Naturalized Irish in Ireland originally from Russia, proud IE and EU citizen. Liberal centre-left. Anglican Christian (moderate). Opinions my own! Any pronouns.

county Limerick, Ireland
Joined February 2011
I made a statement that was probably wrong about the Baltics specifically (that later than the 50s Soviet repression was aimed at thosw who expressed opposition to the system). I apologise. My main point, that the USSR was socially conservative, stands.
I don't really have enough data on the Baltics. My suspicion from the replies is that in the Baltics they (the KGB) were so paranoid it was Stalinesque longer.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
When we’re talking about healthcare for young trans people, and protecting young LGBTQ+ people from abuse, I don’t want to hear from mathematicians or children’s authors. I want to hear from experts in the field. It’s not a difficult concept.
If “expertise” means competence in applying the scientific method, Joyce is more an expert in sex & gender than, apparently, many MDs and biologists with PhDs in their field. If expertise merely means having formal credentials in a field, the term has lost its meaning.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
Your solicitors writing to parkrun alleging that it is breaking the law does not establish that it is. The Equality Act permits sex-based distinctions in certain circumstances; it does not impose a general obligation on recreational, mass-participation activities to provide sex-based competitive classifications. What WSU wants parkrun to introduce is not necessarily what the law requires. Indeed, you’re asserting that parkrun’s existing policy is unlawful while advocating measures that could themselves introduce unlawful discrimination. Your preferred policy is a campaign objective, not an established legal obligation. Presenting it as one doesn’t make it so. #loveparkrun
I can confirm that @wsusportsunion's solicitors have written to @parkrun to point out that they are breaking the law. We do NOT want parkrun to be 'less inclusive', we want fairness for women and for the female category to be protected.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
It is CRAZY when u talk to pro-lifers and you say “pregnant person” and they do the WHY DONT U SAY WOMAN and u reply “bc a 12 year old can get pregnant and I wouldn’t call them a woman but you prob would idk” and they just. Don’t reply. Lmao.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
Spot the difference. 🇪🇺 @EIB, Europe's public bank, lends @Airbus €3bn. With interest, to be repaid and at competitive market condition. @USTradeRep: a risk to the transatlantic trade truce. 🇺🇸 Washington state approved an $8.7bn tax break for Boeing in 2013, the biggest in US history. Nothing to repay. @USTradeRep: nothing to see here. Add also the trade deals: Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and China have pledged more than 450 Boeing jets to the White House as part of their trade deals with the US - orders decided by tariff threats, not by price. Not exactly the "market-driven" aerospace Ambassador Greer talks about. Usual American double standard: When US wins, it's the free market. When others win, it's unfair competition. Meanwhile, the WTO ruled against US subsidies to Boeing too – and Europe has kept its retaliation on hold since 2021 anyway. One loan, with interest, and Washington throws a tantrum. Can you imagine what would happen if Europe came together and started competing, with the same tools and methods, in all the other areas?
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
This. Replies to my comment on the case became more lurid in detail that didn’t exist in any news report, but bots and those willing to attack trans women for just being, posted the worst of libel.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday has reported “ANOTHER gender storm” involving Dr Beth Upton at an Australian hospital. The Times has now repeated the story, explicitly citing the Mail. But what actually happened? An unidentified patient apparently noticed Dr Upton and expressed concern. Other staff became involved. Her husband reportedly stayed at her bedside because he feared she might be bullied into accepting treatment. And that’s about all we know. No date for the alleged incident. No firsthand account from the patient or husband. No evidence that Dr Upton even approached the patient, offered treatment, or was refused. No reported coercion, misconduct or adverse outcome. We have anonymous hospital staff offering opinions, two Australian campaigners expressing outrage, and now For Women Scotland adding its commentary. Yet none supplies evidence of what actually occurred. Notably, The Times adds further reported comments from hospital staff supporting Dr Upton, including a nurse describing her as the victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt” and saying she should be judged on the quality of her work. It also acknowledges that Dr Upton was not criticised in the Peggie tribunal judgment. But it contributes no independent evidence of the supposed Australian incident. Meanwhile, there’s little sign of Australian news coverage, despite transgender healthcare professionals having worked in Australian hospitals for years. So how did this supposed incident reach a Scottish journalist already associated with reporting the Peggie dispute? Why is there no identifiable Australian account? And why are two British newspapers presenting such a poorly substantiated allegation as a major controversy? Are we witnessing an actual controversy at an Australian hospital, or the manufacture of one around a doctor whose name is already familiar to a particular British audience? What is especially troubling is how repetition turns an allegation into something resembling an established fact, without adding a shred of evidence.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
"I don't care that YOUR family suffered under communism, we need to have communism here too so that MORE families can suffer 🗿"
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
Replying to @f4stnews
Die meisten Historiker ordnen Hitler und den Nationalsozialismus als extreme Rechte ein, also nahe 100. Gründe: extremer Nationalismus, Rassenhierarchie statt Gleichheit, Antikommunismus und Bündnisse mit Konservativen. Der „Sozialismus“ im Namen war Rhetorik für nationale Gemeinschaft, nicht Klassenkampf; Privateigentum blieb unter staatlicher Kontrolle. Hitler sah sich selbst als weder links noch rechts. Die einfache Skala greift bei Totalitarismus nur begrenzt.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
BREAKING: Hamas has officially announced the deaths of two of its members, who were killed by a Palestinian man when they tried to arrest him in Deir al-Balah, Gaza. Reports from Gaza indicate that Hamas is now mobilizing its fighters to attack families in Deir al-Balah, while the families are also preparing for a possible attack. A similar incident occurred last year involving the Dughmush family. Two Hamas members were killed in clashes with the family. Hamas then killed 30 family members and publicly executed eight of them.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
On one side, two of the UK's most long standing and prominent gay rights organisations, and a coalition formed specifically to get bills like this through. On the other side, three small organisations - sharing many figures - founded in the last few years to attack trans people.
We’re pleased to be invited to give oral evidence to the joint committee scrutinising the draft Conversion Practices bill. It’s vital that they hear from the many LGB people opposed to this bill and understand the harms it could cause to LGB teens.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
The Scottish Mail on Sunday has reported “ANOTHER gender storm” involving Dr Beth Upton at an Australian hospital. The Times has now repeated the story, explicitly citing the Mail. But what actually happened? An unidentified patient apparently noticed Dr Upton and expressed concern. Other staff became involved. Her husband reportedly stayed at her bedside because he feared she might be bullied into accepting treatment. And that’s about all we know. No date for the alleged incident. No firsthand account from the patient or husband. No evidence that Dr Upton even approached the patient, offered treatment, or was refused. No reported coercion, misconduct or adverse outcome. We have anonymous hospital staff offering opinions, two Australian campaigners expressing outrage, and now For Women Scotland adding its commentary. Yet none supplies evidence of what actually occurred. Notably, The Times adds further reported comments from hospital staff supporting Dr Upton, including a nurse describing her as the victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt” and saying she should be judged on the quality of her work. It also acknowledges that Dr Upton was not criticised in the Peggie tribunal judgment. But it contributes no independent evidence of the supposed Australian incident. Meanwhile, there’s little sign of Australian news coverage, despite transgender healthcare professionals having worked in Australian hospitals for years. So how did this supposed incident reach a Scottish journalist already associated with reporting the Peggie dispute? Why is there no identifiable Australian account? And why are two British newspapers presenting such a poorly substantiated allegation as a major controversy? Are we witnessing an actual controversy at an Australian hospital, or the manufacture of one around a doctor whose name is already familiar to a particular British audience? What is especially troubling is how repetition turns an allegation into something resembling an established fact, without adding a shred of evidence.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
This is singlehandedly the biggest difference between right wingers and everybody else in modern day politics. When centrists or left leaning parties lose a democratic election, they concede and try again a couple years later. When right wingers lose, they scream election fraud and hope that it sticks without even understanding that the acceptance of an election is the single most important thing in democratic societies. Actively destroying the populations trust in the results can not be in anyone's interest who wants to keep the democracy alive.
Trump slams 'rigged' Brazil election
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
The "Today News" section on the everything app.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
A scandal??? Back in 2022, based on your reporting @hannahsbee, @PogustGoodhead predicted they would get "1000 familied" to sue the Tavistock. That was also reported @thetimes. Yet, it's 2026 now, and the number has turned out to be zero. When does the shame kick in, Hannah?
🚨Hilary Cass has called for an independent inquiry into how Brighton GPs were allowed to prescribe cross-sex hormones to children as young as 12.“There urgently needs to be an investigation of why every system that should have protected children, young people, and indeed young adults has failed,” she told me. The employment tribunal between Dr Sarah Redvers and NHS Sussex has highlighted how regulators and the NHS collectively failed to stop prescribing of puberty blockers and hormones against national guidelines - for years - and how instead the person raising concerns was accused of transphobia and herself investigated. Dr Redvers sat down with me for her only newspaper interview about her treatment in a scandal which, Cass now says, “dwarfs” that of the Tavistock’s GIDS. Me for the Sunday Times… thetimes.com/article/cfde7b4…
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Replying to @EndWokeness
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
It’s a remarkable coincidence that SpaceX discovered and closed a “loophole” in a way that severely harmed Ukraine in the very same week that the White House had a dispute with Ukraine. Just astonishing luck that SpaceX lawyers got to the issue at the very same time by chance!
Correct. Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be. Starshield, a different system, is controlled by the US government. What they decide to do is up to them. Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week. Starlink remains critical to the defense of Ukraine, as it is the only system that cannot be jammed or blown up, at least for now. Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately. This is NOT a threat, it is simply a statement of fact. Starlink was also crucial to preventing Russia from overrunning Ukraine in the early days of the war, as all other means of communication were destroyed or jammed by Russia. SpaceX has done more to defend Ukraine than any private company on Earth BY FAR. That said, I have nothing but UTTER CONTEMPT for the virtue-signaling evil warmongers who push for endless slaughter and offer no realistic solution to the conflict. May you burn in hell. End of story.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
I recommend reading the UKSC judgement in FWS . "It is not the role of the court to adjudicate on the arguments in the public domain on the meaning of gender or sex, nor is it to define the meaning of the word woman other than when it is used in the provisions of EA2010 "
The courts and tribunals are one of the most important arenas in which the gender wars are being fought out. And one of the most important aspects of litigation is that it happens in public.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
The Far Right has marinated so long in their social media and podcast stew their takes are now sounding like insane nonsense to the average voter. Its starting to show in recent elections and will only become more obvious in the future.
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
Raised Catholic, I was taught abortion was wrong in all circumstances. I became a single-issue voter. Years later my first pregnancy ended tragically. At 12 weeks there was no heartbeat. They scheduled a D&C. I was sobbing so hard during the procedure that they stopped and brought my husband in to calm me before trying again. That’s the same procedure used for abortion. Since Roe fell, women in many states have been denied or delayed that care while doctors fear prosecution. Abortion saved my life. It allowed me to go on and have three successful pregnancies. I would never take life-saving care from a woman and her doctor. But if a woman’s faith precludes her from this, I respect her decision. That’s her choice for herself. Changing your mind isn’t weakness. It’s strength. #Catholic #choice #Roe
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Misha 🇮🇪🇪🇺 ye olde immigrante retweeted
“Helen Joyce does not have any formal education or qualifications even in biology, let alone in gender, sex or law... she is not an expert at all. She has no recognised expertise in any of the areas in which she expresses an opinion." — Federal Court of Australia
This will be the first chance for the Committee to hear the arguments for and against the bill. Sex Matters will be represented by Helen Joyce, alongside Dennis Kavanagh from Gay Men's Network and Dermot Kehoe from LGB Alliance. 💪💪💪
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