So Michael D IS running again!

Loafing Oaf

marieholmfan wrote: »

Like Michael D Higgins or Joan Freeman?

Whoever, scores of plausible candidates out there.

VinLieger

Will be doing MDH for #1 and not bothered going beyond that. None of the others, beyond Ni Riada who i have concerns regarding anti-vaxx, have convinced me they have any understanding of the job let alone the competency to adequately do it well

Zubeneschamali

VinLieger wrote: »

None of the others, beyond Ni Riada who i have concerns regarding anti-vaxx, have convinced me they have any understanding of the job let alone the competency to adequately do it well

While I agree, an election is a fun bit of participation. See if the people you hate most get eliminated first! Can Freeman and Ní Riada beat all the dragons? Who will get their expenses?

Join in this fun game, vote all the way down and watch your vote transfer!

[Edit: OK, no transfers in this election for most people who vote MDH, since his "surplus" won't be transferred... that is a sport for a GE]

marieholmfan

VinLieger wrote: »

Will be doing MDH for #1 and not bothered going beyond that. None of the others, beyond Ni Riada who i have concerns regarding anti-vaxx, have convinced me they have any understanding of the job let alone the competency to adequately do it well

Just give Joan Freeman your number 2 so she gets her expenses back. FFS.

VinLieger

marieholmfan wrote: »

Just give Joan Freeman your number 2 so she gets her expenses back. FFS.

No if shes stupid enough to get a loan she can't possibly pay back then she deserves to have to deal with those consequences. There's a good reason no bank would give her the money.


She is endemic of the problem with this election as well, literally every other candidate bar MDH is using it as a way to advertise and raise their profile for various reasons. Not one of them has a chance of getting elected and each know that so I don't see why any of them should get to run a pr campaign for themselves that is then paid for by the tax payer.

Zubeneschamali

marieholmfan wrote: »

Just give Joan Freeman your number 2 so she gets her expenses back. FFS.

Won't help her.

MDH is probably going to get more than 50% of the vote and win on the first count. Nothing is going to be redistributed and #2s won't matter. Folks will just be ranked by the number of #1s they get.

Now, if MDH falls a bit short, they will start eliminating dragons and looking at their #2s. But #2 on an MDH vote will not be counted unless he is eliminated, which ain't happening this time.

In a GE, your #2, #3 etc. may count if you are lucky enough to be part of the surplus for someone elected, but in a one horse race like this, it is only people who vote #1 for a dragon who might see their vote transfer.

[I do not encourage voting #1 for the losers to try and get them their expenses - there is the risk that too many people do it and accidently help elect someone who is not their real #1 choice...]

marieholmfan

In ordinary circumstances she would every chance of being elected.
Also we need to have elections for President. It would have been great to get rid of McAleese before she 'WOW'ed the queen of England.


Anyway she isn't getting my #1.

I like her and I respect her but Mickey D is getting the #1.
Even if I find out between now and the election that he is riding his driver (and that would be some level of virility to be honest) he is still getting the #1

VinLieger wrote: »

No if shes stupid enough to get a loan she can't possibly pay back then she deserves to have to deal with those consequences. There's a good reason no bank would give her the money.


She is endemic of the problem with this election as well, literally every other candidate bar MDH is using it as a way to advertise and raise their profile for various reasons. Not one of them has a chance of getting elected and each know that so I don't see why any of them should get to run a pr campaign for themselves that is then paid for by the tax payer.

Cork Boy 53

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Whoever, scores of plausible candidates out there.

Really? I don't think there are any plausible candidates who realistically would give MDH a real run for his money. Let`s see how many realistic candidates look for nominations in 2025.

hotmail.com

marieholmfan wrote:

Like Michael D Higgins or Joan Freeman?

The idea that Freeman is a credible candidate is laughable. A grown woman believing that touching walls cures illnesses just won't fly with the public these days.

hotmail.com

@loafing What gets me is the exaggeration of the significance of the role of the presidency by some people.

marieholmfan

hotmail.com wrote: »

The idea that Freeman is a credible candidate is laughable. A grown woman believing that touching walls cures illnesses just won't fly with the public these days.

She doesn't believe that. She believed it when she was 15.

Zubeneschamali

marieholmfan wrote: »

She doesn't believe that. She believed it when she was 15.

Again, in 2015 she said:

I placed my hands on the wall here in Knock on the shrine and I've never had eczema again," she said, to applause.

"I'm telling you that was because behind that cure was faith. It was the foundation of belief of divine intervention and it became the cornerstone of the next 40 years of my life."

Looks to me like she believed in 2015 that she was cured of eczema by god when she touched the wall.

VinLieger

marieholmfan wrote: »

She doesn't believe that. She believed it when she was 15.

"'Knock cured my eczema,' says presidential hopeful Joan Freeman"

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/knock-cured-my-eczema-says-presidential-hopeful-joan-freeman-37291980.html

"One of the first times I came here was when I was 16 and I had eczema on my hands. They were very, very bad. They were so bad that if I flexed them at all my skin would burst open and I placed my hands on the wall here in Knock on the shrine and I've never had eczema again,"

Chips Lovell

She repeated the claim last month:

Independent Senator Joan Freeman, who hopes to be a candidate in the presidential election next month, has said her faith was “absolutely responsible” for curing her eczema on a visit to Knock shrine in Co Mayo when she was a teenager.”

“To me it was absolutely responsible and I certainly wouldn’t deny that,” she told Dublin City FM radio station’s Sunday Edition.

Loafing Oaf

Cork Boy 53 wrote: »

Really? I don't think there are any plausible candidates who realistically would give MDH a real run for his money. Let`s see how many realistic candidates look for nominations in 2025.

I'm talking about a system where the president is chosen by a government-appointed panel or some such. That would open up the field to a range of suitable figures who wouldn't run for an election in a million years: Seamus Heaney, for instance, might have made a fine president. I do agree that MDH has a lot of credentials that you don't often find combined in the one person: even if you were drawing up a list of people irrespective of questions of interest in the job, electability, he'd be pretty high up there.

hotmail.com

marieholmfan wrote:

She doesn't believe that. She believed it when she was 15.

She repeated the claim a couple of years ago. Also she appointed God as the CEO of Pieta.

Again this nonsense just won't wash anymore in Ireland. She isn't credible.

marieholmfan

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

I'm talking about a system where the president is chosen by a government-appointed panel or some such. That would open up the field to a range of suitable figures who wouldn't run for an election in a million years: Seamus Heaney, for instance, might have made a fine president. I do agree that MDH has a lot of credentials that you don't often find combined in the one person: even if you were drawing up a list of people irrespective of questions of interest in the job, electability, he'd be pretty high up there.

Why not just have a system of Sortition and choose a 60 year old for one term at random?

hotmail.com wrote: »

appointed God as the CEO of Pieta [House].

Non executive chairman surely. But more seriously this has been comprehensively addressed and there is nothing to be concerned about.

hotmail.com wrote: »

She repeated the claim a couple of years ago.

She simply misspoke.

hotmail.com

marieholmfan wrote:

Non executive chairman surely. But more seriously this has been comprehensively addressed and there is nothing to be concerned about.

Perhaps, but it looks a bit crazy to say these things and it won't wash with public. A bit nutty don't you think?

VinLieger

marieholmfan wrote: »

She simply misspoke.

No she didn't she said her faith was "absolutely responsible" for curing her eczema.


There is no wiggle room for misspeaking in that

marieholmfan

hotmail.com wrote: »

Perhaps, but it looks a bit crazy to say these things and it won't wash with public. A bit nutty don't you think?

You aren't the public and neither am I. If Michael D wasn't running I suppose there would be some other candidates like Ivana Bacik or Colm O'Gorman or Tony Cascarino maybe.

hotmail.com

marieholmfan wrote:

You aren't the public and neither am I. If Michael D wasn't running I suppose there would be some other candidates like Ivana Bacik or Colm O'Gorman or Tony Cascarino maybe.

This doesn't address what I said. Her comments are a bit nutty. Do you agree?

Loafing Oaf

marieholmfan wrote: »

Why not just have a system of Sortition and choose a 60 year old for one term at random?

I'd be fine with that. To me a Netherlands-style bicycling monarchy gets you somewhere near the desired outcome also. You strip away most of the privileges from the hereditary monarchy to a point where it's almost like handing down the office through a randomly chosen family.

marieholmfan

hotmail.com wrote: »

This doesn't address what I said. Her comments are a bit nutty. Do you agree?

I think they're fine and broadly figurative. After all Pieta House has always published audited accounts and there is no mention in those accounts of either YHWH or I am that I am. Certainly he never seems to have been formally appointed to the board.

marieholmfan

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

A Netherlands-style bicycling monarchy gets you somewhere near the desired outcome also. You strip away most of the privileges from the hereditary monarchy to a point where it's almost like handing down the office through a randomly chosen family.

All the privileges except for owning Shell oil and having a thousand million euro.

Zubeneschamali

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

I'm talking about a system where the president is chosen by a government-appointed panel or some such.

This used to be the system before Mary Robinson, FF would decide which old FFer to give it to as a retirement present.

Loafing Oaf

marieholmfan wrote: »

All the privileges except for owning Shell oil and having a thousand million euro.

Okay I didn't know that but in theory you could do it. I'm sure some of the Scandinavian countries have reduced their royal family to the status of an ordinary middle-class household.

marieholmfan

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Okay I didn't know that but in theory you could do it. I'm sure some of the Scandinavian countries have reduced their royal family to the status of an ordinary middle-class household.

No they haven't. The King of Norway and the Queen of Denmark are worth about fifty million dollars and the King of Sweden is worth about a hundred million dollars.

Cork Boy 53

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

This used to be the system before Mary Robinson, FF would decide which old FFer to give it to as a retirement present.

Indeed and a government appointed panel would just rubber stamp whoever the Gov. of the day decided to put in the Aras.

Loafing Oaf

Cork Boy 53 wrote: »

Indeed and a government appointed panel would just rubber stamp whoever the Gov. of the day decided to put in the Aras.

Okay well keep the panel at arms length from the government, have the Seanad choose it or something.

marieholmfan

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Okay well keep the panel at arms length from the government, have the Seanad choose it or something.

or just pick a 63 year old registered voter at random.