Tuesday: Crazy
Come on now, who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are,
Ha ha ha bless your soul
You really think you’re in controlWell, I think you’re crazy
I think you’re crazy
I think you’re crazy
Just like me
— excerpt, Crazy by Gnarls Barkley
Why’d I pick this song today? Oh, no reason. Just kind of popped into my head while I was reading through my aggregators.
Ahem. Anyhow…not much time again today, lot of hurry-up-and-wait stuff demanding my time.
Turkey curry buffet
- Absolutely insane number of educators, ministry officials, police, more sacked by government (ConflictNews) — More than 45,500 people fired or ordered to resign, largest number of which are educators. You can call me crazy all you want, but this is the real coup underway. What the hell is Erdoğan planning to do with the people he’s cleansing from their jobs across the entire country? Nothing more yet about Erdoğan on death penalty for putschists.
- RIPE Network Coordination Centre analyzed Turkey’s internet traffic volume during coup attempt (RIPE) — Looks like telcos throttled traffic independently by roughly 50%, and not a single, centralized government function. Explains the hit-or-miss quality of access reported.
- Wikileaks announced they would release government emails today (Wikileaks) — However they are currently reporting attacks on their site.
- Tick-tock of the coup events (The Guardian) — “It was incredibly well organised actually…It could have succeeded,” said prime minister Binali Yıldırım’s senior adviser, Cemalettin Haşimi. Sure. Right. There were so many damned holes — key being the F-16s which did not force Erdoğan’s plane out of the air away from Turkey — there’s no way it ever had a chance.
- Turkey’s pressure on Kurds increasing (Guernica) — Observations by activists of the Kurdish movement struggling for self-determination under Turkey’s increasing authoritarianism.
Quick lap around the track
- BREXIT: IMF cuts UK’s growth forecast (The Guardian) — Really, what the hell did the Leavers expect? Put the brain trust and creative sector into a tailspin as so many are immigrants, and ask them to sustain or expand growth? Completely unrealistic.
- US-UK RELATIONS: Presser today with Johnson and Kerry (The Guardian) — You watch it. I can’t even with that lying hack Johnson — he spun more crap right to journos’s faces. And nobody takes these two to task over most recent bombings in Syria or Yemen.
- ZIKA: CDC studying unusual case of UT caretaker infected by Zika (CDC.gov) — The elderly Utah man who died of Zika recently somehow infected his caretaker with the virus without sexual contact. Mosquitoes may have been involved, but UT isn’t home to known carriers Aedes aegypti and albopictus species. The deceased, however, had a viral load 100,000 times greater than the average Zika patient. What?!
- EARTHQUAKES: Earthquake swarm continues in San Benito County, California (NBC Bay Area) — 24 quakes in 24 hours based on report published about two hours ago. The affected area is west of Silicon Valley and the San Andreas fault line.
- POLICE REFORMS: Hire more women: one of several known solutions to police racism and abuse (Yes! Magazine) — Take note of the gender of police accused and charged with abuse and killing of unarmed civilians. Body cameras, greater diversity matching community, and openness to research also included in solutions.
That’s all I have time for now. See you tomorrow!
It is a question of what Erdogan can do going forward. I do not see NATO tolerating an intolerant religious state even if that state is highly suspicious of Putin’s Russia (Orthodox and historical issues). I still would guess if the NATO support is lacking, then Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudis, Kuwaitis, etc.) support would keep Erdogan in power. Now, if the goal of NATO is to deny Russia access to the Mediterranean except as constrained by the 1936 Montreux Convention they would consider letting Erdogan into a looser orbit, nominally NATO but not close. If NATO wants closer coordination without the political problem of allowing exposed coordination with terrorist supporters, Erdogan would have to be reigned in which may cause problems with his local mullahs.
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On Brexit I still find it interesting that the advisory vote without an actual concrete action can cause such silliness. Now, will this be used to create an excuse to ignore the vote? I’m guessing it will once the brains of the Tory caucus come up with the rationale between the IMF report and the independence threat of Scotland.
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Having lived in earthquake country for many years swarms are nothing really new or unusual as it would be in, for example, Oklahoma or Kansas. Now, if this continues for some extended period, it could be a precursor to something big. Pay attention to stuff coming from Parkfield which is a little south of this group, since that is where the San Andreas fault is most monitored and regular (and a little overdue). LA is more likely to get their next “Big One” before the SF Bay Area, it has been longer for them and IIRC there is a locked section in the vicinity.
That’s one theory. At the moment it’s not very clear what May’s game is. She does seem to be playing for time until a strategy emerges as she seems to be in a bit of a pickle. I don’t think the EU can possibly grant what Brexiters promised: which is all the benefits of the EU with none of the costs. They also seem to think they can strike lots of wonderful trade deals with the rest of the world. The fact that they have no trade negotiators and very little leverage to strike good deals doesn’t seems to have struck them as a problem. The loss of Scotland also seems quite likely in the event of Brexit and quite possibly Northern Ireland (although latter is complicated). So any sane person would want out of having to do Brexit. On the other hand a large chunk of the population will be very mad with her and the Tories if they don’t do Brexit and UKIP will attract more voters. It’s also unclear how long the other EU countries will put up with this bullshit. They’ve put up with decades of it so far.
I think the longer this goes on, the higher the price demanded by the rest of the EU to let the UK leave will be. Even though France and Germany would dominate the discussion, all members have to approve the terms if I remember correctly.
Also, fracking is done in many parts of California, so another root cause for such a swarm could be noted.
On other crazy items, WTFrack is going on with the Trump campaign that would allow his wife to be humiliated on the international stage for plagiarizing Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech? Manafort blamed Hillary, of course, after backtracking from Melania writing her own speech to saying there was team of speechwriters who were nameless (of course) and would suffer condign punishment for letting Hillary telepathically influence the narrative.
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The RNC in Cleveland is a trainwreck on the first day, and I saw a report that Fox cut away from Pat Smith (one of the Benghazi victims’ mother) to give Trump more camera time. So, while I can certainly sympathize with Ms. Smith’s need to blame someone for her son’s murder, she needed to look at why the funding for security was cut off by the Republicans in Congress.
Mrs Smith apparently is in need of help. (I also heard she’s actually the stepmother.)
Even better, one of the Benghazi guys had his fly unzipped during his ramble through alternate history.
The earthquake swarm is south of Hollister, well south of Silicon Valley. USGS/SCEC is calling them ‘south of Ridgemark’, or about where the Hayward/Calaveras faults split from the San Andreas.
Still not unusual, the San Andreas moves there, in the vicinity of San Juan Bautista as well as other areas one can see the creep of the fault, which also manifests itself with swarms. That’s why most here are looking for the adjustment expected in the vicinity of Parkfield (and this is closer than what I expected from the graphic). Since quakes there have been fairly regular in Parkfield over the years, the USGS and its colleagues have put many instruments into the area to try and scientifically determine precursors that could give time to alert people in time to seek shelter.
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Back in the 70s and 80s, we had a geologist in Santa Clara County that engaged in predictions of quakes that were more correlated than the scientific methods used then. I forget the name, but IIRC he used a method based on lunar phases and other items similar to biorhythms. While generally ridiculed he was more accurate, keeping in mind that at that time earthquake prediction accuracy was a very low bar to go over.
There’s a lot of ‘creep’ between Parkfield and Hollister. At the south end, most of the activity seems to be along the San Jacinto fault and around San Bernardino, but it’s nearly all onesy-twosy.
100,000 x “normal” virus load, WTF? That’s bigger than the Ebola viral explosion in later stages that makes it so deadly contagious. Reports keep saying he had other underlying disease. Guess we can infer that his immune system was profoundly compromised. Hard to believe there are not other infections beyond the related caretaker diagnosed so far both in the home and hospital.
But, where did the old man get Zika from? That seems to be the root problem here, since he did not travel recently to Brazil and there are no transmitter mosquitos in Utah. So, either he was infected some time ago (which may also explain the viral load, but why did it appear just now in that case?), the caretaker got it from somewhere else (if the old guy’s immune system was compromised, it’s possible the caretaker had it first but their immune system was more effective), or there is another transmission method.
100,000. That’s a big and scary number. But how significant (medically) is the “100,000x” factor? When I get a plain old virus, and I am sick in bed for a few days as a result, is my viral load 100,000x what it would ordinarily be (assuming I always carry it, at an extremely low level, as I do many, many pathogens)? If 1x of Zika is enough to damage someone, then is it significant to that person’s health that 100,000x is present? Or, if someone has 100,000x load of a virus, is she 100,000x more contagious? It does seem (to this ignorant layman) that it may be an issue with the immune system, not with the virus itself. I’d be curious to see if anyone backtracks on this in the coming weeks.
“BREXIT: IMF cuts UK’s growth forecast (The Guardian) — Really, what the hell did the Leavers expect? Put the brain trust and creative sector into a tailspin as so many are immigrants, and ask them to sustain or expand growth? Completely unrealistic.”
I read this as accepting the view of the IMF without question. If I am wrong I apologize right now. The statements of Lagarde and her IMF are without credibility after how she and the institution acted and still acts toward Greece. Greece with Lagarde’s and the IMF’s full participation stripped Greece of its democracy because repayment of German banks is more valuable than democracy.
These institutions and the people who run them are corrupt to the core. Whatever pronouncements they might make are geared to protect great wealth.
Continuing to give credibility to Imperial apparatchiks is not the way forward.
Concur. Maybe the 95% of Britons who are not “brain trust and creative sector” are getting tired of everything being done to support those elites. Are they supposed to kowtow to them, waiting for the “trickle down effect” to drop some crumbs their way? Why would we expect people to vote to maintain the same economic conditions that have seemingly made life worse for them year after year, decade after decade? I will be the first to admit that I have no answers, but wasn’t it Albert Einstein who defined Insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”? And by the way, “Remain” made no coherent, convincing argument for staying.
While I concur with the opinion of the IMF being run by “Austerians” to use Paul Krugman’s term and their generally destructive policies, I also think Rayne’s conclusion is likewise correct. All this really does in my view is prove the point that the Brexiteers were wrong-headed snake oil peddlers. Markets generally do not like uncertainty, and just like most people, investors are less likely to invest until they are satisfied they know the true picture. All the IMF did was point that out knowing that the “confidence fairy” (another PK term) would not look kindly upon delays caused by customs restrictions caused by closed borders.
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During the ongoing refugee crisis, we see these effects in the Schengen zone as some of the countries (Hungary comes to mind) restricted free movement and radically raised costs, so I think in this case the IMF may actually be correct about the problem, but would probably be wrong about how to fix it.
“Markets generally do not like uncertainty.” The US indices are at record highs, and FTSE is almost at a 12-month high. So, here’s an instance of “not generally”?
Recall what happened the day after the Brexit vote, so I stand by my point here. Once the markets realized nothing has actually changed yet, they recovered very quickly. If you pay attention this is one of those things that will occur 9 times out of ten.
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When the overhead (customs, etc.) cost for transiting a border goes from zero (pre-Brexit) to something more than zero, there are fewer profits to be had, just do the math. I had mentioned the refugee crisis since (IIRC) VW sourced some of their critical parts in Slovakia and had to address the customs costs (for proof of whatever the Austrians and Hungarians wanted) as well as the cost of the delays for their just-in-time lean manufacturing operation that created scheduling havoc. This leads to stuff piling up and waiting around (which has to be stored and may have a limited shelf life), etc., which leads to real money when totaled up. So, as I said, the IMF is correct about the problem. Brexit isn’t the solution, because the so-called benefits have been admitted to be illusory and the actual costs ignored.
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This is also before knowing what the actual price will be to exit, which given the German, French, Scottish and Irish inputs will be well above zero cost, and the UK does not have the leverage now to force a good enough deal to make the evolution worth the havoc.
Recall what happened the day after the Brexit vote, so I stand by my point here. Once the markets realized nothing has actually changed yet, they recovered very quickly. If you pay attention this is one of those things that will occur 9 times out of ten.
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When the overhead (customs, etc.) cost for transiting a border goes from zero (pre-Brexit) to something more than zero, there are fewer profits to be had, just do the math. I had mentioned the refugee crisis since (IIRC) VW sourced some of their critical parts in Slovakia and had to address the customs costs (for proof of whatever the Austrians and Hungarians wanted) as well as the cost of the delays for their just-in-time lean manufacturing operation that created scheduling havoc. This leads to stuff piling up and waiting around (which has to be stored and may have a limited shelf life), etc., which leads to real money when totaled up. So, as I said, the IMF is correct about the problem. Brexit isn’t the solution, because the so-called benefits have been admitted to be illusory and the actual costs ignored.
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This is also before knowing what the actual price will be to exit, which given the German, French, Scottish and Irish inputs will be well above zero cost, and the UK does not have the leverage now to force a good enough deal to make the evolution worth the havoc.
Good points you make, thank you.
“…the Brexiteers were wrong-headed snake oil peddlers. ”
All seventeen and a half million of them?
Or are we suggesting that the voters had no idea what they were doing when they turned down the advice of all the experts and the warnings of the economists under the hypnotic influence of Farage (a man who can’t win a seat in Parliament), Gove, one of the least popular men in the country and Johnson who has the reputation of being an amiable buffoon?
You might want to consider the remote possibility that the people, noting how badly they have fared under the EU, did what the electorates of every other country that has ever been asked (France, the Netherlands and Ireland for example) has done and voted against the Commission and its diktats.
I guess that you are a NAFTA supporter, however and just can’t wait for all the new jobs that the TPP and the TTIP are going to bring.
What is really frightening to the elite and those who serve or submit to them is that this vote was direct democracy, what they refer to as Mob Rule. They can’t rule a vulture capitalist system allowing decisions to be made by the people who are victims of their greed.
You are right. Rayne consistently reproduces the opinions of the IMF and other establishment organs, on this question.
The clear thread running through her analyses of this matter is a contempt for the working people of Britain, whom she evidently regards as incapable of managing their own economy without the guidance of wise foreigners.
“… Put the brain trust and creative sector into a tailspin as so many are immigrants, and ask them to sustain or expand growth? Completely unrealistic…”
The irony is that she regards the UK in much the same way that the British ruling class regarded its own empire, where the notion of popular opinion being heeded on important matters was a laughable heresy.
It would be interesting to learn from the experts when, if ever, they feel that the British people will be ready for self rule.
Perhaps it will be around the time when ordinary Americans are trusted to select their rulers without the supervision of the elite in the Beltway and its corporate masters.
What an occasion that will be for a party.
“You are right. Rayne consistently reproduces the opinions of the IMF and other establishment organs, on this question.
The clear thread running through her analyses of this matter is a contempt for the working people of Britain, whom she evidently regards as incapable of managing their own economy without the guidance of wise foreigners.”
Back that up with links and quotes from her previous posts, or apologize.
Orders do not normally work well on me. But I’ll make an exception in this case: all of Rayne’s remarks on the Brexit subject have made the point-which she has every right to make-that the majority were mistaken and probably motivated by fear of immigrants and the magic of right wing demagogy.
You can check the links for yourself. The apologies are due to the people who not only voted against EU rule but suffer under it and are told, by people who know little and care less about the matter, that it is all for their own good.
It being a programme of neo-liberal austerity of the kind that used to be known as the Washington consensus: working classes being crucified for creditors.
bevin,
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“consistently reproduces the opinions of the IMF and other establishment organs, on this question.
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The clear thread running through,” her/his, “analyses of this matter is a contempt for the working people of Britain, whom,” s/he, “evidently regards as incapable of managing their own economy without the guidance of wise foreigners.”
“cal·um·ny
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ˈkaləmnē
noun
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the making of false and defamatory statements in order to damage someone’s reputation; slander.
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synonyms: slander, defamation (of character), character assassination, libel; More
a false and slanderous statement.”
“Back that up with links and quotes from her previous posts, or apologize.”
Second request.
I send emptywheel $240/year.
How much do you send?
Yes. this is not a place for ad hominem attacks. As far as I am concerned, she raises topics, and we discuss. Period.
That is, no need to personalize it. Just discuss the topic.
And exactly what genius is it that you bring to this discussion? Don’t be a dick to your host.
“key being the F-16s which did not force Erdoğan’s plane out of the air away from Turkey”. I agree that is significant. But how do we know that is actually true? Where is that information sourced from?
Look a little more closely at what the IMF is saying. The article first says that Brexit will slow the British economy. Then it says that it has thrown a spanner in the works” of the global recovery.
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Well first, we all know that the global economy sucks and is expected to suck for a long time—especially for the 90+% suffering from income inequality. Don’t blame that on Brexit.
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Then the article says: “The IMF predicted global growth of 3.1% in 2016 and 3.4% in 2017, both of which are 0.1 points lower than forecast in April. [Gee, that’s a huge drop, for sure] Britain is still expected to be the second-fastest growing economy in the G7 this year, behind the US, despite having its growth forecast for 2016 trimmed by 0.2 percentage points to 1.7%. [Such a terrible plight for Britain, no?
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Better counsel for now: Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
And now it’s Megyn Kelly (reportedly) accusing Roger Ailes of sexual harassment. Why do I believe that? I wonder if men will ever stop that. I mean, I thought white/black racism would disappear a few generations after, say, the civil Rights Act, but with the increased separation/segregation of black/white (along with blue/red and rich/poor), that doesn’t seem to be happening.
I saw that report as well on the ‘net. I think this dooms Ailes in Rupert-land because now two stars are pointing fingers. This will be a gold mine for Gretchen’s suit as well since a documented pattern has been established.
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Buh-bye, Roger….
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Racism will exist as long as fear of others exists, and unfortunately there is too much money to be made by the Murdochs of the world for them to stop stoking it.
rugger9 @2:30 They know where he got it, Puerto Rico. He brought it back to Utah. It was 100k times the viral load of a “normal” person sick with Zika. It was a profound load of virus. That’s why I suggested we could infer there was something bad wrong with his immune system.
I saw a report this morning that Hannity, Greta and O’ Lielly might bolt Fox News because they feel Murdoch is not doing enough to help Roger Ailes. I’m sure the staff meetings with Megyn are highly entertaining now that she backed Gretchen. I don’t see how Faux survives if this is true, because O’ Lielly is the highest rated show they have, and none of the others remaining would have the following (or the intellectual heft, e.g. Doocy and Kilmeade) to replace these three. Whether someone like Limpbaugh would try to resurrect his career (still toxic after the continuing Sandra Fluke controversy) or some unknown “talent” will surface.
I agree but they may be just as happy to say that no price is worth them staying. Westminster may try to back out of Brexit but the EU says fine, Scotland and Northern Ireland can stay if they so vote (i.e. for independence and reunification respectively), and what’s left can fuck-off because we’ve had way too much of your Rule Britannia nonsense over the decades. Westminster seems to be delusional about the strength of its negotiating position.
blueba (2:08) — Look, I could have told you BEFORE the referendum the growth forecast would be flat and possibly negative for all the reasons I’ve already shared in other posts. IMF only reaches same conclusion whether you like them or not. Uncertainty, brain drain, and increased costs to conduct business between regions are the biggest and most obvious factors. This isn’t rocket science; it’s only a step above Econ 101. And so far I see zero in any of your opinions to persuade me to trust your judgment on business let alone growth. Step up your game.
rugger9 and P J Evans — I ran across an article within the last two days on forecasting earthquakes based on moon/tide/distance. I’ll have to look for it again. The one factor I think nobody is looking at for earthquake predictions is the change in earth surface and gravity due to polar ice cap loss. If mass has shifted from north pole in particular, we should see some different and unusual kinds of tectonic activity with a corresponding change in gravity. The earthquake swarm outside Hollister isn’t unexpected, but it’s not on the San Andreas, either. The troubling part is its proximity to global technology center — less than 60 miles distance between the center of the swarm and Silicon Valley.
bloopie2 (2:18) — Excellent question. How do we know for certain Erdoğan was even in the air?
rugger9 (2:30) — See CDC:
Deceased had traveled to area with Zika, but the CDC isn’t saying where to respect his family’s privacy. This could be very important since testing to date reveals a high rate of mutation in the Brazilian Zika cases versus other areas. Does this Utah case suggest one or another mutations at work encouraging ease of infection?
bloopie2 (2:30) — Remain made no coherent, convincing case?
1) Corbyn was juggling the white nationalists in his own ranks, so sat on his hands to avoid appearing like he supported their demands. He let the Tories shoot themselves in the foot. But as Labour’s head he was not responsible for Remain’s efforts. I know I shared here other Remain initiatives which tried.
2) Two biggest media outlets (The Sun, Daily Mail) both in the tank for Brexit and saturated the media with their fearmongering. Like trying to make a reasoned argument in the U.S. against the onslaught of FOX News’ 7/24 hate fest backed up by CNN’s copycatting combined with amplification across Facebook.
Come on, get real here. Look in our own backyard at the number of people supporting Trump and why; you’ll see the very same problems with trying to make a coherent, convincing case against him.
bevin (2:58) — I live in Michigan. I’ve been here for most of my life through the Reagan Democrats’ (now GOP-lite) persistent votes against their own interests as they supported right-wing hatemongers who push God/guns/anti-gay agendas in order to assure their fascist aims. I don’t respect that, and I won’t apologize for it. And I’d be ridiculously hypocritical to laud the working Welsh who voted for Brexit, damaging their aims to keep Tata Steel in Wales. Virtually identical to the ignorance of UAW voters who supported GOP in 1990-2000 and then lost their jobs as their industry was shipped overseas.
Tell me, since you clearly don’t respect my perspective: What do you think May and the Tories will promise to Tata Steel to keep them in Wales? I’ll bite my tongue here and wait for a coherent, convincing argument.
bevin (3:07) — 4 million Brexiteers signed a petition the next week after the referendum begging for a second chance to vote Remain. Google’s search data revealed the UK voters literally had no idea what they were voting for based on their last-minute and day-after searches. UK voters did not learn until the day after the vote that Farage et al had grossly misrepresented what would happen (ex: money sent to EU would be spent on NHS, which was an outright fabrication outlets like The Sun and Daily Mail made no effort to investigate or correct before the vote). Listening to Johnson and Farage is like listening to another populist fascist in the 1930s, who was democratically elected, too. But I suppose Hitler’s rise to power was okay, eh, because popular vote?
Your reliance on an online petition and especially Google for supposed facts about Brexit is hysterically funny. B over at MOA who is a German living in Germany voted in that petition so claiming it as proof Brexiteers had second thoughts is a stretch.
Using the ‘the fascists are coming’ scare tactic to cover for the authoritarian neo-fascists in Brussels may work on the feeble minded but most of the people in the UK know who is destroying their liberty and livelihood.
Funny. The real feeble-minded believe the guff in the Daily Mail, Sun, and Torygraph and as a result think it is everyone’s but the real culprits’ fault : the Tory Party, aided and abetted by the Labour Party, the undemocratic FPTP electoral system, and the the nonsense of the House of Lords. Whatever the faults of Brussels, they are nothing compared to those of the corrupt British establishment.
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Another perspective from Scotland: The Queen of Maybe”.
I think the Brexit vote was a direct rejection of these parties and UK elites who I also view as part of or servants of the Brussels cabal.
“Your reliance on,” absolutely nothing, “for,” claims, “about Brexit is hysterically funny.”
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Given the, “traceability,” argument you used against Rayne, “…B over at MOA…,” is more, “hysterical.”
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What’s, “MOA?” Who is, “B?” Can you provide a link?
Re your last comment to “bevin,”, exactly.
The people that will be most harmed by leaving the EU were harmed into wanting to leave it by Austerity Britain ™ policies imposed by the Tories and by the personal investment vehicle into which Tony Blair turned the Labor party. The campaign to leave was, in part, openly racist and lowest common denominator populist. There are good reasons to want to revise Britain’s relationship with the EU. But the hurt felt by the majority of Britons, and the false idea that leaving the EU would reduce it, was imposed by the establishment for its own purposes. Britain’s departure won’t change that; it will only make the hurt worse. Rethinking departure and holding a second referendum would help. It might also encourage Britons to rethink just what they want from Parliament. Theresa May’s drive to outdo Margaret Thatcher – who trebled the number of children living below the poverty line – might not be among them.
wayoutwest (3:39) — Choose the form of the destroyer. Oh, you prefer your own homegrown ignorant white Stapuft nationalists with bad teeth to a consortium of people who don’t share the same language or culture and who are so poorly organized they can’t force compliance with emissions standards after decades let alone agree on how to destroy your so-called liberty assured by GCHQ’s pervasive spying?
Knock yourself out, don’t let the door hit you in the ass. Just let the Scots go as you depart, take your fucking Trident monstrosity with you since you can apparently pay for that on your own.
As for Google: I’ll let my portfolio do the talking here. Apparently enough people ask that search engine questions to put my kids through college.
When metro Washington D.C. is a sea of construction cranes as far as the eye can see as a visible image of the oligarchy hegemony, I would think many US states would pull a Brexit if they could. Most people have personal experience with pseudo open borders here in the US and in England. The reduction in job opportunities and wages is real. The same forces behind an undemocratic European state are behind the TPP etc.
Do not underestimate populism. Someone said 9 times out of 10 populism brings you a Hitler or Mussolini. I wonder if for every racist who supports Trump how many support Trump only on the chance that he will not support the oligarchy.
earlofhuntingdon (7:59) — I normally don’t come back after 24 hours so I missed this. I’m just sick reading some of the stories about people hurt by Tories’ austerity. It just boggles my mind that children are going hungry in the UK, too. That crap happens here because of the GOP, not there, right? But no, I’ve been entirely wrong in my perspective of the UK’s ability to do better by its people. And Brexit is the ultimate smoke signal, burning it all down as a cry for help. Really past time we began to talk about alternatives to conservatism because it’s clearly failed.