i don’t see bernie clinching the nomination even on 2nd try. the moment biden jumped into the fray, warts and all, he took the lead by a large margin.

yes, bernie was surprisingly appealing on the fox townhall, but these celebrity contests require a much broader media appeal.

so... who is your labour’s biden?

Maybe Kier Starmer. Like the bulk of his fellow MPs and party membership he's very pro-Remain and could easily fit into the Lib Dems or arguably even the more moderate wing of the Tories. But the unique problem Labour has if it comes out as a Remain party is the risk of losing its northern working class heartland, that accounts for the majority of its constituencies and which tended to vote to Leave.

i see... kinda like the democrats and the rustbelt?

—

anyway, what’s this boris domestic altercation? “get off me”? plates smashing?

and more importantly, did anybody get a black eye?

It's very comparable with the Dems and the rustbelt.

No black eyes and the police have said they found no cause for concern, but it does sound like a pretty heated argument that's inevitably whipped the media into a frenzy.

Here's some local news that I wouldn't want to withhold from you. If you're eating dinner though, you may want to save it for later ...






oh and there was another plofkraak. Zo ne grote vuurbal jonge BAM !

I am amused at demonrail666's new location.

two articles about a nice event in the Netherlands to wave goodbye to Brexit


[quote]
Brexit event in Wijk aan Zee goes viral

A fun Facebook event to say goodbye to the British on the Brexit date of 31 October is going viral. "Looking at Great Britain in a beach chair with Dutch chips, French wine and German beer when it wakes up as a closed establishment," the day 'Cozy on the beach watching the Brexit' is announced. People sign up en masse on Facebook for the event on the beach at Wijk aan Zee.

Almost seven thousand people say they are going and another fifty thousand people have clicked that they are "interested" in the event. Responses are pouring in on the page that "celebrates" Britain's exodus from the EU. Many people would like to see the British leave: "A beer with some 'fish and chips' ... Top drama!", Gea writes. "I have to work ... can't it be delayed for a day or two?" Someone else jokes.

Others may not appreciate the jolly event: "Laugh, those British will soon be away from Brussels, and we are still stuck with that money-wasting machine ...", writes Douwe.

Ron Toekook does not mean that Britain is lagging behind as a 'closed institution' but 'tongue-in-cheek', he explains by telephone. He created the Facebook event as a fun action, but was surprised by the massive response. Toekook regrets the departure of the British: "We owe so much to them: from the Beatles to films with Hugh Grant and also Jamie Oliver. I have warm feelings about that. ”

Toekook is very sorry that they are getting out now. "We say goodbye to a very old friend who is leaving. It becomes more difficult to go there and exchange cultures. ”He does not condemn the decision and says he understands it somewhere. "They have to know for themselves, but we don't hate anything British. I hope they will come back someday. "
The organizer is also open to musical suggestions, he writes on the page: "If there is enough interest there may be a band that can play quietly and We'll meet again . Other musical suggestions are very welcome. ”This leads to a stream of posts on the page of songs such as Go your own way by Fleetwood Mac and Somebody that I used to know by Gotye.
[/quote]

i completely lost track of everything this summer, and now i wake up to read boris is trying to hogtie parliament? lmao

great way to reconnect to all of this...

It's an absolute mess and the right wing press trying to make out that what he's doing is completely democratic is an lie. How anyone can see what's happening as completely fine is beyond me. Worst thing is the feeling of hopelessness of it all. So Johnson has managed to get attempts to shut government down for his own gain (yes for his own gain). Now what?

What are your thoughts on it all, Demo?

So much energy devoted to something that'll have no material impact on the average British person's life, other than perhaps making them a bit poorer and making it a tiny bit more difficult to travel to Europe.

Gotta love BrexShit lol

Meanwhile, the planet burns, the ice melts and we're all shittin' plastic.

Crazy world this.

you’re right.... but...

i don’t really wanna talk about the bolsofires. im just getting rid of my car and upping the bicycle usage. too much talk about that shit, too little doing.

and it might make me sad to boycott beef, but how else can one divest from burning the amazon? even though i buy from a local rancher. wtf. it’s about demand for beef.

as for brexit: it’s not nothing. it has/will have bigger repercussions than simple local impact. politically, at least, but ultimately politics shows up in the material shape of the planet.

also, there’s money to be made with if you hate work haaaahaahahaaaaaaaa

I'm not talking about this thread, let's discuss BrexShit! It's an utter spectacle. I have 8 posts so who gives a fuck what I think anyway. lol

I'm talking about the priorities in British politics in general. 3 years of utter dross, and the outcome will likely be - NOTHING; NO IMPACT - for most people, unless it's really bad and even more people people struggle to eat for a while. So probably a negative impact if anything.

It's difficult for me to see any positive impact to the life of the average person in this country from shitty BrexShit. Nothing will change for the better. Someone shoulda told them.

This issue has consumed politics in this country, while the environmental situation on the planet continues to decline and the window for preventing horrific problems closes. On top of that, the very status of the UK union is in disarray due to Brexit - leader of the Scottish Tories is likely to resign, furthering the independence movement there (she was a big factor in mitigating that). And we have Boris Johnson navigating all this - haha.

World's crazy, man.

like recessions?

bigger, in that only wealthy societies care about the environment while the poor slash and burn to survive. even though the poor pay.

also in that political entities can set environmental standards, favor renewables over fossil fuels, etc. or go stupid doubling down on coal, for example.

same thing with funding for science vs the antiscience dolts, reproductive freedoms which impact population, long term policies vs short term populist giveaways, etc.

anyway— fuck brazilian beef. of course the poor will suffer from this dumbass land giveaway while the rich stuff their pockets elsewhere. and when oxygen is for sale they will have cash to buy it.

saw on bloomberg that the areas of crop cultivation in the usa have shrunken significantly this year

get ready for spiking food prices....

lol boris...

yes-queen said yes again: halloween no-deal brexit blocked by law

bercow will do what now? lol im so confused

fucking bibi. i mean...

aaand boris lost that court case. which leaves him... where??

(but the pound rises...]

what is the DUP going to do about the all-island irish regulations just proposed? shit a brick i assume?

i dont understand their letter from 24 minutes ago:

so, may’s plan for a temporary irish backstop now belongs to boris?

Anyone who says they predicted what has happened over the last few weeks is a liar, whichever side of the argument they're on, but IMO, Boris must now know he can't get a deal because, regardless of party-lines, the majority of parliament are more interested in remaining in the EU full stop, than leaving with any kind of deal. So it looks to me like he's offering a token gesture of a deal that he knows will be rejected both by parliament and the EU in the hope that it runs the clock down to the 31st, and the EU itself rejects any request for an extension. That's possible but unlikely.

More likely is there'll be an extension, and then an election some time between November and January. Boris should, if he's sensible, ditch any bid for a deal and accept Farage's offer of a pact. That would see the Brexit Party targeting the majority of Labour seats which are unlikely ever to vote Tory under any circumstances but which voted Leave in the referendum, while standing down in those seats already held by the Tories, or any Lib ones that the Tories have a decent chance of winning.

Even if parliament votes no-deal off the table before the election, it won't count afterwards. So if that scenario plays out the way I think it could, I can see a no-deal Brexit by January and a majority Boris/Farage coalition government for at least as long as it takes Labour to finally move beyond Corbyn/Momentum. Although if Greta's right, we may well be extinct before that happens.

There's a million ifs and buts in all that, and I'd be as surprised as anyone if it plays out exactly like that, but it's how I see it.

i’ve been out of the loop for the summer/early fall, so thanks for the catch-up

A Johnson/Farage pact? Sweet baby Jesus of the orphanage!! In what world is that a good idea at all? We are talking about the same Farage, right? You're gonna have to enlighten me on this one.

i found this about that

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ggression-pact

The only thing that'll really stop it happening is Boris's and Farage's egos, but their own parties supporters seem overwhelmingly in favour of a deal being struck, and if the extension happens and an election is called I'd be really surprised if they don't end up coming to some kind of arrangement. Certainly everyone i know who voted to leave is in favour of it.


You're really asking the wrong person. You know my voting record on this (Leave in the referendum; Brexit Party in the last Euro elections) so why wouldn't I support a pact that could prevent another majority Remain parliament and see us finally leave the EU? I'm obviously not expecting you to agree with me and, to be honest, given our fundamental difference of opinion on this, I'd consider it a bit weird if you did.

so what i understand from this is that leaving the eu takes precedence over all other considerations for leavers at this point.

but i just read in the news that boris will ask for an extension. lolwut? i thought he wanted to crash out!

eta: oh, it’s a law! he has to obey it. not too enthusiastically i assume.

another extension would be great.

The meltdown from the Brexiteers would be spectacular.

The bitching and whining about "democracy" has been unreal from them -- another wee extension would be superb haha

My problem is that the Brexit party is only based around one thing-leaving Europe. If there was a coalition and then Brexit happened then what? You honestly thing Farage would be a good person to have in a postion of power? Going back to his UKIP days he's shown himself to be the absolute worst kind of human being. Even just looking at the policies he pushed with UKIP shows that. The coalition argument is at best flawed, at worst outright bonkers.

Would you actually want a no deal brexit to go through just so you can be glad we're out? Even given all the warnings of how much harm it'd do to the country? That kind of logic blows my mind.

Funny thing for me is the hardliners who voted for Brexit certainly didn't vote for a no deal. Now the narrative has moved to where they're wanting it and making out it was the cunning plan all along.

I don't think it'd be a coalition in the sense you mean. More a solidarity agreement similar to the one the Cons have with the DUP.


I'd take a deal that seemed to be in the best interests of the country but none so far have been.



Cameron, who set the referendum, said, and I quote, ‘What the British public will be voting for is to leave the EU and leave the single market.’

He didn't say we'd be voting to leave the EU and the single market, so long as we find a deal that parliament approves of.

The ballot itself was a simple choice between leave and reman. No mention of a deal.

I can't speak for others but I knew what I was voting for.

Nigel Farage and the Brexit party have voted against a European parliament resolution calling for stronger EU action to counter election meddling and Russian disinformation.

consider me not surprised at all

did boris just get may’d by bercow, who banned a revote?

Looks like it. However, the leavers are saying he's gone above board and should be sacked off now as he's ignoring the "will of the people". Don't believe a word of what they say. Bercow was right to not have another vote when nothing had changed since the last vote.

Funnily enough I found an old newspaper from 2014 whilst I was decorating a house. Flicking through and it was nice to see not a single mention of brexit in it.

As the token 'leaver' on the board my problem with Bercow isn't that he's against the will of the people but that he shows a transparent bias in his dealings with Brexit while in a position that's meant to be impartial. We see this when he refers to precedent when it suits his agenda and disregards it when it doesn't. So he was right to reject the 2nd vote on Boris's deal but he's inconsistent. Also he's standing down at the end of the month so it's pointless calling for his sacking.

so, as everyone knows, macron conceded, and after some wrangling now you get dec 12 elections, lol

predictions?

curious...

(last i saw, demonyo could see a corbyn win, and the economy crashing)

And the end of days as we know it blah, blah, blah. Last elections everyone was predicting a conservative smash and the end of Labour, however it totally backfired on May. Don't see it happening this time round though.

Labour have a massive battle on their hands again with the media going on a full frontal assault against them. Again.

I think Swinson coming out to revoke article 50 robs Corbyn of a large bulk of remain voters, especially in their new heartland, the inner cities and university towns. Assuming this will be an election based on Leaving or Remaining I just don't see who Labour really appeals to now. Boris still has the problem of Farage but it seems from looking at a lot of pro-Leave media that he's now coming under increasing pressure from even the most hardline Brexiteers to strike some kind of non-aggression pact with the Tories, even if they don't particularly like Boris's deal. If they do I think Boris gets a majority, otherwise I can see a hung parliament. Either way I don't see any way Corbyn gets a majority and Swinson, who has no chance of getting a Lib majority, has made it clear she'll never go into coalition with him.

oh, swinson is the liberal democrats! (like i said, i lost track)

i see news about the two main parties wanting to freeze her out of the debates!

i really would like to be able to catch up with all this right now...

The problem with making sense of this election is the main topic is such a divisive one, with each side thinking it has the high-ground over the other, represented by party leaders who are equally marmite. One thing's certain. It's gonna get really ugly.