Polder Dweller
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John Quincy Adams. A bit wiser than Mike Pompeo.
A bit wiser? I reckon there are baloney sandwiches that are wiser than Mike Pompeo.
Wow, Dr. D. I have to admit to being a bit of a searcher after doom porn from time to time, but your piece today about why takes the biscuit. Trouble is, I can’t fault your logic. I fear you’re right.
As for the Klee, thanks zerosum, you’ve allowed me to appreciate a work I would normally dismiss.
Our Lady
I was so saddened by the news today
I saw a venerable old lady smoking
How I had admired her special way
But now, full of fumes, she was chokingShe stood just as proud and grand as ever
As I watched a licking flame
Near a thousand years of quiet endeavour
Put our modern era to shameThe fire out, a smouldering wreck
The billionaires say they’ll repair her
What do they know with their money? Heck,
She’s not just some ugly skyscraper!She was the very heart and soul of Paris
Nay, of the whole of France
We’ll do what we can to fix her up, yes,
But restore her in full? Not a chanceA symbol of France having lost her way
It couldn’t be any more poignant
All the best has been allowed to decay
While the worst returns to the forefrontSomewhere I was still hoping against hope Corbijn would get his act together after missing more open brexit goals than the Barnstoneworth United striker.
Thanks Doc D for the summary and analysis of the summary and analysis. I particularly liked the Rachel Maddow superkut vid.
Couldn’t face the news yesterday, as RTL and NOS dismissed the whole thing, but not before reminding everyone that J had jumped bail on a rape charge. Today’s Daily Mail was beyond belief – not that I read that disgusting rag, mind you, but the Mrs read a tiny bit to me about J having bad habits, as if that is what this is about!!
Anyway, great piece, kudos for writing it, I only wish it would actually make a difference.
With you there about Brussels. That’s how most of the people on the European mainland see it, too, and why so few of us want to the deadline extended, it’s going to cost a fortune anway, so why prlong the agony. Their bed, they can lie on it.
Sir Humphrey explains Brexit: https://youtu.be/lFBgQpz_E80
For anyone who wanted to stop Brexit, this seemed the way out: show illegal activity. Plenty appears to be there, but it’s been swept under the carpet. Why hasn’t it been investigated much more?
It’s a question you can add to the list I wrote in response to the Demise of Democracy essay. The answer’s the same.
Well, it’s another good essay and yet there’s still something missing, there are simply way too many questions left unanswered.
Why didn’t Cameron insist on a 2/3 majority or at least 10% difference between remain and leave? Why did Farage, Johnson and Gove all run away when Leave won? Why did no “brexit champion” stand up to lead the country into its glorious future? Why did May (a remainer) get the job of leading the UK out of the EU? Why did Corbyn miss every open goal he ever saw? Why out of eight possible ways forward could not even one get the backing of a majority in the house of commons last night? Why is it not possible to hold a second referendum? Why doesn’t May out-cojone all the “men” she’s surrounded by and just revoke Article 50 in the nation’s best interest?
The truth is that real power is being wielded behind the scenes and that power has decided that a hard brexit is required – the UK must be broken away from the EU. As a theory it doesn’t answer all the questions, but watching this slow motion, avoidable, train wreck happen, convinces me there must be quite some truth in it.
Article 11, which would stop search engines from showing snippets of text from other websites
Seems my days of reading TAE are numbered ;C
Well, if I were the EU27, I’d offer May three options:
– 29 March,
– Mid May i.e. before the EU elections, or
– Three years’ time after the next general election in the UK.A wonderful essay, thank you for posting it.
I recently visited a rich town in the south west of England and saw for myself the juxtaposition of great wealth with abject poverty and homelessness. As I’ve said before on this forum – in agreement with Aston – the brexit genie will not go back in the bottle. Whether the UK remains in or leaves the EU is almost irrelevant now with the country as divided as it is. This division runs right through families and all other societal structures. My only hope now is that through all the chaos, which will most probably get much worse before it gets any better, the UK, quite possibly split up into independent states, rises, phoenix-like from the ashes with an entirely new paradigm, a new economic model, one which takes full account of all the painful lessns learned throughout the brexit “process.”
With the inustrial revolution, the UK lead the way into devastating materialism. Just perhaps, they could point the way out again.
GJ and the rest – It gets more Orwellian each day. I fear for the future.
ISIS – Well, if uncle Sam is having trouble defeating one small enclave, maybe he should ask the SAA for help.
Secretly Corbyn – never a fan of the EU – is hoping for a no-deal Brexit. The ensuing chaos can be blamed firmly on the Tories, the DUP will withdraw its support so the government will not survive the next vote of confidence. PM Corbyn can then put in place all the measures, such as re-nationalizing the railways, supporting key industries and agriculture etc., which would all be in breach of EU laws.
If a new referendum were to be organized, I think it very likely that a majority of British would now vote to remain. Nevertheless, there would still be a substantial number of leave voters. I don’t see them just shrugging their shoulders and suddenly becoming happy EU burghers. That genie will not go back in the bottle and I think it’s naïve of the remainers to think it will. What thar might mean is anyone’s guess, but a resistance model is already out there in the form of yellow vests.
Corbyn cannot accept staying in the EU as that would prevent him from carrying out the major social and economic reforms he plans.
Later in the day I went back to the Zuesse article and read it all the way through. I was a bit hasty in my negative judgement of it, the second half is much clearer.
I saw a BBC documentary on MH17 from a couple of months after it happened and in it there were several locals (20?) who clearly remembered there being multiple aircraft in the sky at the time. The presenter suggested that these people were delusional or had an agenda before finding just one old woman who said there had been a big explosion going up rather than coming down. That is the right description of a Buk launch the presenter said and so is therefore conclusive evidence that the rebels did it.
Well, we can only hope that spitzenkandidat Timmermans and his ilk get the comeuppance they so richly deserve at the European elections in May.
I can’t get on with the Zuesse piece even though I want to; it’s just way too badly written.
The official story stinks, so I am in no doubt that the truth has been buried, but to find out if Zuesse has really discovered the truth I suppose I’ll just have to plough through all his links rather than rely on the text.Thanks for writing this piece, it’s exactly what has been bothering me ever since Trump got elected. Yes, I hoped he would be elected in preference to HRC. No, I don’t agree with all his policies, but amongst friends and colleagues I am in a minority of one. The press here in Holland is unanimous: Trump is an idiot, a buffoon, a disaster, so it doesn’t matter what you say about him. I disagree; admittedly he’s no erudite, suave, well-mannered gentleman and he seems to tweet before he thinks, but he is the elected head of state of the lead country in the “free world” – and should be treated as such. He also knows that even as a billionnaire you still have to care for the little guy and that making enemies all over the world is not good for conventional business (i.e. not the war racket thing).
More about drones. I agree with zerosum that over the runways a shotgun is not such a great idea, but as I said, high-power RF pulses would take out pretty much anything that hadn’t been specifically designed to cope with such an attack. Specifically, that would entail shielding for the central electronics and limiters that could absorb an enormous amount of power. So, we’re left with a three options: 1. These were military-grade drones; 2. The British security forces are incompetent; or 3. It’s a hoax to allow the British government to introduce tough new drone laws. Take your pick.
Hard to understand how the British failed to take out a few hobby drones – unless they weren’t hobby drones (I haven’t seen a picture of one yet). A few high-power pulses of RF in the right direction will take out all but the most advanced (read military) drones. Cue the “it was them damn Russkies what done it” statement from Westminster.
Meanwhile at Schiphol (Amsterdam airport) sea eagles are being used to tackle the drone menace:
https://nos.nl/artikel/2131405-roofvogels-klaar-om-gevaarlijke-drones-te-vangen.htmlGood grief, what a daft op-ed from The Guardian; what with the Manafort idiocy that paper is nose diving.
How about that last sentence: “Yet Russia’s activities in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton and in favour of Mr Trump are not fiction,” just dropped in there as iron-clad fact.
Further to the link I posted the other day about the troika having infringed the Greeks human rights by impairing their access to food, Ewald Engelen, a professor at the University of Amsterdam wrote the following, rather incisive article (in Dutch):
The peolpe from Clearcast must have thought long and hard about how to ban that commercial, but even they must have thought that “too political” was pretty lame. In any case, banning it might just be what it needed to really grab the public’s attention: the Twitterverse is alive with it.
Hey Arnold,
Well, they’re witches aren’t they? Admittedly they’re wearing rather a lot of clothes for witches, but the goat is the hornèd one, Pan, Herne, Cernunnos, it’s where they get their power from. Did you never wonder where the expression “feeling horny” came from?
RIM, you might appreciate this article on Brexit by Joris Luyendijk, one time journo for The Guardian and based in London at the time. He certainly doesn’t sit on the fence about it.
> Rightwing Thinktanks Unveil Radical Plan For US-UK Brexit Trade Deal (G.)
Then, after that, they can rename the place Airstrip One.
I wonder if would-be remainers like Sadiq Khan take into consideration what would happen if at the last minute they could secure a second referendum (and win it). My guess is that the 27 would meet to decide what to do and would then agree to allow the UK to stay in the union with the a few provisos:
1. UK to accept all new EU legislation since applying to leave
2. UK to give up its rebate
3. UK to agree not to hold any more referendums on EU membership
4. UK to provide fixed timeline for joining the euroI can imagine that these would not go down well with even some of the staunchest remainers, let alone any recent converts from the leave camp. Beyond that, I think there would be a great deal of residual bitterness which could potentially lead to significant social unrest and even civil war.
At least at the moment most people over there seem to have resigned themselves to leaving.
I suppose you saw this hatchet job on Assange in the Groene Amsterdammer?
https://www.groene.nl/artikel/een-verbleekte-held-met-een-verbroken-belofte
