Kamala’s “oh dear lord” reaction to a supporter getting a tattoo of her handwriting is the most genuine I’ve seen her be during this whole campaign. pic.twitter.com/hjG7JN0ejc
— Kate Hyde (@KateHydeNY) October 19, 2019
Of course it’s an honor, but still — I think Kamala just flashed on what her mom’s expression would’ve been if she did something like this…
You know it’s Democratic because it’s (relatively) discreet. And spelled correctly, too!
zzyzx
I’m starting to see the Bernie Bros (or those pretending to be) trying to unite with Gabbard to get the Democratic Party infighting going back up.
Hopefully it doesn’t work this time.
zhena gogolia
I love Harris.
trollhattan
Kamala=Nearly every parent. :-)
Mandalay
@zzyzx:
Link?
Ken
We are one petulant tweet from every MAGA getting Trump’s face tattooed on their arm.
trollhattan
@Ken:
Was it Beavis or Butthead who got his ass tattooed on his ass? I demand a Trump cadre do the same to honor their Fuhrer.
Mnemosyne
There was an all-time classic radio moment here in LA where a fan excitedly called in to tell the lead singer of Bush that she had had his name tattooed on her chest, and he had to gently break it to her that his name was spelled “Gavin,” not “Galvin.” ?
Aleta
Wajahat “Get Over It” Ali @WajahatAli
*
mrmoshpotato
@Mnemosyne: Ouch.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
Oopsie!
There used to be a website dedicated to badly translated/rendered Kanji tattoos that didn’t mean anything like what their owners thought. Some were really hilarious.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: And then there are Chinese language tattoos.
“Insert General Tso’s chicken here.”
Starfish
@Mandalay: There is a lot of this going on on Twitter. Bernie or someone connected to him was “defending” Tulsi against what Hillary said about her. I did not know the history of this. “On October 28, 2016, Sanders was declared an eligible write-in candidate for president in California, with Tulsi Gabbard as his vice-presidential running mate.”
prostratedragon
The peoples leaning back on their balalaikas, playing their samovars …
Aleta, thanks for the handy summary.
OldDave
On Tulsi, all I can say is the MAGA types I know on FB/Twitter are madly defending her.
Marcopolo
Let no one say Kamala doesn’t inspire!
And in campaign finance news: Why Republicans should be worried about their chances of retaking the House
I think I am right at the line of fair use quoting so go to the article if you would like to read the rest.
Steeplejack
@Marcopolo:
Twitter tweet tips for you downstairs.
prostratedragon
Right now, the DECADES channel is running a Twin Peaks marathon. They’re up to the ep5, the Icelanders episode. Unfortunately the show’s fantastic sound design is hard to hear over the tv.
?BillinGlendaleCA
OT: for the daytime crowd, if you were asking me to do a Patreon, you’re in luck! I finally finished setting it up, it’s got two posts(one everyone can see, the other is just for patrons). Here’s the link.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@trollhattan:
I remember that! Haven’t looked in a while. I have a not-Japanese coworker who has Kanji tattoos that are entirely correctly rendered/translated, and that are also deeply obscene and spell out some particular sexual preferences (she told me the contents herself, I didn’t ask). I’ll never forget the first time a Japanese colleague saw them. He’s a sweet-natured, modest guy; he turned bright red and didn’t know where to look. I have no idea why anyone thinks they need to have that inked on their body.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: A Korean-American porn star decided to affirm her Korean heritage by getting her Korean name inked on the side of her chest in Hangul, she spelled it wrong(if you’re going to get something inked in a language where you’re not a native speaker, get a native speaker to look at it first).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: I have a Chinese character tat.
ETA: I did take a year of Chinese, so I wasn’t completely oblivious about it.
patrick II
@Aleta:
Thank you Aleta for that nice summary. Those will be good arguments for friends who really hate to say anything that bad about a Democrat. But sometimes you must.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@patrick II: Agree. At the risk of going all “No True Scotsman,” I think Tulsi is about as much of a Democrat as Wilmer is.
Dan B
@Aleta: Thanks for the details on Tulsi. I’ve always disliked her politics but the details are damning.
japa21
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Actually, maybe a little more of a Democrat than Wilmer. At least technically. Although it is obvious that neither one has any loyalty to the party.
Of the candidates that were on the stage at the last debate, the ones that would be the most likely to lose to Trump are those two and maybe Yang.
Bobby Thomson
Those of you who enjoyed notcapnamerica liveblogging watching the entire Game of Thrones series for the first time will probably like this:
Dan B
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I think Tulsi is about as Democrat as Pat Robertson crossed with Lindsey Graham.
Frankensteinbeck
@zzyzx:
I’m glad they’re wasting their time with Tulsi. Bernie’s danger was that he sucked in the young idealists, then told them that the Democrats cheated them out of all the good stuff they understandably want. Tulsi pulls in no constituency that we care about losing.
TomatoQueen
The righteous indignation for Tulip in my fakebook feed: Wilmers, misogynists, Hilaryderangements, and the just plain ill-informed. Nobody has even mentioned the David Duke endorsement yet. I observe only, and do not engage.
mrmoshpotato
@TomatoQueen:
Or the GrOPers not being on her list of organizations to tear down.
Dan B
@Dan B: Maybe Tulsi is Michelle Bachman x killah from Wasilla.
Butter Emails
@Starfish:
On the flip side I’ve also seen Tulsi “supporters” calling Bernie a sellout and promoting her as the one true progressive.
Josie
@zhena gogolia:
I love her, too. She seems so real to me. I really don’t understand why people are not drawn to her.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Butter Emails: She’s “Tulsi the Dove”, just like “Trump the Dove”; as opposed to “Hillary the Hawk”.
Joanne Ross
@Aleta: Excellent list, thank you.
Sab
@Steeplejack: Lurkers ain’t trolls, in case you hadn’t noticed.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Gotta link it.
;)
MisterForkbeard
@zhena gogolia: Still my favorite candidate.
NotMax
@MisterForkbeard
Sounds like the title of a Bob Hope movie with Arsula Undress.
:)
ThresherK
@Aleta: Don’t tell all those bots who the chunk of Tulsi’s new twitter fans.
https://twitter.com/cbouzy/status/1185332311983869952?
debbie
@Aleta:
Good grief! Why hasn’t she just become a Republican?
JoeyJoeJoe
@prostratedragon: Why would anyone want to watch that, when there’s a Leprechaun movie marathon today. The series includes titles like leprechaun 4: In Space and leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood (he’s continuing to try to make it as a rapper in this one)
Aleta
@ThresherK: Could be a clue // to who wants to split the D vote again.
Sloane Ranger
So, Boris Johnson has sent the letter requesting an extension to the EU as required by the Benn Act but not signed it. At the same time he’s sent a separate signed letter saying that the Government still wants to leave on 31 October.
He truly is a petulant, spoiled child!
debbie
@Sloane Ranger:
Does Boris sit and pout with his arms crossed, like Trump? //
Jay
Jay
Jay
Amir Khalid
@Sloane Ranger:
Hmm. Bojo sends the legally required Brexit extension request letter unsigned, along with a signed letter that says what he really wants — no extension — and a note telling the EU Council which letter to take seriously. I am not a lawyer, but I cannot see how this is not a clumsy and transparent attempt to circumvent the law. BoJo is just asking for trouble, isn’t he?
prostratedragon
@JoeyJoeJoe: As some might say, the answer is within the question.
Jay
Sloane Ranger
@debbie: Actually, yes.
@Amir Khalid: Not a lawyer but I think he has complied with the letter of the law, while undermining its spirit. I don’t think he is in legal trouble but I can’t see the Commons being impressed. It only confirms the suspicion already held that he is devious, manipulative and untrustworthy.
debbie
@Sloane Ranger:
Is he getting much pushback from his fellow Conservatives? Are they supportive of these shenanigans?
Cacti
@OldDave:
So far as I can tell, the most enthusiastic defenders of Tulski are Bernie or busters from 2016, MAGA cultists, and/or Putin assets.
Patricia Kayden
@Aleta: I’m trying to figure out why Tulsi is still running when most of her support is coming from Trump supporters. She’s not going to be our nominee and she apparently hates the DNC and Secretary Clinton. She’s not fooling anyone,
Mary G
Beto is defending Tulsi, and I know it’s sexist as hell, but it took me too long to realize he’s just a pretty face.
Cacti
@Patricia Kayden:
Also too, her opposition to impeachment is completely at odds with her Congressional district, where Trump lost by 31 points.
Tony Jay
+++++++++++BREXIT NEWS++++++++++++BREXIT NEWS+++++++++++BREXIT NEWS++++++++++++++
PRIME MINISTER TODD UNCTIOUS WOULD REALLY LIKE THAT TROPHY
In the waning months of the Second World War the crumbling Nazi regime fell back on propaganda and delusion to fill the gaping holes that ideological rigidity and a lack of strategic planning, allied to greed, grift and adherence to a whole laundry list of incompatible obsessions, had punched in the already unsustainably over-stressed German war-machine. That worked wonders on the Home Front, where people had been trained to follow the Party line as slavishly as the prying eyes of the potential snitch next to them dictated, but out on the front-line commanders were under no such illusions. They understood that all the thrilling exhortations to racial superiority in the world, when combined with made-up production figures and seasoned with reinforcement by imaginary divisions, were precious little use in the face of massive enemy superiority in men, material and logistical depth. Der Fuhrer might well have been a genius of world-historical proportions who saw into the hearts and minds of lesser men with Wodenesque perspicacity, but that was about as much use to the men being ground into bone-flecked lumps of red-brown goo under the tracks of Allied tanks as a lifetime subscription to Der Völkische Beobachter*. Or, to paraphrase another great physical-philosopher of violence for profit, Michael Gerard Tyson, “Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face by an artillery barrage”.
(“I don’t really follow the politics, but the sections on modern Aryan cooking are worth every Reichsmark”)
Which brings us neatly to Brexit Britain, a formerly precise arrangement of spinning plates that everyone took for granted until it started being wrenched apart by the conflicting centrifugal forces of nationalism, jingoism and predatory capitalism. It’s all about the money, honey, but damn, are there a lot of highly placed people willing to sell their asses (and our assets) off on the cheap.
When last we spoke Prime Minister (by the acclamation of his followers and the compelled acquiescence of the monarch alone, the nation not being given an opportunity to venture any kind of opinion) Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson had been forced by Parliament and the verdict of the Courts to stop trying to impress his equally annoying friends with stroppy backchat and maybe do his bloody job for once. With only one day left until the EU walked away from the possibility of further negotiations (Media Narrative Security Feature Online……. Activate ‘memory hole’ sub-program……. Isolate and transfer inconvenient/revelatory fact…… Close sub-program) Johnson did what bad guys with nowhere left to run always do, he asked for an interview with the Feds. In this case it was with the cherub-faced Taoiseach of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, a man with a voice so liltingly melodic you could easily imagine enjoying a successful side-job doing hostage negotiation for Colombian National Airlines (“You’ll be wanting to let the children go first, so ye will. That’s roight. Would ye not be thinking the gun ye got there is a mite heavy now? Pass it over here, if ye will, there’s a good lad.”) and a domestic approval level that could do with some pepping up before Ireland’s oncoming elections. They met, they talked, they had a nice walk through the gardens, and lo and behold, to the surprise of the Media alone, both announced that they could suddenly see a “Pathway to a Deal”.
Cue great joy and much rustling of crusty knickers throughout the Kingdom of Brexitania as hordes of Leavers suddenly realised that everything they’d been saying about “No Deal means No Deal” was actually a misinterpretation of their longstanding desire for a deal of any kind, however shitty it might turn out to be. Confusion reigned on the comment boards of the fervently pro-Tory and pro-Brexit Daily Mail, Telegraph and Daily Express, etc, as large numbers of the Party faithful convulsed in a lycanthropic transformation from hardcore supporters of Johnson’s steadfast demand for EU concessions into even harder hardcore supporters of Johnson’s weak-kneed concession to EU demands. It was a big change, and it demanded a lot out of people already cursed by birth and alcohol consumption with the cognitive agility of breadsticks, but, fortunately for Johnson, modern Conservatism long ago weaponised the shifting nature of “What Brexit means today” by fusing it with a hybridised mutation of rabies and ebola that could be transmitted via ocular contact with infected digital information. IOW, as soon as a hefty proportion of them read about what Johnson had done there was a conversion lull of about 10 seconds between initial incredulity and sudden ecstatic bliss at their Master’s triumph over Those People, setting them at odds with the portion of the Quiteratti who proved so hardened in their xenophobia that they were mostly resistant to this particular strain of the hybrid virus.
“It’s a BETRAYAL!”
“BoJo was Right!”
“From now until Eternity he will be forever BORIS MAY to Me!!!!”
“Take that, Media! De Oirish Ayes are BLINKING!”
“It’s Farage all the way now. Save us from Remoner Johnson, Nigel, you’re our only HOPE!”
“Churchill couldn’t have done this. Boris Uber Alles, Krauts!”
While it was nice to see it all going off Below the Line in the Tory Press, back in the real world it still left Johnson and his cabal of half-arsed losers with the not inconsiderable Himalay-uh oh of agreeing a potential deal with the EU to climb, one that took into account the EU negotiation team’s rock-solid red lines (No hard border on the island of Ireland, no damage to the Single Market, no more pissed-up Stag Parties flying Easyjet to major European cities – you all go to Marbella and you do your naked throwing-up there, ghettoscum) as well as the lingering hope on the Right that ‘Boris’ would come good and return with a proper deal his acolytes wouldn’t all feel dirty about for the rest of their pig-ignorant lives. Fat chance of that. The EU had Johnson over a barrel, and they knew it. The only question was how quickly he would fold and how completely could the EU inure itself against even the tiniest whisper of blame should it all go tits-up before the October 31st Brexit Deadline.
Just to clarify what I mean here. Johnson claimed the Prime Ministership by being elected Tory Party leader in the wake of Theresa May’s resignation. He did so by promising the Hard-Right of the Tory Party (The Brextremist European Research Group (ERG) and other associated dwellers on the far shores of Thatcherism) that he would use his verbose grandiloquence to stand up to the EU and secure them either a complete victory over a humiliated European continent (the terms of said victory being somewhat up in the air but definitely including the total collapse of European unity and bonfires of straight bananas, maybe getting Calais back, or Gascony, though not Aquitaine as a whole, which is full of rural Frenchies) or an exit from the EU without a single concession to economic reality (the infamous No Deal Brexit), but at the same time he was promising the Not-So Hard-Right of his Party that he was only saying all that for the edification of the Tory electorate and of course they could trust him to negotiate a deal the UK and the EU could live with while – more importantly – using his verbose grandiloquence to increase the Tory Party’s chances of defeating Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party at the next Election. Either way, if there was one thing a majority of the Party could agree on, it was that their national base had been so radicalised by Brexit propaganda that only a candidate with the pro-Brexit bona fides of Alexander ‘Boris’ Johnson could hope to keep the nutters out in the ‘Shires under the Tory banner and safely away from the carnal attractions of Nigel ‘Live -Action Pepe the Frog’ Farage and his Brexit Party franchise. The Right can win a national election under a First-Past-The-Post system with 35%+ of the vote if the rest of the electorate splits to keep Labour under 35%. It can’t win a national election under any circumstances if their own vote splits between Tory Party and Brexit Party, and they know it.
However, from the moment he arrived in Number 10, Johnson and his advisors tore off their ‘moderate’ masks and went hard-right; declaring war on Parliamentary oversight, insulting all and sundry across Europe and generally behaving like the entitled, privately schooled yobs they either were or aspired to be. In vote after vote Johnson lost and lost hard, becoming in a matter of days the least effective Prime Minister in British history. In the wake of these defeats he expelled 21 rebel Tory MPs from the Party, reducing his already non-existent majority to minus 49 or thereabouts, depending on how insane in the membrane a tiny handful of ‘Labour’ MPs are feeling at any precise moment. Pissed off with his constant threats and general belligerence Parliament passed the Benn Act, a law which orders the Prime Minister (whoever that might be) to write to the EU requesting a deadline extension from 31st of October 2019, to 31st of January, 2020 (or whatever date the EU prefers) should there be no withdrawal deal agreed with the EU and available for Parliamentary scrutiny by the 19th of October. He tried to force the Opposition into agreeing to a General Election, not so that he could actually win it, you understand, but so he could manipulate the timing of the vote to place Election Day after the Brexit Deadline, bringing No Deal back from the dead through a conman’s sleight of hand. He prorogued (completely shut down) Parliament for five weeks to stop MPs impeding his grand programme of screwing the country, before being ordered by the Supreme Court to open it up again after only three weeks, on the grounds he had lied to Parliament and the Queen about his reasons for it.
All in all, he acted like a right dickhead, advised by even worse dickheads, and had wedged himself into a corner that only complete capitulation could get him out of. The October 19th deadline was fast approaching, which meant he either asked the EU for an extension (which would destroy him with the Brextremist factions), he refused to ask for an extension (which would open him up to criminal charges and wouldn’t stop the Courts asking for the extension on his behalf anyway) or he resigned, which would mean he wasn’t Prime Minister anymore…. so, a big fuck right off to that idea.
Or he could take the only other option left to him and go crawling to the EU asking what kind of deal they’d be willing to accept, then hope to leverage the deep and heartfelt love affair he enjoys with the great and good of the British Media to gaslight the whole nation into recognising his complete and utter capitulation to the EU’s three year old wish-list as some kind of diplomatic masterstroke. On those terms he’s achieved a stupendous victory, but only on those very specific terms. As one the Media have reacted to his 180◦ flip-flop as if the major question of the last few weeks has been “Can Johnson secure a Deal?” rather than “Can Johnson secure the specific type of Deal he has promised repeatedly that he and only he could achieve?”. Since the answer to the actual question has proven to be a resounding “No way, Jose” the Media have had to move the goalposts. In fact, they haven’t just moved the goalposts, they’ve uprooted the whole stadium, shipped it in pieces to the dark side of the Moon, rebuilt it on a slope using Chinese language blueprints for a children’s playground, melted it down, buried it under a mountain, set fire to the mountain, mined the mountain for extra-terrestrial elements then declared Johnson King of All the Goalposts.
It didn’t help the cause of journalistic honesty that, following a well-lubricated lunch with Johnson, the E.U.’s negotiator, Jean-Claude Barnier, was quoted as saying that there would be “no prolongation”, which the Media quickly translated to mean that the EU was ruling out any further extensions and it was either Johnson’s Deal or No Deal, take THAT Remainers! Hair was set on fire and much gloating filled the air, until numerous increasingly highly positioned European voices pointed out that, a) Barnier had no authority to rule an extension out, b) He was saying that if there was a deal there was no need for a “prolongation” of the process, and c) Of course the EU would give the UK an extension if one were requested.
That last affirmation was given by Frau Merkel herself, who perhaps wanted to give the British Media a gentle foot up the fundament for the way they all jumped on her similar statement a few weeks ago to claim that she’d agreed a 30 Day grace period for Johnson to work on a negotiating plan when what she’d actually said was that, after having 3 years to think about it, surely the British had done all of the homework necessary to get a deal put together in as little as a month. Ja? Nein? If all of this fucks up and we end up tripping into a disastrous Brexit the British Media are going to have to shoulder a pretty massive portion of the blame for continually lying to their viewers and readers in service of the Tory party.
Should, but won’t. I’m fully aware of the nature of the world we live in.
So, what agreement did Johnson sign up for? Well, it’s basically Theresa May’s thrice-rejected deal with a few alterations around the dreaded Backstop (the part designed to preserve the Good Friday Agreement that keeps the peace in Northern Ireland and maintain the integrity of the European Single Market). Pro-Johnson cheerleaders have been touting the changes to the backstop as a huge success for ‘Battling Boris’ on the grounds that the EU had been obdurate that it wasn’t open for renegotiation, but they’ve only been able to do that by ignoring the rest of what the EU said, which was that it wasn’t open for renegotiation without further concessions from the UK.
Guess what? Johnson made almost all of the concessions. May had rejected the initial EU plan for Northern Ireland alone to stay in regulatory alignment with the EU (which would put a hard customs border “in the Irish Sea” (i.e. at every British port shipping goods to Northern Ireland) as an unacceptable infringement on the integrity of the United Kingdom, and had instead suggested that all of the UK would stay in alignment with EU rules until such a time as the actual post-withdrawal negotiations yielded a Free Trade Agreement that included as-yet-unknown solutions to the problem of the EU/UK border in Ireland.
Either suggestion was totally unacceptable to Brextremists of the English and Irish strains, including one Alexander B. de P. Johnson, who gave a lovely speech full of long-words and Classical allusions explaining why no Conservative Government should ever agree to such an insult to its sovereignty, and they voted it down. He had integrity, you see, which is why in his agreement, it was totally fine for Johnson to drop May’s clause and accept the EU’s original Northern Ireland Only carve-up, as long as he got a change in the timetable to make it sound like the new ‘Frontstop’ agreement was no longer open ended in duration but relied on the non-existent Northern Irish Assembly voting for it every four years. Integrity. Also spelled “Testicles”, which is something noted by a few commentators, but never really gained much traction in the conversation. It’s that old ‘Wired for Conservatives’ thing again. Tories being sexist and voting for a man’s policy when it’s worse than the one they rejected when it came from a mere woman? Well they’re Tories, aren’t they? That’s just who we have to accept and understand that they are, no judgements. Try getting away with that if you’re on the Left and ooooooh, no no no.
Fucking Media. It’s like they never get tired of being predictable dicks.
The end of the week was an absolute rollercoaster, with more ups and downs than a quality piece of German spanky-wanky. I was watching it unfold on the Guardian’s Live-Blog when I was supposed to be working and spent most of my time wishing we were back in the pre-Internet era when anyone and everyone didn’t feel the need to fill every single square inch of bandwidth with their hot-takes, tears of rage/joy and general Look AT MEEEEEEEEEE paroxysms, and that was just the journalists. It was bloody exhausting.
First there was the whole question of could Johnson get the DUP on board, with the general understanding that without the Paladins of Protestant Puritanism giving his agreement the nod he wasn’t getting any buy-in from their fellow extremists in the ERG, which meant he couldn’t tell the EU that he had the necessary votes to get it through Parliament. Much reading of the tea leaves and rooting around in bins by political journalists trying to figure out how big a cheque Johnson would have to cut to get the DUP’s granite faced leadership to kiss the ring. Theresa May had coughed up a cool billion in “investment funds” to get DUP backing for her Government, what would they ask of Johnson with the stakes this high? Two billion? Ten billion? Half a dozen nuclear warheads and a ban on abortion? Who could say?
Then came news that the UK and EU were about to announce that an agreement had been finalised, which surely meant that the DUP had agreed a suitable level of financial recompense and/or been told on the down-low that anything they agreed to was just a temporary smokescreen to get closer to a No Deal Brexit. Jaws hit floors all over the country…. Was this it? Was it actually happening?
Then came news that the DUP hadn’t agreed a single thing. They were, in fact, being chucked under a bus by Johnson. What the hell was going on? Surely this could only mean that Johnson had somehow convinced enough of the ERG, Tory rebels and pro-Brexit Labour MPs to back him and so didn’t need Ulster’s grumpiest mouth-breathers anymore. The possibility that Johnson had simply concluded that he wasn’t going to get the DUP on board no matter what he offered and was just bullshitting about his confirmed backing in order to get the EU to say they had a deal never seemed to cross the mind of the Media, convinced as they are that Johnson’s long and well-documented history of lying bastardy should never, ever, be taken into account when reporting on the exciting adventures of their beloved ‘Boris’.
Anyway, that’s where the statement by Barnier about “no prolongation” and the whole panic over the EU turning its back on the possibility of Britain finding a non-Brexit route out of all this horror came in. People felt shit, and everywhere they turned for news there was the Media ripping off its clothes and rubbing scented oils all over its collective body as it danced the Dance of She Who Welcomes The Victorious General To Her Bed in honour of Johnson’s cunningly disguised surrender. Even worse, whispers were coming from Parliament that maybe there actually were enough ex-Tory Independents eager to show they’d learnt their lesson and sufficient pro-Brexit Labour MPs so terrified of offending their Leave-voting electorates that they’d happily toss worker’s rights and employment standards on the pyre to get Johnson close to a majority for his Deal. The calculations were hard and shrouded in mystery, but what was clear was that if Johnson could keep the ERG on side and bring the whole Tory vote with him, he was within about 20 votes of pulling off an absolute heist. How the fuck did this happen?
So on to today, the so-called ‘Super Saturday’ sitting at the House of Commons, because when we’re talking about the future of the country and the livelihoods of 60+ million human beings what’s really called for is a slathering of LIVE SPORTS HYPE!!!!!!
Have I mentioned I hate our Media? I think I have, but that could just be a false memory triggered by slamming my head into the nearest wall every time they fuck things up on purpose. Happens a lot, so I’ve got a skull like pumice stone and still they have jobs.
Sigh.
First things first, it was looking bad, for various reasons. The prevailing talking-point being pounded out by the Evil Empire was that “People are fed up with Brexit and want it DONE!!”, like all the polls showing the country roughly 53%-47% for Remain were wrong and the BBC’s frequent Vox-Pop jaunts to economically anxious market-towns to speak to any baffled looking white people who happened to be at a loose end and a little bit drunk at 11am on a weekday (you know, Mr Average Briton) were the only opinions that needed to be considered. Underneath all that was the fact that May’s shitty Deal had actually appealed to a lot of Tories, including a lot of the ex-Tory exiles whose main concern had been avoiding No Deal, and there were 20 or so Labour MPs in play who had said they wanted to vote for a Withdrawal Deal. What had done for May was the obdurate opposition of the Hard-Right Brextremists and the DUP combined with the vast majority of Labour MPs and other Opposition Parties. If Johnson could somehow bind together the May Deal voters with the ERG then he had his majority, and his Brexit, but therein lay the problem.
Why were the Hard-Right voting for this? Why did Johnson think he could get away with this? If we can drag our minds back just a few weeks we’ll remember that these people were all about the No Deal Brexit (No Alternative) and everyone understood the reason Johnson was being so hard nosed about manoeuvring towards one was because he rightly feared that anything less extreme would shed General Election voters in the direction of Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party. Were we really supposed to believe that all of that had been oh-so embarrassingly wrong and in fact any kind of Brexit would do? Really? Yeah? That’s what you want us to believe? Mmmmmmmm, how about no?
The cat was let out of the bag a bit by moronic ERG fuckwit and Donald Trump’s brutha by another mutha John “I haz thorts” Baron (no, really) who said that he’d been assured by Johnson’s Chief Eunuchs (Dominic “Steroided Peanut” Raab and Michael “If only I had a chin” Gove) that they weren’t really voting for this deal, they were voting for the post-Deal 14 month transition period that would conclude in December 2020 with a vote on what kind of Free Trade Agreement the UK would have with the EU. If, by some unexplainable glitch in the Matrix, the ERG came to vote against the deal then, why, we’d exit without a Deal.
Did that splurt of accidental honesty gum up the works? Maybe. Whatever they say in public every single MP in Parliament knows that Johnson is a solipsistic lightweight who’ll say anything to anyone if it gets him what he wants. Strip away the threat of No Deal and the theatrical drama the Media always invests Clown Prince Flobalob with and nothing much has changed since last week. There’s an electoral calculus that says Johnson wouldn’t be pushing THIS deal unless he thought he could dump it later for something much more like a No Deal Brexit, and it’s all about avoiding the Benn Act’s provisions for seeking an extension and making his escape from its demands a laughter line in future Election speeches. That may have tickled something at the back of enough MP’s minds to ensure that when another option to delay came up they went for it.
The Letwin Amendment was pretty clever. No definitive vote today; after all, the Government hadn’t managed to produce even the bare minimum of documentation and supporting evidence for a vote on suitable labelling for different sizes of duck eggs, never mind the most important question put before Parliament since 1939. Instead the UK should seek an extension to allow time for Parliament to consider Johnson’s Deal on its own terms without being horsewhipped into a shitgallop of failure and future regret. It was approved, voted on, and it won.
Limited hiss of relief.
This is the bit where Flobalob has to do another full 180◦ and do what he swore he would never do. Seek an extension from the EU and delay his precious Brexit. Checking the news the slovenly prick has been as petty and wankerish as you could imagine. Ordered to send a letter requesting an extension he has sent an unsigned photocopy of a letter, accompanied by another letter saying he doesn’t want one, and a third asking if he’s still allowed full membership privileges in Madame Foo-Foo’s Maison de Tushy-Touchy in the event of a No Deal, because the man knows his own priorities.
We’ll see. The EU will almost certainly give the extension, we’ll see how long. Parliament will have to pass every single piece of legislation underpinning Brexit rather than just waving the concept through, which will mean more votes and more opportunity for reality to sink in. Johnson will still keep on trying to ram his career plan through any chance he gets, we’ll see who that goes.
Personally, I hope this shock to the system wakes up certain Opposition Party leaders and Tory rebels to the reality that this Prime Minister is a clear and present danger to the very idea of Great Britain as a modern European nation who has to be removed ASAP and a new Election called that can change the calculus of Parliament. We were THIS close to Johnson winning the vote and getting Brexit over the line based on nothing more than bad fucking journalism and impatience. I don’t care how much you’re afraid of progressive taxation and the stench of socialism in Number 10, support a Vote of No Confidence and chance the fucking calculus.
This shit makes me so tired.
feebog
Kate Hyde needs to get out more. There are dozens of clips out there demonstrating Kamala Harris’ sense of humor and authenticity..
Amir Khalid
@Sloane Ranger:
Does it even count as a letter when BoJo included a note to say it didn’t count?
Martin
@Tony Jay:
You think so? I don’t see why they should. They’ve given a number of good faith efforts at a deal, they now have UK reps inside the EU fighting against a deal, they have a PM whose made it clear he wants a no-deal exit, and there’s a Parliament that hasn’t found an avenue to force the UK to an outcome other than no outcome.
It’s done. There’s no path to a better outcome.
Mary G
@Tony Jay: Wow, thanks for the great piece of writing, and it explains all the competing headlines on stories I didn’t read, because we had Infrastructure week on steroids. Boris sounds like Twitler’s missing identical twin.
So, if they don’t manage Brexit by the end of the year, do all the rich people have to give up their money?
Patricia Kayden
Fair Economist
@Martin: A No Deal exit would be a disaster for the EU27, and a much bigger disaster for the UK. The EU isn’t going to cause it if they don’t have to. The chaos of Schrodinger’s Brexit is not much of an issue for them (unlike Britain, which may already be in a recession as a result); if they keep providing extensions either they’ll get an orderly exit or the ongoing shift in public opinion against Brexit will result in Remain.
Tony Jay
@Martin:
The problem has been the EU negotiating with the Tory Party, not the UK.
New Election = Different Government = Different approach = Take that Deal or Remain.
There’s no clarity dealing with Tories, because they are full of shit and they can’t pass any legislation. I’d prefer a General election and a Labour Government overseeing the next Referendum, but I’ll take what i can get.
Tony Jay
Bed Now. Have Fun.
Tony Jay
@Mary G:
Some of it. The illegal bit. And since they’re all completely legit and pillars of society, what could they possibly have to worry about….. oh, oh dear, I see what you mean.
Ruckus
@Patricia Kayden:
Ya think maybe she’s getting money in some way to run and create chaos?
It looks pretty plain and simple like a grift to me.
Fair Economist
@Ruckus: I’m sure it’s some kind of grift. If nothing else, she’s got a guaranteed spot on Fox News at this point, which pays a lot better than a Congressional seat.
Mary G
I think she’s another useful idiot. She loves herself and money and I’d bet the Russians are getting some to her, but not letting her in on the scheme. In related news:
Full disclosure: I took out hashtags for KITV4, Tulsi, HI02, HI
trollhattan
@Tony Jay:
Am just going to admire this quirky sentence for awhile.
Kent
Totally not on the US news right now with everthing else. But Chile is totally blowing up at this moment. The government raised subway fares two days ago and students across Santiago started protesting and jumping the fare gates. It spiraled out of control and now for the past 24 hours vandals and protestors are running wild in the city. Sort of a Latin version of the yellow vest protestors in France for much the same reason. Lower classes have been loosing out under a conservative internationalist government.
My wife is Chilean and she has spent the past 8 hours face-timing her brother and family as they sit around watching CNN-Chile on TV. They say it is the biggest unrest they have seen since the protests that brought down Pinochet except that these are even more violent and destructive. It’s about midnight there now and the president has declared out martial law and has rolled out the army as well as every police in the city and declared a curfew. Except that no one is really going indoors. Millions are out walking around refusing to obey the curfew. Very tense and crazy
Martin
@Tony Jay: They’re negotiating with the Tory Party because you keep electing Tories. Stop doing that.
Yutsano
@Tony Jay: I hate to say it, but you’re not getting a Labour majority with Corbyn helming things. He’s been going quite all in on the Socialist part, including nationalising all the power & water municipalities (which I think is a good idea for the US but on a local government level) He’s horrifically unpopular with the British public. If Labour ditched Corbyn for a new leader it’s entirely possible they could take government. But Labour ain’t getting that with Corbyn at the helm.
Mary G
@Kent: I’ve seen pictures on Twitter day and night. It’s massive. I hope nothing terrible happens. They raised the fare .16 of something, but it was the last straw.
Ruckus
@Martin:
On the face of it I’d say you are right.
But.
There seems to be a lot of people who don’t want to go and that includes the EU. But the EU won’t hold on forever and have made that perfectly clear. There has been so much fuckery going on with this and their fair haired boy, while not as stupid as ours, has gone about as far as he can get away with. That day when so many got up and walked to the other side just about did him in then. I think the reality is sinking in to all but the hard core right, who care about nothing that isn’t about getting/having everything and that ship seems to have if not sailed at least has fired up the boilers.
I’m not saying it’s a done deal but I think, while a lot of their politicians are complete wankers, some, maybe enough of them aren’t in the complete wankers column and they can and do change sides if it’s absolutely necessary. Really it’s that they don’t all have the same level of devotion to absolute stupidity that a lot of our politicians do.
Mary G
Twitler has ungraciously reversed the decision to have the G7 at Doral:
ETA: You know it’ll be Camp David; another hotel is not acceptable.
debbie
@Mary G:
Camp David??? Is he trying to be like Barack Obama??? //
debbie
.
Keith P.
@Mary G: The butt-hurt is strong in this one.
Kent
@Mary G: Essentially wages have been stagnant or frozen for most of the lower classes. About $800/month on average. But costs keep going up and up. Water, electricity, food. This was the second subway fare increase in 6 months and it was raised to the equivalent of about $1.20 for a rush hour fare. Round that up to $2.50 per day for the average worker who MUST commute by subway and bus (no other alternative) and you get about 30 x $2.50 = $75/month for transit fares which is about 10% of the average worker’s salary.
Meanwhile the rich are making out like bandits just like everyplace else. Taxes keep getting cut for the uber wealthy (just like here) and the government keeps saying they have to do things like cut pensions and raise transit fares due to budget constraints. It’s pretty much the same play as what Koch-Industries GOP cabal does here. Except that people are a LOT LOT more pissed down there and there are a lot more poor to be pissed. They don’t have all the racism and “own the libs” bullshit to fall back on like they do here.
My wife’s cousin had a 12 month old baby in surgery for a heart defect at one of the big private hospitals in Santiago. The child was in the pediatric ICU this afternoon when mobs stormed the hospital and went floor to floor looting. They got up to the 6th floor where the pediatric ICU is and looted all the vending machines and cafeteria on that floor but left the ICU alone. My wife’s cousin was inside with the child and they were freaked and giving a second-by-second narrative over group facetime.
Mary G
@Mary G: Above I put the third tweet, here are the others. First twitler tweet:
Second one:
ETS: Oops, my bad. He’s calling it a thread, but it’s not. Another tweet:
dmsilev
@Mary G: So sad, so weak.
Mary G
FYWP, won’t let me add another tweet:
I think this was the first one, but he’s furiously retweeting praise from suckups in between. I saw 1 second or two of Judge Jeannine that has scrambled my brain.
Jeffro
Tony Schwartz’ op-ed in tomorrow’s Post is a nice summation of the psychological reasons why trumpov will never change, and why he’s horrible.
Not that any of us here didn’t already know all of this in 2015-2016, but still.
Would make a powerful 3-4 minute ad buy for any Dem candidate who can stomach reading it aloud.
Mary G
@Kent: That’s terrible, poor woman. I hope the doctors stayed.
dmsilev
@Mary G: He really has no clue about the distinction between ‘good for the country’ vs ‘good for Trump’ does he?
MoCA Ace
@Sloane Ranger:
at what point does the E.U. tell them no more delays. GTFO…
We can’t miss you if you don’t leave.
Jeffro
.
Jeffro
@Mary G: he wrapped up by saying “no Doral, maybe Camp David”
Jeffro
Truly, this was the night that Donald trumpov became presidential ?????
Mary G
@dmsilev: Winner, winner chicken dinner:
Chait in NY Mag Donald Trump: L’état, C’est Moi in July 2017:
Two and a half years later, still the same.
Mary G
waratah
@Mary G: where has he defended her. I follow him pretty close and I do not know what you are talking about. He does not run down any of the candidates tho he did have to do some defense with Pete recently. When the press have tried to to get him to pile on anyone he does not do that. He has defended several of them that I know of including Pete but I do not know of Tulsi.
TS (the original)
@Mary G: Shame – I guess someone told him that was a guarantee of impeachment – I doubt the fact that most of the attendees wouldn’t come was irrelevant. I’m disappointed – he wouldn’t have lasted till next June under this little money maker
Edit: So we will never hear about those other 12 that were vetted & found wanting
dmsilev
@Mary G: The amazing thing is that anyone on his staff with a lick of sense could have told him that this was going to blow up in his face (Mick Mulvaney, for instance, is stupid but not _that_ stupid), and yet he went ahead with it anyway.
Really bodes well for the upcoming well-oiled White House impeachment-defense machine.
Elizabelle
Trump got pantsed over the Doral, didn’t he?
More of this, please. I think the fact he even rolled out this idea should be a count for impeachment.
Who knows if the fucker will even be “POTUS” when June 2020 rolls around.
Elizabelle
Boris Johnson and Trump both got pantsed today.
Not a good day for psychopaths with bad hair, but a better day for the rest of us.
Aleta
Fair Economist
@Kent: Why do they keep putting the plutocrats back in power? The current billionaire president of Chile did actually win the election.
Jeffro
@TS (the original): Two great points there!
1) Someone must have gotten through to the rotted remnants of his lizard brain and pointed out that even a county purchasing clerk just ‘awarding’ a $500 paper purchasing contract to his side business in copy paper wholesale would be fired immediately in each and every state in the union…ie, even red state rubes can figure this one out.
2) Along similar lines (re: your ‘12 other’ sites they ‘vetted’)…the retroactive CYA paperwork on THAT “process” would have been pretty entertaining, no? The domestic version of that tres’ embarrassing letter to Erdogan?
Seriously, folks, read that Tony Schwartz op-ed in the Post tomorrow, just as a refresher. trumpov can’t change…he’ll always be impulsive and about himself.
Mary G
@waratah: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/beto-orourke-defends-tulsi-gabbard-against-hillary-clintons-russian-grooming-claim
Aleta
@Mary G: You know that story where Mar a. L charged WH aides an exorbitant amount per drink? (And approx $550 a room.) People I know who work for the govt don’t get drinks paid for when traveling for their work. They would have to pay for their own. And they’re on a per diem for expenses. (And rooms are charged at a govt rate contracted with the hotel.)
So I don’t get why any WH aide would have their drinks paid for.
debbie
@Mary G:
Between this and Syria, I really hope he’s beginning to doubt his gut.
TS (the original)
@Jeffro: A few quotes
Why Trump can’t change
Barbara
@Mary G: Beto and Tulsi are both flailing about in a desperate effort to get noticed without spending money.
Ken
@Tony Jay:
I don’t suppose there’s any chance this will end up like Judith and Holofernes?
Ken
@Mary G: So Beto also decided that Clinton’s “she” meant Gabbard, not any of the other three women candidates? Amazing how many people have done that.
Mary G
Pictures are worth a thousand words:
One of the replies:
Jeffro
@TS (the original): Thank you (seriously!)
He can’t change because the voice of Fred Trumpov in his head won’t let him. What a freak. I can’t imagine living 70+ years and never dealing with that garbage.
Amir Khalid
@Ken:
Note that Gabbard, and Gabbard alone, is reacting with The Thin Skin of The Guilty.
Chetan Murthy
@Tony Jay: Tony, three thoughts:
(1) holy cow, thank you so much for your heroic post!
(2) “breadsticks …” *snorrt*
(3) Uh … every presentation has to have three points, right?
Ha!
OK. Anyway, seriously, thank you so much for your write-up. It’s amazing the parlous state of UK governance, except, of course, I live in the US … (sigh).
Again, thank you so much!
Calouste
@Sloane Ranger: The whole thing is still in court in Scotland, where one of the explicit questions was whether Johnson was going to apply with the law, and the court basically said “let’s see what he does”. There will probably be a petition to the court on Monday asking whether they consider an unsigned copy as complying with the law.
mrmoshpotato
@dmsilev:
Dump: No impeachment. No impeachment. You’re the impeachment.
Pelosi: I don’t know what that means, but we’re not just going to move on like the moderators did after Hillary called you Putin’s puppet in front of 70 million+ TV viewers.
different-church-lady
I’m beginning to think we already lived in the dumbest timeline before Trump came along…
Wapiti
@Jeffro: 2) Along similar lines (re: your ‘12 other’ sites they ‘vetted’)…the retroactive CYA paperwork on THAT “process” would have been pretty entertaining, no? The domestic version of that tres’ embarrassing letter to Erdogan?
The retroactive CYA would be impossible if they never sought proposals. WAPOs Farenhold would call every hotel they listed before the end of the day, and it would be front paged the next day.
I still think the Congress should demand the paperwork.
mad citizen
@Barbara: Beto, run for Senate you asshole! If you lose again, do something else with the rest of your life.
mrmoshpotato
@Barbara:
I would notice them both dropping out, and that costs no money.
They should give it a try.
TS (the original)
@Mary G: If that is a true statement of Beto’s response I’m disappointed. The very obvious response is “Sec Clinton did not mention a name – if the shoe fits – wear it”. Beto isn’t ready for this & from the polls it seems most realise this fact.
Ketn
@Fair Economist: Same story as here and in the UK. They have all the money and own the media. Plus the opposition is divided and a mess and probably corrupt as well. Chile is no different from the rest of the western world.
Ben Cisco
@Amir Khalid: So instead of a “Soldier’s Heart” she’s displaying a “Tell-tale Heart?”
Wapiti
@Ben Cisco: Hey, Benedict Arnold was a soldier.
waratah
@Mary G: thank you I have not seen that. The video does not show the question he is answering, but I can see him defending her just like he did Pete when he went to Texas with his partner and was greeted with go home your not welcome here. He has said he is not running against anyone and he will not attack the other candidates. After the last debate there were some great photos of Booker and his lady friend and Beto and Amy. They looked like they were having a good time. He and Amy made friends with Kamala and her husband at Iowa, the photos showed big smiling photos.
Ruckus
Just watched, again, a Netflix short documentary about PTSD and vets called Resurface. Maybe one of the best things ever on a screen. It’s not entertainment, it’s reality unlike any stupid “reality” TV show. I very, very highly recommend this.
And finished watching Christina P, Mother Inferior. A stand up comedy routine with a woman with a mouth just slightly dirtier than mine. I can appreciate that in a person, especially one with a microphone.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Tony Jay:
Er, well, if you insist. Which of us should lie back whilst the other thinks of England?
JAFD
@Tony Jay: Dear Tony
Fortunately, I read your piece before breakfast, heaven knows where that meal would’ve ended up if I had read it afterwards.
Made me laugh so hard my chest was hurting. Scared me for a half-minute.
Thanks, very much.
Another Scott
@mad citizen: MJ Hegar is running (as are many others). Beto should stay out. Cronyn could lose but it will be a tough race.
It’s still early.
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
@Aleta:
Because NO ONE can work for Trump without being intoxicated, and booze is the only legal intoxicant at Trump owned hotels. It appears to be a requirement for the job, in other words.
J R in WV
@Calouste:
I think the signed note denying the factuality of the unsigned letter is worse than just not signing the required letter. But I’m not a Scottish lawyer, nor any sort of lawyer other than amateur observer and former member of several juries.
J R in WV
@Wapiti:
And so was Traitor-in-Chief Robert E Lee !!!