Thank you, Banksy, for this marvelous artistic summation of the day. As the United Kingdom prepares to self-destruct, let's look in for a deft analysis of how the Brit government is preparing for Brexit:
https://twitter.com/juliamacfarlane/status/1111432009983811585
Oh dear! Did he really say, "Fuck knows. I'm past caring. It's like the living dead in here"?? Why yes, that is what the cabinet minister was quoted as saying. And that's why the BBC is the BBC!
It really is hard to believe that Theresa May is still Prime Minister. But then, who else would take her place that would be any better? Folks have been waiting for her to resign since the day she became PM. There was this fantastic moment from a couple of years ago:
Pranks hardly get better than this. May is up at the podium, delivering a painful "mea culpa" to her party for having led a simply disastrous election campaign. Suddenly someone appears next to her, handing important looking papers to her. She stops and accepts them. They are government standard resignation papers. Then the scamp turns and loudly proclaims that he was sent on the mission by Boris Johnson, May's cabinet ally/worst enemy. Oh, that is so good. But it gets better. Ya gotta watch the video...
Somehow, May has persevered, probably because no one else wants the job. Yesterday, with Brexit about to happen, she challenged Parliament to vote ONE MORE TIME for the same deal it had voted down in thunderous fashion twice before. Except this time, May said she'd "fall on her sword" and resign if they voted for the deal. Wags quickly pointed out that if she tried to fall on her sword, she'd miss it. Some say she'd resign when everyone's at the pub and no one would even know it.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/world/herculean-selfless-inglorious-what-the-british-papers-say-on-mays-vow-to-step-down-913833.html
They didn't, again, once more. What happens now with Brexit is anyone's guess. What is indisputable is that nothing good will come of it. Estimates for the economic impact of a "no-deal Brexit" indicate a near 10% decline in the economy is to be expected:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/26/economy-could-shrink-by-9-percent-under-no-deal-brexit-government-says
Yes, a 10% dip is called a "severe recession" or economic depression. So tough luck, Brits. You brought it on yourselves. Or did you? There's a strong sense of deja vu all over again.
Speaking of Russians, Attorney General Barr's Summary of the Mueller Investigation made big waves last weekend. It shocked many people because it asserted that everything was coming to an immediate STOP. Including the many threads of investigation and people already charged and others who are pending and, well you get the picture. The Trump World went ecstatic, triumphantly proclaiming "Total Exoneration!" Except, well, it isn't. In fact, things are just getting warmed up. Today, Barr delivered a summary of his summary and it seemed like a walk-back, as well as an expansion of what will be allowed to be reported. This is going to be a long and drawn out stonewalling process. Maybe all summer! Maybe longer!
The truly odd Barr summaries have given rise to a fun hashtag movement: #billbarrletters. People submit severely truncated summaries of popular works. These are funny, you will laugh:
#billbarrletters
And there is this: Were Bill Barr and Steve Bannon separated at birth? You decide:
Also creating fun is Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). The other day he decided to tackle the topic of Climate Change on the Senate floor. Using a variety of pop culture images to mock the Green New Deal proposal, he impressed colleagues by concluding that Climate Change can be solved by "falling in love, getting married and having lots of babies." It should be said that Mike Lee is considered one of the brightest lights in the GOP.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senator-mike-lee-speech-green-new-deal-reaction_n_5c9b2048e4b07c88662d5d07
This follows the same line of enlightened thought expressed by the new head of the Presidential Committee on Climate Security, William Happer. He asserts that Earth is experiencing a carbon dioxide famine:
Because plants use carbon dioxide to live, Happer has said "more CO2 is actually a benefit to the Earth," asserted that Earth is experiencing a "CO2 famine," and concluded that "If plants could vote, they would vote for coal."
Good thing plants can't vote, though I know of a few voters who are real potato-heads. You know who else can't? The Creature From The Black Lagoon. But it can still show up at a Congressional confirmation hearing for Trump Secretary of Interior nominee David Bernhardt. He's replacing disgraced ex-Secretary Ryan Zinke, one of several Trump cabinet members who have spiraled out of control and is facing possible prosecution.
Actually, the Creature would make a much better Secretary of the Interior than Bernhardt, whose background is that of a lobbyist for Oil and Gas companies.
Finally, we can't pass up another Russian reference. When Trump and Company brayed "No Collusion! Total Exoneration!" over and over, it caused some real puzzlement over in Moscow. "Who the hell was I working with then?" asks Russian President:
https://politics.theonion.com/shocked-vladimir-putin-slowly-realizing-he-didn-t-consp-1833575011
"What the hell? I worked so hard on this... if I wasn't colluding with the Trump campaign, who the hell was I colluding with?" Once again, The Onion wins.
Which leaves us with our final image, that of the new gigantic awful terrible human caravan poised to lay waste to our nation, as Fox News warns us. Here it is:
1 comment:
Morning Mike - while I enjoyed your analysis of the three-year car crash that is Brexit, I have to take issue with the invocation, as others have done, of Banksie's picture of MPs as monkeys. By doing so, you are playing right into the narrative of rabid Brexiteers that MPs are a bunch of idiots frustrating the will of the people. What has really happened is that a poorly framed (and manipulated) referendum has dealt a massive political and economic shock to a democracy built on an incompatible representative structure and that is not designed to handle vague (because there was no instruction on precisely how to leave) opinion polls (the referendum was labelled "advisory" but has subsequently been treated as if it were a binding plebiscite). What we are seeing happening in Parliament is essentially an attempt to mitigate this shock. The fault lies not with Parliament but with holding such a stupid referendum in the first place and then triggering Article 50 (which, admittedly, Parliament should have stopped May doing) before planning the nature of our departure. Your British cousin Amon
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