Joe Gallagher
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joedgallagher.bsky.social
Joe Gallagher
@joedgallagher.bsky.social
810 followers 460 following 85 posts
🚩 | disability justice | football data scientist | former evolutionary biologist | #LFC legacy fan
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joedgallagher.bsky.social
anyone who knows opsec / data protection law tell if this is legal for an employer to ask employees to allow in order to connect to a VPN when WFH (UK)? verbal promise given from IT that it they won't try to access devices but no legal docs provided
Chrome pop-up: "<REDACTED> wants to look for and connect to any device on your local network: Block or Allow"
October 30, 2025 at 10:59 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
don't repeat the same trite apologia of British vassalage as 20 years ago: the British State is not a 'lapdog' being 'dragged into war'—it is a vicious imperialist entity, obviously less *effective* at waging war than it was 50-100 years ago but its objectives are unchanged
book cover: "Debunking the Myth of America's Poodle: Great Britain Wants War" by Nu'man Abd Al-Wahid
June 22, 2025 at 9:05 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
The wife of Palestine’s national team former goalkeeper Abdullah Shaqfa has been killed in an Israeli attack on tents in Al-Mawasi, Gaza.

A footballer mourning his wife under the rubble. If he wasn’t Palestinian, this would be all over the news.

(RT @/leylahamed on twitter)
June 22, 2025 at 9:04 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
whose side are you on?
@realDonaldTrump: "ARREST THE PEOPLE IN FACE MASKS, NOW!"
June 10, 2025 at 7:54 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
"Remember, NO MASKS!"
@realDonaldTrump: "Governor Gavin Newscum and "Mayor" Bass should apologize to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job that they have done, and this now includes the ongoing L.A. riots. These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists. Remember, NO MASKS!"
June 9, 2025 at 4:58 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
Yousef Al-Najjar of Al-Mohtareffen Academy is just one of 371 footballers in Gaza killed by Israel in the last 20 months including almost 100 children

how can Israel STILL compete in UEFA and FIFA competitions when both orgs decided to suspend Russia within FOUR DAYS of their invasion of Ukraine?!
June 9, 2025 at 4:54 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
As a reader it is easy to feel confused or powerless: if this has continued for so long, what can I possibly do? As global citizens, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves about Kashmir, listen to Kashmiri voices, learn from their experiences, and unequivocally condemn the ongoing occupation and human rights abuses against the Kashmiri people. Beyond this, we must also celebrate the rich beauty of Kashmiri culture, whether through its cuisine, poetry, intricate embroidery, or breathtaking landscapes, and give credit where it is due. Amidst all the hardship, we must remember that Kashmiris continue to endure with resilience and find moments of joy. Above all, the Kashmiri people persist in their unwavering struggle for liberation and justice and for the right to decide their future for themselves, as declared by Ameer, who is part of the POK diaspora: “Colonialism stole our right to decide our future, but our identity fuels our fight for a sovereign, united Kashmir where all Kashmiris – Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, or Buddhist – can live as one.”
June 7, 2025 at 9:15 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), enforced in areas deemed “disturbed,” allows the military to arrest without a warrant, search homes without judicial oversight, and use lethal force, all with complete legal immunity. Further legal tools like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) further entrench this climate of fear. The act allows the government to detain individuals for extended periods without trial or bail. It is frequently used against Kashmiris whether it be human rights activists such as Khurram Parvez, now detained for three and a half years, or for sometimes for nothing more than voicing support for independence online. This systemic violence alters the trajectories of people’s lives and development. Life under these conditions is marked by constant surveillance. Kashmir has experienced years of curfews and lockdowns, and what has been described as the world’s first mass blinding campaign. Indian forces fired pellet guns at civilians, often aiming at the face, leaving Kashmiris, including children, permanently blind. Enforced disappearances and unmarked mass graves have become tragically familiar. The term “half-widow” originated in Kashmir to describe women whose husbands were taken by the state and never seen again, leaving them without closure or recognition. As always, the consequences fall on ordinary Kashmiris. These laws have fundamentally disrupted the paths of their daily lives and futures, yet the Kashmiris I spoke to, like Alina from IOK, continue to persist. “Memories of my childhood in Kashmir still leave me speechless. At times, I find myself in denial about the harsh reality of life back home. It shouldn’t be like that; suppressed, surveilled, as though you are suffocating,” she shared.
June 7, 2025 at 9:15 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
“People often want me to pick between India and Pakistan,” they say, “but my answer is neither. I choose independence. It’s a view held by many Kashmiris, but we are never given it as an option.” After the first war, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution in 1948 calling for a plebiscite vote in Jammu and Kashmir to allow its people to decide their future: whether to join India or Pakistan. 77 years later, this plebiscite has never been held. Three wars have occurred, and borders have been created, changed, and moved to split families in half, with the most recent ‘border’, being the Line of Control imposed in 1972 . For decades, IOK has remained the world’s most militarised zone, with Indian troops continuing to pour in. If the state considered it an ordinary part of its territory, such a heavy military presence wouldn’t be necessary. The contradiction speaks for itself: this is not integration; it’s occupation. When I asked what connects Kashmir to colonialism, Bassam – from IOK and currently in Srinagar – tells me: “The struggle of Kashmiris is a struggle for dignity amongst countries that refuse to see them beyond their geopolitical utility. That is theft. Theft is colonialism.”
June 7, 2025 at 9:15 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
We see this in headlines like “Calm returns to Kashmir” following the announcement of a ceasefire. While many Kashmiris are glad their identity isn’t reduced to conflict, calling an ongoing occupation “calm” is deeply misleading. This narrative persists because media coverage overlooks the daily realities of life in one of the most heavily militarised regions in the world. Kashmir stands at a critical juncture, revealing deeper fractures in the global order. If the media began treating Kashmiris as a people in their own right, giving space to speak against occupation, who might be emboldened next? Because occupation and state violence are not isolated to Kashmir: they are tools used globally to silence the marginalised. Our struggles are linked, and the fight for one people’s freedom is part of the fight for collective liberation. “Kashmir challenges the idea of nationhood,” says Aqsa, a member of the POK diaspora. “In the Eastern world, our countries weren’t originally based on the concept of nation-states; this was later imposed on us via colonialism and the struggle for independence.” They continue: “Kashmir is a clear example of how forcing borders on people fails. It remains a key example of colonialism in the subcontinent and a lasting wound from the British Empire in South Asia.”
June 7, 2025 at 9:15 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
and here's it compared to the PFA / "Hublot" Young Player of the Season winners

no more 23 y.o. Bale or Sterling, no Haaland in his 4th full season, room for Caicedo last year without giving it to Foden a 2nd time in 21/22
May 30, 2025 at 12:20 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
fun variation of Breakout Player of the Season for the last 14 PL seasons:

✅ players <21 at start of season
✅ 1500+ mins in season
✅ no previous breakout seasons Big 5 leagues
✅ can only win the award once
May 30, 2025 at 11:51 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
alternative: 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰/𝟮𝟱

eligibility:
✅ <=21 y.o. at start of season
✅ 1500+ minutes
✅ first 1500+ minute season in a top tier league
May 26, 2025 at 9:05 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
May 24, 2025 at 1:28 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
May 24, 2025 at 1:28 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
May 24, 2025 at 1:27 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
nice Marxist analysis of "AI" and discussion of resistance strategies, some quotes in this thread
May 24, 2025 at 1:27 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
KILL THE BILL NOT THE ILL
a close up on about a dozen protestors holding signs like "kill the bill not the ill" and "assist us in living not dying" and a prop gravestone with the words "RIP strictest safeguards in the world"
May 16, 2025 at 10:51 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
"Assisted dying is a class issue… As long as we live in a world where certain groups of people are devalued […] it will never be safe to legalise assisted suicide, because no safeguard can protect against the abuse that will happen." Assisted dying can never be guaranteed as a truly voluntary act of suicide in any State which first neglects assisting people to live. For many it will be coercive euthanasia, an expansion of quotidian violence targeting vulnerable bodies. Manufacturing the deaths of minorities labelled ‘economically inactive’ or a ‘burden’ is not about their freedom of choice, but the State’s freedom to practice social murder and eugenics.
May 15, 2025 at 6:17 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
The fact that the majority of criticism in mainstream media is coming from conservative and Christian outlets represents an abject failure of progressive organisations. Opposing this isn’t even controversial amongst the general public: a recent poll found 62% of people think legalising assisted dying is “too complex and polarised for MPs to decide at short notice”. Silence on this issue (or, worse yet, misplaced support for it) is an example of the general refusal to engage with disability and address internal ableism in our organisations—the most obvious recent example being the denial of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and abandonment of those who continue to be killed, maimed, and segregated by it. There needs to be much more engagement with, support for, and accessibility made available to disabled people and disability organisations.
May 15, 2025 at 6:17 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
Budgeting death: Leadbeater and Minister of Health and Social Care Stephen Kinnock have both confirmed the private provision of VAD will be permitted, allowing the NHS to outsource VAD (like everything else) to private companies that will run the service for profit—inevitably incentivising death over life-affirming treatments. Somehow this is combined in the worst way possible with simultaneous confirmation that VAD is considered ‘medical treatment’ and thereby in the remit of the NHS. It is jarring to see the Bill propose amending the very first clause of the 1946 National Health Service Act, which is: “It shall be the duty of the Minister of Health [...] to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of England and Wales and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness”. Post-amendment, the NHS will, legislatively, become the “national health and assisted suicide service”.
May 15, 2025 at 6:17 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
We need to acknowledge that even if the most widely accessible version of this Bill passes, hundreds of thousands of people will still continue to die painful deaths each year—whether they try to access VAD or not—unless we increase funding for palliative care. We need to improve healthcare and social welfare. A key distinction between the UK and Canada is that 78% of people who requested assisted deaths there received palliative care, likely a much higher figure than would be the case in the UK. 80% of polled Scottish palliative care doctors were concerned that VAD would have a negative impact on the provision of palliative care. And with due reason: palliative care physicians were not involved in the care of over 65% of patients receiving euthanasia in Belgium, and were consulted in just 12% of euthanasia applications.
May 15, 2025 at 6:16 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
Leadbeater's 'voluntary assisted dying' (VAD) bill will receive its final vote by MPs on Friday 16th, here's just some of the 326 amendments that the committee rejected:

❌ diabetes, eating disorders, Down’s syndrome, or “feeling like a burden” will not be sufficient conditions for VAD
A poster by "Dignity In Dying" featuring a white woman in her 30s/40s dancing energetically with a smile on her face, saying: "My dying wish is my family won't see me suffer; and I won't have to"
May 11, 2025 at 10:04 AM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
Leadbeater's Bill is the 18th time by my count that a euthanasia or assisted suicide bill has been proposed in UK or Scottish parliament. also the 8th in the last decade and the 3rd just in the last year.
1931: Voluntary Euthanasia Bill for ‘incurable invalids’ proposed by Dr C. Killick Millard, the President of the Society of Medical Officers of Health (denied) 1936: Voluntary Euthanasia (Legalisation) Bill proposed by Baron Ponsonby (denied) 1969: Voluntary Euthanasia Bill proposed by Lord Raglan (denied) 1976: Incurable Patients Bill proposed by Baroness Wootton (denied) 1997: Doctor Assisted Dying Bill proposed by Labour MP Joe Ashton (denied) 2003: Patient (Assisted Dying) Bill proposed by Lord Joffe (denied) 2004: Bill (Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill) by Lord Joffe again (denied) 2005: Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill by Lord Joffe again (denied) 2006: Assisted Dying Bill proposed by Lord Joffe again (denied) 2009: End of Life Assistance Bill proposed in Scottish Parliament by Independent MSP Margo Macdonald (denied) 2014: Assisted Dying Bill proposed by Lord Falconer (denied) 2015: Assisted Dying Bill proposed by Labour MP Rob Marris (denied) 2016: Assisted Dying Bill proposed by Conservative peer Lord Hayward (denied) 2020: Assisted Dying Bill proposed by Lord Falconer again (denied) 2021: Assisted Dying Bill proposed by Baroness Meacher (denied) Mar 2024: Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill proposed in Scottish Parliament by MSP Liam McArthur (ongoing) Jul 2024: Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill proposed by Lord Falconer again (ongoing) Nov 2024: Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater (ongoing)
February 4, 2025 at 1:49 PM
joedgallagher.bsky.social
meanwhile Alisson has a 13% (3/23) penalty save rate for Liverpool 👀
November 29, 2024 at 9:10 AM