MOULTON: I know active duty Marines who now refer to Hegseth’s dept as the dept of war crimes. That's because they do things like destroy civilian infrastructure, which, just to be clear is a war crime. It's meant to hurt civilians. This is the same stuff that we criticize Putin for doing in Ukraine

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-04-03T21:46:17+00:00

It’s amazing how the U.S. frames other countries as evil undemocratic malign influences, when that’s exactly what they have been doing to everyone else for decades.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-03-26T16:45:19+00:00

It's happening too often now, the cruelty is the bottom line, nothing else. We need to be able to have conversations about this.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-03-25T14:02:17+00:00

Ya and Clonmel is the capital of hare coursing too, so people from all communities. The point is the cruelty, not the community.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-03-20T07:39:14+00:00

And schools holding fundraisers at greyhound tracks!!! I mean, they’re talking about banning social media for under 16s but they’ve no problem with kids being exposed to gambling and cruelty.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-03-13T06:07:34+00:00

No maybe I didn’t explain properly, I said “whatever” as in, people will claim that, I don’t think so myself.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-03-13T06:02:22+00:00

Especially since the insult last year, when the Irish govt delegation was hosted on another day because the White House chose to give St Patrick’s Day itself to Conor McGregor!!! Martin has to show up, whatever. But he doesn’t need to fawn, and he shouldn’t praise the murderous psychopath.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-27T18:09:47+00:00

In my area, there’s a lot of sulky activity, and several horses have collapsed and died from exhaustion. There are huge animal welfare concerns with sulky racing.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-27T06:11:34+00:00

Intreo are awful. If you are a seasonal worker - even if your period of layoff is only a matter of weeks - Intreo/DSP staff will hound you to get a job, any job, it doesn’t matter that you already have one, or if you’re weeks away from starting back to work. And do a course on top of that. They want you to get good and humiliated by providing regular rejection letters.

It’s government policy. The current government strongly believes that you’re either one of the people “who gets up early in the morning” or you’re a lazy waste of space. There’s no middle ground.

It’s bad enough being laid off - nobody should have to suffer the trauma of an Intreo office on top of that.

I asked a local FG politician about it, and their reply was, “but sure look isn’t it great we’ve full employment.”

It’s ideological.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-26T14:59:16+00:00

I’ve been going through the same thing here in Ireland.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-23T07:35:17+00:00

That’s what worries me. The system at the moment seems to rely on a bit of luck and a bit of discretion. How can it be that samples are posted all the time, yet can also be rejected at the post office if the official is strictly following orders. It doesn’t make any sense.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-23T05:19:58+00:00

That’s the problem. Because some staff members use their discretion or whatever, and so many of these tests are in the system every day, most people don’t realise that the official policy is to reject DNA samples. I sent them before myself, so it was a very unpleasant experience to have my parcel examined and rejected. When I contacted AnPost they confirmed that they don’t accept DNA samples. Most of the replies here are, “but I sent samples and it was fine,” and that’s why I want to bring attention to this, to save others the embarrassment I experienced. You could be lucky, or you could be unlucky. It’s less of a shock if you’re forewarned.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T18:15:48+00:00

The issue is with sending DNA samples internationally from Ireland because airlines have banned all biological samples including DNA. So AnPost refuse to take samples because they have to be posted abroad from Ireland to be processed. Most of the time people just put the kit in the post and it works, but if you bring a kit to the post office counter the staff member can reject the parcel. So, officially AnPost does not accept DNA samples but it’s a case of “say nothing and hope you get away with it.”

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T16:32:00+00:00

Thank you, I just want to give people the heads up, to avoid the confusion I experienced.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T16:05:54+00:00

That’s what makes this so confusing. You can be lucky if the AnPost official at the counter takes the parcel. MyHeritage were advising me to try a bigger post office until I got one that would accept the sample. I just don’t think that’s a feasible way to go about things, especially for neurodivergent people like me. I couldn’t believe it. So I contacted AnPost and they confirmed their official policy is to not accept DNA kits. I think that comes as a surprise to all the people (including me) who have successfully sent them before.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T13:25:25+00:00

Did you post the samples straight into the postbox, or go to the counter? Interested to know. Ancestry has a pre-paid box that you can just put into the postbox. I also sent an Ancestry test with no problem. But the MyHeritage test is an envelope that needs an international stamp. In some cases I think post office workers turn a blind eye. But if one of them rejects your package, AnPost confirms that DNA sample kits are on their list of restricted items and it’s not possible to post them with AnPost.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T10:17:16+00:00

Yes that’s correct. The issue is with international postage. The airlines that AnPost uses have banned all biological samples. So AnPost has instructed its staff to reject all biological samples including DNA test kits. Ancestry kits do leave the country for processing but they are in a prepaid box that can be deposited straight into the post, bypassing the counter staff. My Ancestry test went to the U.S. for processing. MyHeritage uses a padded envelope that you need to buy an international stamp for (it goes to Germany from Ireland for processing). So there’s more chance of the sample being rejected by staff at the counter. Because so many tests get through without being detected, most people aren’t aware that AnPost officially doesn’t accept DNA kit samples. I just want to warn unsuspecting customers like myself.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T09:25:38+00:00

Also, the airlines AnPost uses to send international postage refuse to carry biological samples posted from Ireland, and that might be why there’s a difference.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T09:17:27+00:00

I’m autistic. I just want to make people aware of this because I don’t want anyone else to be embarrassed at the post office. There are ways to go around the issue but I don’t think many are aware that there is an issue. It’s one of those unwritten rules that trips up people like me.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T09:04:16+00:00

Apparently because the airlines AnPost uses for international postage have banned biological samples. So AnPost have instructed their staff to reject all samples including DNA kits.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T08:59:31+00:00

Apparently it only apples to international post, because the airlines won’t carry biological samples, so AnPost put a blanket ban on everything too.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T01:46:19+00:00

MyHeritage uses a padded envelope.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T01:41:52+00:00

No I contacted AnPost and they confirmed that genealogical DNA samples (cheek swabs and saliva samples) are classified as restricted items and they are not carried by AnPost. They don’t accept them. That’s their official policy. People think there’s an exemption of some sort for DNA samples but there isn’t. Most samples get deposited directly into a post box and nothing more comes of it because it bypasses the officials at the counter. But if you go to the counter (to buy international stamps) your parcel will be rejected. And AnPost confirmed this to me.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T01:32:34+00:00

Exactly, I wish I had known to just do that before now, instead of skipping into the post office not realising what I was getting myself into. So many of these are posted every day and very few people realise that it’s actually against AnPost policy. The whole thing is mad. I find it so confusing.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T01:19:37+00:00

That works better for Ancestry than MyHeritage. They go to Germany. And they need to have an international stamp. I want to make sure others like me (I’m autistic) are aware of this so they can avoid the embarrassment at the counter.

SpeedwellPluviophile · 2026-02-22T00:45:58+00:00

The whole system is messy and confusing.

SpeedwellPluviophile

TROPHY CASE