We now live in a world where a pregnant woman can be charged with manslaughter for getting shot five times, as another incredibly-rich corrupt leader declares the death of liberalism while posing as a 'man of the people.'

Over here, I sense the silly season on the horizon while reading about a flap over the new Central Bank governor and a source-free account of An Post unions being criticised over the closure of the company's Cork sorting office. 

There's a cautionary tale for those who fail to report their political lobbying activities, and a Tusla board member has resigned over the child and family agency's lack of interest in education.

Elsewhere, you can read about attacks on health workers, the Siptu hospital row, which is heading for the Labour Court, or a Journal poll that's recording big public support for a four-day week. You can vote here.

And I've been catching up on my reading after our many conferences. I can report that Dorian Lynskey's autobiography of George Orwell's 1984 is strangely uplifting, in as much as it reveals that the 'alternative facts' aspect of modern political populism is nothing new (and has previously been overcome).

It's a point underlined in today's Zen, which celebrates American anarchist Emma Goldman's birthday yesterday. Taken from the epic 1981 film Reds, here's Maureen Stapleton as Goldman remonstrating over the Russian revolution with Warren Beatty's John Reed. Stapleton rightly got an Oscar for best supporting actress.

See you Monday.

Bernard