americas involved the gradual displacement of indigenous nations through war, coercion, treaty violations, forced removals and, in many instances, outright massacres. Israeli settlement in Palestinian territories represents a modern manifestation of a similar process, whereby land is acquired, settlements expanded, and demographic realities altered under the protection of state power.

Central to each narrative is the question of land. Indigenous communities often viewed the land as theirs by inheritance, tradition, and continuous occupation. Settler communities, however, frequently relied upon legal frameworks created by the conquering authority to justify ownership. What one side viewed as lawful transfer or development, the other viewed as confiscation and theft. This divergence in understanding remains a source of conflict centuries later.

In each case, the use of force played a central role in establishing and maintaining the new political order. The Plantation was preceded by military campaigns that defeated Gaelic resistance and enabled land redistribution. European expansion across North America was accompanied by countless conflicts, forced removals and atrocities against indigenous populations, culminating in events such as the Wounded Knee Massacre. In Palestine, military occupation, settlement expansion, checkpoints, house demolitions, the destruction of indigenous societies and what some human rights organisations, legal scholars, and activists describe as state-sanctioned killings of Palestinian civilians have been presented as mechanisms through which settlement expansion and territorial control have been facilitated and protected. In all three cases, the presence of military power has been essential to establishing and maintaining a new political and demographic reality.

The similarities extend beyond land and violence. Settler societies frequently rely upon legal structures created by the dominant power to justify what indigenous populations experience as dispossession. What is conquest in one narrative becomes lawful administration in another. What is theft in one account becomes development in another. What is occupation in one perspective becomes security in another.

History demonstrates that legality and morality are not always the same thing. The response of the British government during the Great Famine illustrated how adherence to economic orthodoxy, property rights and colonial priorities contributed to immense and catastrophic human suffering while maintaining the existing social order. Whether viewed as neglect, ideological rigidity or deliberate policy, the episode remains a powerful example of how legal and political systems can be used to defend structures of power at the expense of indigenous populations. The confiscation of Irish land was legal under English law. The removal of Native Americans was frequently legal under American law. Segregation was legal. Colonial rule was legal. Apartheid was legal. Throughout history, legal systems have often reflected the interests of those who possessed power rather than the interests of those subjected to it.

This raises uncomfortable questions about modern support for Israel among sections of Unionism and American political culture. Such support is not simply rooted in shared democratic values, strategic alliances or security concerns. Rather, it reflects a deeper historical identification.

The Ulster planter and the Israeli settler occupy remarkably similar positions within their respective historical narratives. Both emerged from settlement projects supported by powerful states. Both established communities whose legitimacy is contested by populations who regard themselves as indigenous. Both reject the description of themselves as colonisers and instead present themselves as people exercising a legitimate right to exist in the land they inhabit.

Likewise, many within the United States see in Israel a reflection of their own historical experience. America was built through territorial expansion across lands already inhabited by indigenous peoples. That process involved warfare, broken treaties, forced displacement, cultural destruction and massacres. Yet over time the settler became the native in the national imagination, and the indigenous population became marginal to the dominant historical narrative.

Supporters of Israel reject such comparisons. They argue that Jewish historical ties to the land are ancient, that Israel emerged following centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust, and that Israeli security concerns are real and cannot be ignored. They further contend that comparisons with colonial projects oversimplify a complex conflict involving competing national claims and existential threats.

These arguments deserve consideration. Yet, security concerns and historical suffering do not exempt a state from moral scrutiny. Nor do they erase the experiences of those who have been displaced, occupied or subordinated. The existence of historical Jewish connections to the land does not negate Palestinian connections to the same land, just as the passage of time did not erase the memory of dispossession among Native Americans or the descendants of those affected by colonisation in Ireland.

Indeed, one of the defining features of settler societies is their ability to transform conquest into legitimacy through the passage of time. Once enough generations have passed, the descendants of settlers cease to see themselves as settlers at all. Their presence becomes normalised. Their ownership becomes unquestioned. Their version of history becomes common sense.

This process of historical normalisation helps explain why allegations against Israel are often received differently by those whose own societies were built through settlement. To acknowledge the possibility that Palestinians have experienced dispossession, ethnic cleansing or even genocide would require confronting difficult and uncomfortable questions about the treatment of Native Americans in the United States and the colonial origins of Unionist settlement in Ireland. This helps explain why allegations against Israel are often met not simply with scepticism, but with outright hostility: acceptance of those allegations would cast a shadow over foundational narratives upon which other settler societies have built their own legitimacy.

The result is a form of moral exceptionalism. Actions condemned elsewhere are justified when undertaken by an allied settler society. Civilian deaths become regrettable necessities. Land seizures become security measures. Occupation becomes self-defence. Allegations of war crimes, ethnic cleansing or genocide are dismissed not necessarily because the evidence has been examined and disproven, but because accepting such allegations would challenge foundational myths upon which other settler societies have built their own identities.

Perhaps the greatest power of settler colonialism is not its ability to seize land but its ability to rewrite memory. The indigenous population remembers dispossession. The settler remembers survival. The indigenous population remembers conquest. The settler remembers civilisation. The indigenous population remembers what was lost. The settler remembers what was built.

The conflict, therefore, is not merely over territory. It is over history itself.

Whether in Ireland, North America or Palestine, the central question remains the same: who has the authority to define the past, and whose version of that past becomes accepted as legitimate? The issue is not simply whether Israel's actions are justified or unjustified. It is whether settler societies are capable of recognising in others the very patterns of dispossession, domination and historical revisionism that shaped their own emergence. Until that question is confronted honestly, the struggle between indigenous memory and settler legitimacy will remain unresolved, shaping politics, identity and conflict long after the original acts of settlement have passed from living memory into history.

⏩ Cam Ogie is a Gaelic games enthusiast.

Planter Or Settler?

Tommy McKearney ☭ A recent article in the Belfast Telegraph informed its readers that 400,000 people in the 6-counties – that is, 26.5% of the area’s population – were using antidepressants.[1]



In other words, does this mean that three out of every four residents of that dysfunctional political entity are able to get through the day without resorting to the same?


Hardly a week passes without yet another report of system failure. There is an endless list of defective organs of governance. Health, infrastructure, education, policing – all are either underperforming or actually malfunctioning. In the past few months, there has been a series of failures within the local administration that bears evidence to its incompetence and downright inadequacy.

Nothing better illustrates the hopeless nature of the 6-county body politic than its repeated failure to provide anything resembling adequate and acceptable policing. A source of division and dispute since partition, the sorry tale continues. Not only is there the ongoing obstruction in its dealings with legacy issues, but in other areas of what may be defined as civil policing, the PSNI is found to be woefully inadequate.

After decades of biased, political policing, there might have been an expectation, in what is supposed to be a new era, that there would be some improvement. Any such hope was dashed after a report last month examining how the force dealt with the murder of a young woman, Katie Simpson, in 2020. In spite of the fact that her boyfriend had several convictions for physically abusing previous partners, and despite concerns raised by medical staff, investigating detectives initially dismissed Katie’s death as suicide.

Worse still, an acquaintance of both the victim and her killer had conveyed his suspicions to police in the local station within days of her death. Not only was this not followed up, but, sinisterly, the killer was let know about this report. Eventually, but only after much pressure, a murder charge was brought. Before the trial got under way, the accused took his own life.

So, adding to its many other failings, a subsequent review commissioned by the north’s Department of Justice found “institutional misogyny”[2] and “systemic failures” within the PSNI.

Let us then look at what passes for the north’s health service. A recent editorial in the Belfast-based Irish News[3] delivered a damning but accurate assessment of the state of the service: 

Thousands of people are waiting years for operations, appointments and treatments that would be delivered far more quickly elsewhere.

An accusation supported by figures from the Northern Ireland Audit Office, which reveals that “51% of those on NI waiting lists were waiting over 52 weeks for assessment or treatment compared to 5.4% in England.” Further evidence of malfunction, if needed, was again provided by the Audit Office last month, reporting that only 29.5% of patients started treatment within 62 days of an urgent red-flag referral.[4]

Nor does the tale of despair and decline end there.

Ulster University, the north’s biggest third-level institution, announced in April that it is to make around 450 staff redundant. This in an area in dire need of academic input to stem the debilitating brain drain.

Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in these islands, supplying approximately 40% of the north’s population with drinking water, is heavily polluted with green algae. An asset that once also provided employment for several hundred families fishing its rich waters is no longer fit for purpose, as its eel population is devastated by pollutants.

We could continue – for example, with the extraordinary level of suicides, the disproportionately high per capita levels of violence against women, or the failure to build a much-needed motorway to upgrade the dangerous A5. The Assembly cannot agree a multi-year budget, ensuring little progress is possible.

However, enough said. The picture should be clear.

Presiding over this omnishambles is the incompetent, dysfunctional local devolved administration sitting inertly in Stormont. Since 2022, when Sinn Féin won the largest number of seats in the Assembly, unionism of all shades has been deeply disconcerted. Fearing being outmanoeuvred by the still more reactionary TUV, the DUP has resisted every initiative that might appear to indicate Sinn Féin having a modicum of leverage in the north. Now the Ulster Unionists have joined in the conflict by threatening to deselect any so-called moderate MLAs hoping to contest next year’s Assembly elections.

As a consequence of unionist obduracy and absolute refusal to share power productively, governance in the 6-counties is virtually moribund.

It is difficult to see how this administrative deadlock can be resolved this side of re-unification. In the meantime, the 6-counties remain in a pitiful state of disrepair. Even Charles Windsor experienced the downside of the place on his recent visit, when falling victim to the droppings of a treasonous seagull.

Little surprise that so many in the area resort to antidepressants.

Footnotes (as in original, formatted for clarity):

[1] “It’s no surprise 400,000 people here are on antidepressants – political failure has left this place in a terrible state…” Gail Walker, Belfast Telegraph, May 23rd, 2026.

[2] “Katie Simpson’s death exposes ‘institutional misogyny’ in PSNI…” 5 May 2026, Kelly Bonner and Brendan Hughes, BBC News NI.

[3] The Irish News, editorial, 21/05/2026.

[4] Northern Ireland ‘probably’ worst in western Europe for cancer wait times – committee chairman

Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist.
He is author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament.
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney

Governance In The 6 Counties Is Virtually Moribund!

Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 15-June-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Freedom of speech and the Ukrainian Civil Code.
⬤ The budget crisis in Russia.
⬤ Internal migration within Ukraine.
⬤ Russian killing of Ukrainian children.
⬤ Russian execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
⬤ Europe and Russian fossil fuels.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

Three children orphaned for Russia's new Crimean `treason trial’ and huge sentence (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, 11th June)

Russia uses Gestapo-like torture for `international terrorism’ trial and massive sentences over death of a Ukrainian traitor (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, 10th June)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea on June 9th, 2026 (Crimea Platform, 9th June)

News from the front

Ukraine’s security service reports hit on oil and gas terminal in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai (Ukrainska Pravda, 13th June)

Ukraine’s defence forces strike oil facility in Russia’s Volgograd oblast (Ukrainska Pravda, 13th June)

Russian losses in the war with Ukraine. Mediazona count, updated (Mediazona, 5th June)

News from Ukraine

Zelenskyy sanctions Russian telecoms operators and internet service providers (Ukrainska Pravda, 13th June)

Inside Ukraine’s campaign to force Putin to the negotiating table by fall 2026 (Meduza, 12th June)

This June marks our fourth anniversary (Solidarity Collectives, 11th June)

Drink to the death of dictators (Solidarity Collectives, 11th June)

A former brick seller, a Navalny supporter, holidays in Crimea: the Rosatom employees who helped occupy the Chornobyl nuclear power plant (Ukrainska Pravda, 9th June)

Statement on threats to freedom of speech in the draft new Civil Code of Ukraine (Zmina, 8th June)

War-related news from Russia

Communist party lawmaker warns Russia is `on the brink of a social explosion' and demands a `clear plan’ to end the war (Meduza, 12th June)

Abducted Melitopol journalist Anastasia Hlukhovska went on hunger strike in notorious Russian prison (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, 12th June)

“My charge is a prison regime screw-up in itself”. Political prisoners moved to supposedly “lighter” prisons are isolated in cold dark cells for months (Mediazona, 11th June)

Russia’s central bank chief disappears from public view as resignation rumors swirl: one report links her future to fears of border closures and martial law (Meduza, 11th June)

Russia just rushed through a law to lift limits on borrowing and spending. Is the budget starting to crack? (Meduza, 11th June)

Escape from the “Digital GULAG”: Ordinary Russians are finding ways to bypass the Kremlin’s internet restrictions (The Insider, 11th June)

Criminal kingpin Artur Denisultanov killed in the war in Ukraine. He had been accused of an assassination, kidnapping and murder attempts (Mediazona, 10th June)

High oil prices and tax hikes aren't enough to offset war spending and keep Russia’s budget on track (Meduza, 9th June)

“You are not Russian anymore”. How Alexandra Pugach, the daughter of Vladimir Putin's trusted representative, was convicted for supporting Ukraine (Mediazona, 5th June)

Analysis and comment

Outpacing Albania. How Ukraine should meet most critical benchmarks in EU accession negotiations (European Pravda, 11th June)

In the end, only crumbs may arrive for military aid sent to Ukraine: not enough money in the European Peace Facility (Eastern Frontier Initiative, 11th June)

“Invisible migration: Analysing mobile operator data in light of the need to verify the state voter register (Opora, 10th June)

Updating the state voter register in the context of relocation of citizens: Scale, behaviours and barriers (Quantitative Study) (Opora, 10th June)

Statement by the Priama Diia trade union at the meeting organised by the International Trade Union Network for Solidarity and Struggles on 8th June 2026 (Labour Solidarity, 8th June)

Russia attacks gas production. Will Ukraine have enough gas and money for the winter? (Ukrainska Pravda, 7th June)

Report: Europe’s break from Russian fossil fuels (Razom We Stand, June 3rd)

How the UK and Europe play vital roles in Russia’s LNG exports: Sakhalin 2 (Razom We Stand, June 1st)

Research of human rights abuses

How Russia is killing Ukrainian children (Tribunal for Putin, 12th June)

Russians cause abducted Melitopol woman's death, hold her husband incommunicado for 3 years (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, 12th June)

Law enforcement agencies are investigating 306 instances of the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian forces (Tribunal for Putin, 11th June)

11th EU-Ukraine human rights dialogue held in Brussels (Crimea Platform, 11th June)

Ukrainian sentenced to 16 years for resisting Russian occupation gets new sentence for `extremist’ tattoo (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, 9th June)

Tortured but unbroken: Four Ukrainians expose Russian fabrication of trial over death of a traitor (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, 8th June)

International Solidarity

Russian musician's performance in Budapest is cancelled after Ukrainian efforts’ (Ukrainska Pravda, 13th June)

All the warning lights were on: Toward Kharkiv, Two thousand kilometers in a dying ambulance (Nomadic Mind (Substack), 4th June)

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Have you seen TRY ME FOR TREASON yet?

Free to watch and download on Youtube. Russian anti-war protesters’ speeches in court. More information at Try Me For Treason

YouTube

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YouTubeFree to watch and download on Youtube. Russian anti-war protesters’ speeches in court. More information at trymefortreason.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FHacVH8tK8
  
🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.


We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.

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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 200

Tricontinental ★ Recommended by Tommy McKearney

Although modern structures of extraction attempt to mask old systems of colonial plunder, the living legacy of anti-colonial resistance across Africa remains a decisive force in the struggle for sovereignty and genuine freedom..

Dear friends,

Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

On 11–12 May, at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, French President Emmanuel Macron stood in front of more than thirty African heads of state and announced, ‘We are the true Pan-Africanists’. This was an extraordinarily obnoxious comment that was sandwiched between bureaucratic banalities about ‘growth’, ‘innovation’, and ‘partnerships’.

In an open letter, Togolese writer Farida Bemba Nabourema responded that ‘Pan-Africanism is, at its most fundamental, the political philosophy that said no to everything France spent three centuries saying yes to: slavery, colonialism, and neocolonialism’. This philosophy, ‘born in the holds of the slave ships, in the plantation fields of Saint-Domingue’ by people who ‘believe that African and African-descended people deserved to govern themselves’, Nabourema wrote, cannot be laundered by Macron’s charm offensive.

This was the 29th France-Africa summit (rebranded for Nairobi as the Africa Forward Summit), yet the first to take place in a non-Francophone African country. 

Continue @ Tricontinental 

We Shall Not Host Our Executioners

Friendly Atheist ★ An Illinois woman says anti-abortion policies delayed treatment, cost her fertility, and nearly cost her life

Anti-abortion laws are ruining lives, even in blue states that aim to protect women’s rights. And a new lawsuit is a perfect example of that. It involves the traumatic episode experienced by 28-year-old Harmonie Perrone, an Illinois woman who had an ectopic pregnancy (where the fertilized egg implants inside the fallopian tube).

Perrone had been pregnant before—and had suffered ectopic pregnancies before. In fact, the first time that happened, she required surgery and lost her right fallopian tube. The second time it happened, she was treated with methotrexate, which stopped the egg from dividing, effectively inducing an abortion without the need for surgery.

When she became pregnant this time, she knew there was a possibility that something similar could happen, so when symptoms began to appear, she knew exactly what had to happen: She needed the methotrexate and she needed it fast.

Unfortunately, her local hospital, Advocate Good Shepherd, was a religious hospital with abortion rules similar to Catholic hospitals where anything involving contraception or abortion is forbidden. That meant treating ectopic pregnancies was even more of a hassle. 

A Religious Hospital Refused Critical Ectopic Pregnancy Care 🪶 Now The Patient Is Suing

Right Wing Watch 👀 Written by Peter Montgomery.

Rooting out pluralism is central to the plan for colonizing sparsely populated rural counties.


A pastor aligned with the hard-right Reformed theology of influential Christian nationalist Doug Wilson is promoting and pursuing a plan to fulfill the “dominion mandate” by moving like-minded people into sparsely populated rural counties, colonizing and discipling “Christian settlements,” and building miniature civilizations based on their religious worldview.

Raymond Simmons, a pastor and podcaster based in Red Oak, Iowa, is the author of “The Confessional County: Realizing the Kingdom through Local Christendom, which was published in 2021. Simmons talked about the book and his current colonizing project in a podcast interview posted on June 2 by Kevin Swanson, a promoter of Christian-right homeschooling curricula who spreads his ideas via a newsletter and radio show. Simmons promotes his own religious and political ideology at “The Confessionalists” website.

Here’s the basic idea behind Simmons’ plan: The U.S. is under a “land curse” from God because it has allowed abortion, sexual immorality, sabbath-breaking, and idolatry to go unpunished. The nation as a whole is not going to make sufficient repentance to get out from under the curse . . . 

Continue @ RWW.

The Dominionist Plan To Create Theocratic ‘Confessional Counties’ In Rural U.S.

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Nine

 

Pastords @ 49

 

A Morning Thought @ 3182

Anthony McIntyre ☠ Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani have become known as the Filton Four.

Activists with Palestine Action, they were handed down prison sentences totalling more than 25 years for employing the tactic of direct action against genocide, the result of an attack on Elbit Systems close to Bristol. They very plausibly claimed that the action they took against Elbit was necessary to protect Palestinians being murdered by 'Israel’s genocidal army with killer drones for use in Gaza,' weapons the company was supplying to Israel. The group's position is that when the British government has abandoned international law its members have a duty to uphold that law. 'British collusion in Israeli crimes is the reason Palestine Action was originally founded six years ago.'

The judge who imprisoned the Filton Four, No Justice Johnson, had ruled earlier that they would be sentenced as terrorists, something facilitated by the UK Court of Appeal that upheld the Starmer government's claim, rejected in a lower court, that Palestine Action was a terrorist organisation. Jonathan Cook has offered the insightful observation:

It is the first time that a direct action group, whose form of civil disobedience is damaging property rather than using violence against people, has been declared a terrorist organization, on a par with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Under this new interpretation of the law, the Suffragette movement — which fought to gain women the vote in Britain over a century ago, and whose members are uniformly extolled as role models by the very politicians who support Palestine Action’s proscription — would undoubtedly have been declared a terrorist organization.

Protestors who gathered outside Woolwich Crown Court in solidarity with the activists on trial faced harassment from the Metropolitan Police who in a statement said:

Seventy-two people have been arrested for supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation – Palestine Action – at a demonstration outside Woolwich Crown Court.

As a teenager I was well used to being arrested by British police or soldiers. There were so many arrests that I no longer remember them all. Being arrested on the street in Belfast by the British military or RUC for so called screening purposes was a routine hazard for nationalist youth in particular. It could happen going to work, playing handball on the street, coming out of a pub, shopping. On my last arrest as a teenager the investigating cop simply said to me he was arresting me because he believed me to be a terrorist. It didn't upset me then. It doesn't annoy me today. If for uttering the simple phrase 'I support Palestine Action' I am labelled a terrorist then I am happy to respond that I agree wholeheartedly with a placard held aloft by one of the arrested protestors proclaimed 'Saving lives is not terrorism.'

Just contrast this very humane sentiment about saving lives with the murderous Nazi-like reasoning from Israel's Nazi Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir:

For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!. . .  Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit. All of Lebanon must burn. Our supreme duty is to protect the citizens of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF, and this commitment takes precedence over every other consideration.

Yet while there are many of us extremely reluctant to approve the use of political violence to resolve problems we find it impossible to disagree with the logic that if you hold a member of the terrorist IDF under water long enough they stop being a member of the terrorist IDF. And it does seem a plausible way of combatting terrorism. The Filton four were not even attacking IDF members but merely taking measures that would help prevent the IDF massacring civilians. 

British justice is an oxymoron on a par with the IDF being described the world's most moral army, rather than its most murderous.  The credentials of the judge in the case were set out for all to see by Jonathan Cook:

Judge Johnson made it to the bench after years serving as the most favoured barrister of the “secret state”, representing the intelligence services, the ministry of defence and the police. His working environment of choice as a lawyer was behind-closed-doors prosecutions held out of view of the public or proper legal scrutiny.


Seriously, what justice could be expected from 'the UK judge whose job is to protect Israel’s genocide.'?

Craig Murray answered that question pretty comprehensively.

Judge Johnson ruled that the defendants were not permitted to refer to their motives.
He ruled that the jury may not be informed of their absolute right to acquit.
He attempted to have the leading defence barrister, Rajiv Menon KC, prosecuted for contempt of court for informing the jury of their rights.
He ruled that terms including ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’ may not be used in court.
He ordered that the notebooks and other writings of the accused be redacted to withhold from the jury any information related to Elbit’s supply of weapons to Israel.
He enforced the concealment from the jury of the nature of the weapons and equipment that had been damaged.
He granted anonymity to senior Elbit staff and admitted their evidence without the defence being able to cross-examine.
He ruled that the trial had *not* been prejudiced by the Secretary of State [Yvette Cooper] and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police [Sir Mark Rowley] stating the offences as fact throughout national media.
He allowed the release to the media of highly edited and selective prosecution video footage during the trial which gave a false impression of events.
He permitted the admission of Metropolitan Police video evidence which they had given over to Elbit’s sole custody for an entire year.

Be in no doubt, this is the judge Starmer pinned his hopes on, much like Widgery of Bloody Sunday infamy was the judge Ted Heath picked to rule in favour of a mass murder machine. Accused of being a terrorist by Keir Starmer carries the same moral authority as an accusation from Bertie Ahern of being a crook

Faced with that, there is only one thing left to say regardless of the cost: I support Palestine Action. 

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The Filton Four

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