The BBC offers "Eight Reasons 'Leave' Won the U.K.'s Referendum on the EU. It's a good list, but they left out one possibility: that maybe it's really obvious to everyone by now that the "experts" are full of it. Still, Our Glorious Elites shouldn't be too upset -- they've managed to pull of an extraordinary feat of fearmongering and propaganda, in suggesting that anyone who supports the U.K. leaving the EU (or anyone who opposes economic globalization generally) is a racist. I had always been frustrated that the "liberal" media have always framed immigration debates as if only nativists or corporatists had anything worthwhile to say about it, and now I see the chilling endgame. But I'll fight it as long as I draw breath.
Thankfully, Dawn Foster at The Nation splits the knot of the "Leave" campaign quite deftly: "(s)capegoating immigrants for economic suffering is easier than confronting the politicians that crafted austerity policy." Only London, not coincidentally the bankster center of the nation, is doing well in this post-2008 "recovery" -- everywhere else is suffering, and, also not coincidentally, these areas voted heavily to "Leave." Hence, for once, fearmongering failed: "(w)arnings that the U.K. faced economic ruin if it voted to leave...had little effect on communities that already feel excluded from the reported growth in other parts of the EU." Good for them for staring a hostage crisis in the face and saying no.
Ain't nothing so wrong with the world that Donald Trump can't make it worse: Mr. Trump said Scotland was "going wild" over the Brexit vote, and "took their country back" -- apparently oblivious that Scotland voted to remain in the EU by a 62-38 margin. The magnificent Lily Allen was the first to correct him, but none of this will matter to his votaries, who know in their hearts that everyone agrees with them, or should. I'm so old-fashioned that I think people should know things in their minds, too.
Meanwhile, closer to home, Puerto Rico's Governor says that if the Senate doesn't pass the nefarious PROMESA Act, his government will have to cut essential services. I was just talking about fearmongering, wasn't I? And, as in England, I really doubt that good Puerto Ricans really think that having more power taken from them (the PROMESA Act would, among other things, put budgetary decisions to an unelected board for upwards of four years) is really a solution. And Jesus Mary and Joseph I am so sick and tired of politicians constantly saying there is no alternative to eating turds. If you can't find an alternative to a bill that would put you further in debt and cripple your economy, then what are you doing in public service?
Finally, Senate Majority Leader/One True and Great Real American President Mitch McConnell (E-KY) has concocted a truly convoluted scheme to pretend to allow a vote on a gun control measure -- by scheduling a vote to table the measure, not consider it. When the motion to table didn't get 60 votes, the measure entered a sort of purgatory, while the Republicans who voted not to table it got to say to their constituents that they actually "supported" a gun control measure they wouldn't have supported for-real for-real if it had an actual chance of passing! Anyway, I'm long past done praising the cleverness of evil men. So, good luck taking that to the pearly gates, Mr. McConnell.
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