Right now, the Dow is down 700 or so on recession fears. Hopefully the president tweet-screaming stuff like this will calm the jitters:
“The Fed has got to do something! The Fed is the Central Bank of the United States, not the Central Bank of the World.” Mark Grant @Varneyco Correct! The Federal Reserve acted far too quickly, and now is very, very late. Too bad, so much to gain on the upside!
“So far, you’ve had Tariffs imposed on 300 Billion Dollars worth of Chinese products, but you can’t tell me that it has hurt our economy…& it really hasn’t led to any kind of serious rise in prices at the consumer level.” @Varneyco @FoxBusiness And we are taking in $Billions!
Tremendous amounts of money pouring into the United States. People want safety!
LOL! Meanwhile, the corrupt old shitbird commerce secretary had thoughts on tariffs earlier:
We don't want to ruin Christmas with tariffs, says Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross pic.twitter.com/3YuznXpws5
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) August 14, 2019
The question that elicited Ross’s droning response was whether Trump extracted any concessions from China in exchange for delaying the new tariffs he announced last week. The answer is no, he did not; Tariff Man blinked because even if he’s too stupid to realize it, his low-quality hires know tariffs on consumer goods raise prices for consumers, and a bad holiday season might finally derail the Obama economic recovery and, with it, Trump’s sole argument for reelection.
Speaking of lunatics and morons running economic policy, John Bolton met with Boris Johnson yesterday. Via the Beeb:
Mr Bolton said on Tuesday that the Trump administration supported a no-deal Brexit, and added Washington would propose an accelerated series of trade deals in the event of one…
He said there would be enthusiastic bipartisan support in Congress for speedy ratification at each stage.
Not so fast, said Nancy Pelosi today:
Democrat Nancy Pelosi, whose party controls the House, said the UK’s exit from the EU could not be allowed to endanger the Irish peace deal.
Her comments came after the US national security adviser said the UK would be “first in line” for a trade deal…
“Whatever form it takes, Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil the Good Friday Agreement, including the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland,” Ms Pelosi said in a statement on Wednesday.
Keep fucking that chlorinated chicken, Brexiteers. I’ll defer to UK jackals on the implications of Pelosi’s warning, but from what I’ve read, figuring out what to do about the Irish border is the stickiest of wickets. Sort of related:
Last week, John McDonnell, the Labour Party chief, said that if Johnson were to lose a no-confidence vote and still refuse to step down, he would reluctantly be forced to remind Her Majesty that she is, after all, the head of state. “I don’t want to drag the Queen into this, but I would be sending Jeremy Corbyn in a cab to Buckingham Palace to say we are taking over,” he told an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, is a lifelong republican who declined to kneel before the Queen when he was appointed to her Privy Council. That he, of all people, might turn to the hereditary monarch to save Britain from its own government is yet another of the Brexit referendum’s hitherto unimaginable, and now entirely conceivable, consequences.
So, to recap, it appears that “conservative” idiots are attempting to ruin the economy on both sides of the Atlantic for no good reason, and their success in that endeavor is looking more likely by the day. I don’t know shit about economics, so maybe this is all nothing and everything will be fine. But looking at the personnel involved in the decision making doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Open thread.
Brachiator
A little more context on Pelosi’s position. From an August 4 news story.
Eight Republican senators did not sign the letter: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Richard Shelby of Alabama.
The Republicans don’t understand what they are stepping into.
https://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/45-gop-senators-pledge-to-support-british-over-irish-if-no-deal-brexit
chopper
trump knows it’s gonna be shit, he’s setting up the blame game ahead of time. he’ll keep attacking the fed, but the rest are gonna figure out a way to blame the democrats.
Van Buren
It’s eleventy dimension chess. They’re tanking the economy to reduce CO2 emissions and thus, save the world.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m sorry, what does this sentence even mean?
Brachiator
Another BREXIT complication. The Northern Ireland government has been suspended for months because of … complicated political shit that I am not remotely competent to adequately explain. Day to day operations are carried out by civil servants.
But if any form of BREXIT is passed, legislation must also be passed to implement whatever happens in Northern Ireland. The Civil Service cannot do this. This means that either the local government must return or the British government must directly govern Northern Ireland. Guess how desirable either option might be.
ETA. Also, too, the status of Gibraltar might become a post BREXIT issue. No one wants to talk about this one.
The Moar You Know
Boris is furiously denouncing his anti-Brexit fellow MEPs as “European collaborators”, which is a phrase that’s really just loaded to the gills with bad history.
He also accidentally told the truth, saying that they all needed to get on board to give him some negotiating leverage with the EU as, for some reason, the EU isn’t willing to renegotiate the deal they gave Teresa May. And what Johnson needs to realize right now is that in spite of his awesomeness and sexy hair, no matter what he offers the EU is not going to change one word.
They’re not getting that wonderful free trade deal with the US either, although frankly even if they did II cannot imagine what the British have to sell us that we’d want (save for Status carbon-fiber bass guitars, which are the shit).
kindness
We wish we could see Putin’s payoffs. That would explain a lot.
chopper
yes, from american consumers. cause that’s what tariffs do.
JustRuss
I’m no economist, but:
1. The housing market, at least where I live, is very hot. Unsustainably so.
2. Sales of new cars have been declining for months.
Make of that what you will, but toss a trade war into the mix and I don’t see it going well.
lamh36
#NiecyZoe’s Time flies so fast! These four years have flown by so fast!! Best thing bout being home in NOLA is never having to miss anything!
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/1161663283738419200?s=21
Yutsano
@Brachiator:
This has been an evergreen statement since they let Drumpf hijack their _nomination process way back in 2015. And they have no plan once he’s gone one way or the other.
Belafon
Shorter McDonnell: We’re not adult enough to fix the problems we’ve caused, but don’t kick us out of government.
jonas
@Brachiator:
So it’s fuck Ireland and the peace accord and let the chips fall where they may. What could go wrong? And Cotton is supposed to be the caucus’s foreign policy brains. From Richard Lugar to this in less than a decade. Well done, Republicans.
chopper
@SiubhanDuinne:
he’s pissed that the fed raised rates, even though it’s paltry from a historical standpoint. low rates goose the economy cause free money.
also, trump is deep in fucking debt, so he wants rates low.
The Moar You Know
@SiubhanDuinne: Trump wants a return to Greenspan’s Fed policy, namely a return to 0% interest rates, and he wants that to happen today. It would stave off the slowdown that is occurring right now for a while longer. And would make it, when it inevitably happens, so much worse.
I understand why. It got Bush his second term. It also led directly to the 2008 crash, but Trump doesn’t care about that – his event horizon goes to November 2020 and no further.
Litlebritdifrnt
What drives me bananas is that the BBC and other UK News Orgs take Bolton’s words at face value and never look into the back story of any trade deal having to be approved by Congress. They blithely report Bolton’s words without noting that both Bolton and his boss are pathological liars. Why do they do this? They do the same with Boris, they announce his promises for more funding for this or that and never report that he is, like Trump, a pathological liar.
Brachiator
Trump is trying to pressure the Fed into lowering interest rates. A consistent theme of his administration is to exert more executive authority over agencies which traditionally have been independent.
Conservatives like to prattle about the almighty glory of limited government, but cower in fearful silence and say nothing about Trump’s imperious antics.
Gravenstone
You’d think I’d have gotten somewhat accustomed, if not inured to Trump’s random gibbering by now. That doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe that’s good for my longer term mental health?
Catherine D.
I just finished watching the second series of Derry Girls, which ended with Bill Clinton’s visit to Belfast and Derry after the Good Friday agreement. It’s sickening to think that a hard border could go back.
BTW, Derry Girls is hilarious.
OzarkHillbilly
@Brachiator: I guess the Irish aren’t quite as white as everyone thought they were.
Uncle Cosmo
@Belafon: Um, just what is it about “Labour” being “in opposition” – i.e., not being “part of the government” – that you have trouble comprehending? Did the strange spelling confoozle your widduw head?
BC in Illinois
@Brachiator:
Irish Central July 30
I know the Brexit mess only from a distance, but the one thing I picked up early on is that the Irish border question and the Irish Peace Accord were fundamental challenges that had to be dealt with. And now, with 75 days left to go, Boris Johnson and crew are saying, “Oh, we’ll come up with something. We’ll just take all power into our own hands.”
As Fascinating Aida said to Scotland:
SiubhanDuinne
@The Moar You Know:
It’s just such a bizarre way to phrase it. “They moved too fast and now they’re late.” Sounds like a Yogi Berra-ism: “Nobody goes there any more. It’s too crowded.”
Gin & Tonic
Open thread? I’m pretty pissed off that the new version of Apocalypse Now will be playing in theaters for, as best I can tell, exactly two days: tomorrow and Sunday, both days that I have other commitments. And even still, it won’t be playing anywhere that’s less than an hour’s drive from me. It’s almost as if they don’t actually care about getting people out to see it.
Spanky
@Yutsano: Doesn’t matter. Both Donnie and Boris are following Vlad’s orders to fuck shit up and break things. I just can’t figure out whether Vlad’s got all Republican Senators by the balls, or whether they just will fuck shit up and break things because Cleek’s Law.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Brachiator: The status of Gibraltar is a huge issue for us personally. Mum owns property there and is very close to people in Gibraltar who have absolutely no interest in being Spanish. They are Brits and want to remain Brits. The last referendum they had the vote was overwhelmingly to remain British.
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think he’s saying they raised rates too quickly and have been too slow in lowering them again. Or he could just be spouting the usual gibberish.
scottinnj
@Brachiator: There actually may be a case that the Fed was overly aggressive raising interest rates in 2018. Basically the Fed was worried there was little slack in the job market, thus continued economic growth would lead to accelerated wage pressure and inflation. Even some economists like Paul Krugman, no friend of DJT, felt the Fed was acting too aggressively and some of the recent rate cuts were simply reversing the mistake. However there probably was more slack and as inflation did not take off, the Fed had room to cut to reverse its mistake.
China growth is slowing (part of which is some rebalancing/law of large #, some yes is damage from the tariffs), the German Economy (very big!) had negative growth and may be in a recession. Housing is stabilizing, after recovering from the financial crisis and car sales (which do employ lots of people) are slowing. And GDP isn’t already only growing at 2% (Q2 2019). Couple that with an equity market that may be a bit frothy (even with today’s drop, the DJ is up around 30% since DJT got elected) and none of this is all that surprising. that also isn’t the same as saying every recession looks like 2008/09 (it was really bad hence it is called the Great Recession!).
Even the proverbial broken clock is right twice a day and, while he surely doesn’t understand, even DJT occasionally will stumble into the right answer.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
I want off this fucking train
Anonymous At Work
@JustRuss: The declining car market would explain the dealer knife fight over selling me a new car…I filmed some footage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipsPgNEmAXI
NotMax
Open thread-y good news story. AFAIK, no duct tape involved.
Baud
Trump should suspend his campaign to deal with the issue.
Raoul
@Brachiator: I for one can’t believe that the guy who fucking wrote the letter to Iran has also signaled via letter that Ireland is on his shit list.
What a g-d damned idiot. I don’t care how educated he is. He’s an ideologue, and that path always leads to deep stupidity of action. Jeepers.
RAVEN
“Racist Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said generations of people would not be here without rape and incest while making the case for anti-abortion legislation without exceptions for victims of those crimes.
Speaking to members at the Westside Conservative Club on Wednesday, King argued that humanity would not have the population it does today if not for rape and incest, the Des Moines Register reported.”
RAVEN
fuck some moderation
Baud
@Brachiator:
They might lose Peter King!
Raoul
@JustRuss: I’ve had a certain sense of dread for the real estate market for months now. A mix of frothing as investors seek returns through property speculation, and young (or not so young) first time buyers are pinched by limited wage growth and no affordable supply.
Quicksand
Mark my words, any recession now will be caused by uncertainty around Democratic gains in the 2020 elections.
NotMax
@Baud
Jared will fix it.
:) :) :)
schrodingers_cat
Has Orange T said anything about Kashmir, yet?
bluehill
There are a lot of contenders for most insufferable repub, but Tom Cotton is trying his hardest to claim the title. I can’t really figure out his endgame other than one that’s pretty bleak.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
If he does, it’ll be something about how good Ivanka looks in their sweaters.
//
laura
@Raoul: not just an idiot, a Harvard educated former military, deeply DEEPLY dangerous arrogant shite-bag, bobble- throated slap dick. He’s got serious presidential intentions. Keep your eye on this one.
schrodingers_cat
@bluehill: Is he even worse than Steve King?
Adam L Silverman
I’ve cleared all of you all out of moderation.
I don’t know what you all have been doing to get in there, but don’t do it again!//
SiubhanDuinne
@RAVEN:
You know what you did.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
He said it’s his favorite fabric.
OzarkHillbilly
@RAVEN:
One more reason for rape and incest to be against the law.
Chetan Murthy
@schrodingers_cat: Heh indeed. I was thinking just the same thing.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: Cotton is slipping. Last time he pulled this type of stunt, he had 47 signatures.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: I think FYWP doesn’t like the word for the thing where you fuck your sister.
Raoul
@Quicksand: Tragically, per Conventional Wisdom, this is becoming true. The beltway ‘window of blame’ is rapidly closing (or closed?). 18 months before an election is considered by shitheels like Chuck Todd to be the latest that a recession can be blamed on the sitting prez-snit. I have no idea why. Maybe it takes 18 months for the leading edges of recession to bleed down to main street and job numbers?
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: He will probably congratulate Modi on his bold and decisive action.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@schrodingers_cat:
Times of india: US President Donald Trump’s U-turn on Kashmir
Warning: It’s a video and it’s from yesterday
OzarkHillbilly
@RAVEN: I ended up in moderation too, damned if I can see what I quoted that is so objectionable.
mad citizen
@Gin & Tonic: G&T: Sorry it’s not showing near you. But at least you alerted us/me to this. It is near me at two theaters. I’m debating whether to go; have visiting family in my house. I recently finally watched the Making Of doc that Mrs. Coppola made. A great doc to accompany a great movie.
bluehill
@schrodingers_cat: To me, he’s scarier because he’s smarter and has access to power.
schrodingers_cat
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: If you don’t min can you paraphrase? I don’t want to watch him speak.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: If you wait to think about it tomorrow it will make sense yesterday.
Raoul
@laura: I saw recently that he has his eye on Pennsylvania Ave for 2024.
Fuck.
No.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: My understanding is that Johnson’s hardline COS is advocating and preparing direct rule by London over Northern Ireland. Because, you know, when you’re cutting your nose off to spite your face, a DIY vasectomy with a sawzall is always an appropriate accoutrement!
schrodingers_cat
@bluehill: He is pretty awful. I agree.
RAVEN
@SiubhanDuinne: Yea I took Lil Bit out. This heat is not helping her.
ChuckInAustin
I have a degree in economics, this will not be fine.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
Next they’ll retake Canada.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yeah, I read it three times and I still don’t understand the point.
Sure Lurkalot
Somewhat anecdotal…my career was in multi family real estate finance…placing debt and managing overall loan portfolios. Two developer/owners I worked for were prudent investors…despite the fact that recessions did create losses in their core business and a bit of nail biting, they ultimately benefited quite nicely from them. They invariably were in a position to purchase assets on the cheap as the downturn subsided, including buying out the equity of their partners who unlike them, bit off more than they could chew on the upswing. For them, recessions became a feature not a bug. And while one might have little sympathy for plutocrats being fed on by their own, they bought up for pennies on the dollar the hard earned wealth of many whose misfortune was largely due to no fault of their own or their business model.
mrmoshpotato
Hopefully people will be able to find the extra penny to buy a can of soup and a can of beer.
Because soup cans and beer cans are the only things made of steel and aluminum!
(Sorry if I’m off here. I can’t keep up with all the stupid tariffs that Mexico! and Jhina! are going to pay for.)
Gravenstone
@Raoul:
Perhaps Cotton has a vendetta against nations whose names start with “I” in the English spelling? If so, watch out Iceland! You’re on the list …
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
It has a certain def poetry jam quality to it.
mad citizen
@Raoul: I am an economist. I’ve never heard of this “rule “. The blame game is for historians, but surely something like the 2008 recession was largely blamed on the guy running the Exec. Branch for the previous seven. I’m not aware of anyone blaming incoming Obama, though I await jackals showing me RWNJ theories.
catclub
@The Moar You Know:
The Trump admin is actually acting in the US interest by claiming to support a no-deal brexit, because then we will get a great trade deal
from the desperate UK. meanwhile our trade with the rest of the EU should remain unchanged, the net is a win for the US. Pelosi is just saying that any favorable deal with the brexited UK will also need to fix the Irish border. Good luck with that.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
Followed by a proposed executive order to un-state California.
Adam L Silverman
@OzarkHillbilly: They never have been. Not for the English and not for Americans. Also, it is important to remember that during World War II many Italian American Soldiers were listed as black by the US Army.
Martin
@RAVEN: Give him credit – advancing a pro-rape, pro-incest position is a hell of a bold decision.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gravenstone: It’s all due to his tour in Iraq.
Heywood J.
Any journamalist who doesn’t just ask Orange Foolius over and over again, How are you saving Christmas by postponing tariffs, if China is paying us via said tariffs?, they are missing an easy lay-up. Jesus, he spoon-feeds it to them, and they keep whiffing on whatever the distraction of the week happens to be.
geg6
@Brachiator:
Not sure how they could possibly go any lower. Plus, if they did lower them, what would be available as a tool to help mitigate the inevitable slow down/recession? Or, apparently, they are just fine with us jumping straight off the cliff?
Chetan Murthy
@mad citizen:
Nobody credible blamed Obama, but a shit-ton of RWNJ talking-heads pretended it was all his fault, for sure. A shit-ton.
Adam L Silverman
@Raoul: The question is once he runs out of countries that start with the letter I, who does he take on next?
Baud
@Heywood J.:
I actually did see that theme discussed in the news today.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
Unavoidable. Baked in.
OzarkHillbilly
@Adam L Silverman: What about Slovenians? We’re all pretty darkly complected.
Adam L Silverman
@laura: He got himself assigned to a Provincial Reconstruction Team as his last deployment. The only Soldiers assigned to the PRTs were assigned there to keep them away from anything important.
Martin
@mad citizen: It’s a way to elevate their profession. The election is so consequential that businesses are slowing hiring out of fear that a year and a half from now Warren might get elected. It’s utter bullshit. They have it backward – the incoming president should get a 6 month grace period to right the ship.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: But not his favorite Led Zeppelin song.
Bill Arnold
@Van Buren:
The Republicans are not playing eleventy dimensional chess. But yes. Collapse the global economy (it’s always been fragile (offensively fragile, an engineer might say), more so with global supply chains and just-in-time and etc), GHG emissions go way down[0]. There are not many such quick mechanisms; regional nuclear war is another (bonus: nuclear autumn!). Engineered lethal global pandemic is another. A few more.
[0] Complicated, but see e.g. Drivers of the US CO2 emissions 1997–2013 (21 July 2015, open access, html)
James E Powell
@schrodingers_cat:
Does he know where it is? Does he even know what it is?
Steve in the ATL
@catclub:
Finally–I’ve been waiting for good deals on boiled mutton and cars with unfixable electrical problems
TenguPhule
@Spanky:
How could we tell the difference?
Steve in the ATL
@Martin: at least it’s an ethos
OzarkHillbilly
@Martin:
Just like in ’09, they don’t want to pay for it.
Heywood J.
@Baud: Yeah, I saw it on one of the panel shows too. They need to ask him directly. This is a complete 180 from his earlier (obviously nonsensical) position that Jhina! is paying the tariffs. And obviously he’s not going to explain himself, because he can’t. But they can at least push him on it, until he snaps.
Baud
@Heywood J.:
I’m not sure what asking a liar questions actually gets us since they’ll just end up reporting his response.
Adam L Silverman
@OzarkHillbilly: I have no idea. My guess is that during WW II, if anyone in the US who wasn’t of Slovenian descent knew where Slovenia was they would have just assumed northeast
westItaly/Italy adjacent.Gin & Tonic
@Steve in the ATL:
And don’t forget self-changing oil.
trollhattan
@RAVEN:
Just when you think he can’t possibly go any lower, Steve King buys himself a shiny new shovel.
So very proud to be an Iowan ?
Chetan Murthy
@Spanky:
I don’t think he needs to [get their balls in a vise] [though for certain ones, I think he *does* (*cough* Moscow Mitch, Russian Rand)]. The GrOPers all know that unless they continuing pushing the right-wing agenda, they’re all dead. And that agenda is transnational. They’re going to support any RWNJ party in any country at this point. These GrOPers *agree* with Putin’s goals. It’s that simple.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
:-)
trollhattan
@James E Powell:
He had a nice blazer made from it at one time.
satby
So in anticipation of purchasing a permanent slot at the farmer’s market where I now rent, I put in a sell order on some of the shares in my small IRA. So delighted that I’m going to be out even more money than I had calculated this morning.
At least purchasing a booth is a tangible asset I can sell again instead of watching my money get dissipated by the moron in chief.
schrodingers_cat
@James E Powell: He does I think. He offered to mediate when Imran Khan was in the WH
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Warren should frame Dump’s tariffs as a WAR ON XMAS
TenguPhule
@Baud:
Well played.
PJ
@James E Powell: Sure, it’s on Physical Graffiti, Side 2, Track 3. (Actually, I’m sure Trump has no idea which Zep album it’s on.)
rp
I’m just gonna go ahead and assume Cotton is also on Putin’s payroll.
TenguPhule
@RAVEN:
Undoubtedly contributing to more then a few Republicans who otherwise wouldn’t be here.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@lamh36: Oh my goodness. It seems like she was just born.
TenguPhule
FYWP.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
“When Black Friday comes.”
They imagine it’s all so simple–pull a few levers and make the economy dance like Carmen Miranda. “Here’s a banana Wilbur, show us your stuff.”
Still get steamed about that jowly fuck waving the Campbell’s soup can at the camera while telling us how naive we all are. Build a bridge out of soybeans, you walking scrotum.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly:
You’re Slovenian?
NotMax
@satby
How goes the battle against kitten chaos in the loo?
Momentary concern the other day when there was radio silence from you after announcing intent to enter.
;)
Chetan Murthy
@zhena gogolia: I assumed OH was making a subtle dig at Melanoma.
trollhattan
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
While Trump wishes our retirement accounts “happy holidays.”
ruemara
@Adam L Silverman: Do they want a war?
I confess to really be bamboozled by the oligarch strategy of steal the working man’s wealth, crash the economy so their money (and yours) is worth less, increase their suffering so they have – TADAAAA! – nothing to lose by killing you.
Dave
@Adam L Silverman: He’s exactly what I’d expect from my experience with PRT’s. Tom has actually managed to supplant Ted Cruz as the Senator I find most immediately and dislikable (McConnell holds a special place unrelated to this). The complete misplaced Dunning-Kreuger confidence he brings to foreign policy is just the perfect cherry on top.
Sloane Ranger
My understanding is that Bolton offered BoJo a quid pro quo. Tear up the Iran nuclear deal and don’t do any deals with Huawei (sp?) and we’ll fast track some nice sectional trade deals. This puts Johnson in a dilemma. He’s not as stupid as he looks and he knows that Trump is a serial liar (takes one to know one) plus his foreign office people will be explaining to him about Congressional approval, but, on the other hand, he needs a deal to compensate for lost trade with Europe. It will be interesting (in a living in interesting times way) to see which way he jumps.
In other news, the media is reporting that a vote of no confidence in the government is expected to be held in the 1st 2 weeks after the Commons returns from recess. If successful this would force a General election. Dominic Cummings (BoJo’s) fixer has said that any election would be scheduled for after Brexit but John Bercow, the Speaker, has said he would fight for an early election. I assume his staff are researching Erskine May and Parliamentary records dating all the way back to the Conquest even as we speak.
I was lunching with a friend today and we agreed that this total fcuk up is due to the fact that we have enjoyed such a long period without any major wars or other challenges and we are now getting 40 + years worth in one go.
Cheryl Rofer
Just a reminder that the January 2017 intelligence report said that the Republicans had been hacked in addition to the Democrats. Have we seen ANY of that material? Any of THEIR emails?
For those who are wondering about Republican motivation.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Obviously they failed since he somehow got into Congress.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Hasn’t Kashmir already suffered enough?
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
re: something you mentioned the other day – it wasn’t just you, consider yourself part of a select group.
YouTube tests bigger thumbnails, and people hate it
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
Cotton’s letter was full of nonsense about the greatness of Churchill and the British lion. It doesn’t take much to see the clear dismissal of the Irish as bratty peons who deserve to be dominated.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
There are, if I’m counting correctly*, only 8 countries that begin with “I”: Iran, Iraq, India, Indonesia, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, and (ta-da!) Israel!
*In my head. Don’t feel like looking it up. I have quite likely missed a couple.
TenguPhule
@Steve in the ATL:
Unpatriotic! Buy a Ford Pinto.
Chetan Murthy
@ruemara:
Radical historian Randolph Bourne once said “War is the health of the state”. I’m sure they -do- want war.
The rich aren’t constrained to sell their assets when the economy turns down. The poor *are*. In fact your money is typically worth more in a downturn — b/c inflation subsides and you can even get deflation [as happened in the Great Recession]. The rich can then buy assets at knock-down prices. It is, after all, what happened in the Great Recession, right?
Dave
@ruemara: I don’t think they actually plan any further ahead. And those that want to are situationally incapable of doing otherwise. It violates their most sacred taboos.
Barbara
@SiubhanDuinne: Is Ingushetia a country?
RAVEN
@Adam L Silverman: da moors
TenguPhule
@Sloane Ranger:
Cite your evidence.
GregB
I was told there’d be copious amounts of winning.
TenguPhule
@GregB:
They never said that normal people would be the winners.
Bill Arnold
@Cheryl Rofer:
Or about who holds/held (most of) the puppet strings for wikileaks.
TenguPhule
Speaking of con jobs….
2 guards slept through checks, falsified records in Jeffrey Epstein’s death
Rank Incompetence or Criminal Coverup? These days, who can tell them apart?
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Something about Melania liking Kashmir sweaters.
More seriously, nothing much about either Kashmir or Hong Kong.
Bill Arnold
@Chetan Murthy:
Yeah. That’s one of the main differences between the rich and the poor; duration of bad times that one can reasonably expect to endure.
Chetan Murthy
@TenguPhule:
My Boris Johnson story
It’s worth reading, and I can’t find any tidy bits to excerpt. In short, the author’s thesis is that BoJo is actually cleverly managing his public profile in a way that almost all people just can’t see thru. There’s other evidence, too: the way he purposely contrives his disheveled appearance, the way he plays the fool when journos try to ask him hard questions.
TenguPhule
Satellite photos show Chinese armored vehicles near Hong Kong
laura
@Raoul: I hope he and Liz Cheney die fighting each other for the nomination. The sense of entitlement and terrible policies each support and the ruthlessness. . . Well, I could go on all darn day.
JPL
@Martin: According to the Des Moines Register some folks appreciated his comment. We need to be afraid, very afraid.
Elizabelle
WaPost: I would like to see this speech! Maybe C-Span will have it. Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association.
Pelosi calls McConnell ‘Moscow Mitch’ as she recounts bills he has blocked
More of this, Madame Speaker. I am usually good with civility, but take the fight to Moscow Mitch.
And send him an assault weapons ban for his “grim reaping.”
trollhattan
@Chetan Murthy:
John Oliver made the same point in his extended piece on Boris a couple weeks ago–the crazy-haired buffoon is largely a bit he’s honed since he was young. Where that leaves him on the competence and smarts scale is unclear, but he has ulterior motives we now observe first-hand.
It baffles me the UK seems to not attend to Russian interference in the Brexit vote. By all rights they should know Russia and Vlad far better than we.
TenguPhule
Florida Man on vacation?
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
So it’s on. Good!
JPL
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Her trade policy is as bad.. just sayin
TenguPhule
Is Steve King an Immortal?
NotMax
@TenguPhule
Had this queued up since last night (HI time) for an honest to goodness Open Thread/Respite Thread. Shall forge ahead with it regardless at such time one appears.
ruemara
@Chetan Murthy: There’s a lot more that happened in the Great Recession and the societal unrest this would unleash would dwarf the struggles we’ve been through in the past century.
TenguPhule
Revealed: Republican lawmaker aided group training young men for ‘biblical warfare
Roger Moore
@Steve in the ATL:
I wouldn’t mind some good deals on Blue Stilton, Red Leicester, and West Country Farmhouse Cheddar.
Chetan Murthy
@JPL:
Uh, wot?
Elizabeth Warren’s vision for changing America’s trade policy, explained
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Turns out Moscow Mitch is trending in Kain-tucky.
different-church-lady
So, just in the last 48 hours:
* The Statue of Liberty needs to be re-written.
* Rape and incest are good.
At this rate they ought to be driving nails into their own foreheads before Super Tuesday.
TenguPhule
@NotMax: Looking forward to it.
different-church-lady
THE FILTER IS NOT REALLY MODERATE!!! YOU NEED TO EMPTY IT AGAIN!!!
OzarkHillbilly
@Adam L Silverman: When my mother, a Southern Baptist daughter of old genteel Southern Heritage told her parents she was marrying my Slovenian papist father, my grandmother threatened to disown her, so I always kinda figured we were once a little bit black and was just wondering how black.
(the way the story went, my mother went to her room to pack when Gram came in and said she just wanted to make sure Ma was serious. I always kinda figured Gramps said something along the lines of “George isn’t so bad, Remember the Jew she brought home last year?”)
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Double Gloucester or bust.
;)
Chetan Murthy
@ruemara:
ruemara, we’re agreed 100%. For sure, the rich don’t think thru that the consequences of their actions would be revolution. But …. they’re the sort of people who think they can survive after an apocalypse:
How tech’s richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse
Sure, the mind boggles. But if you think about the kind of mind that would think this is even a sensible question, I’ll claim that such a person would discount the possibility that their actions could ever have systemic effects. They fundamentally don’t believe in collective action problems, neither in the good nor the bad sense.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
Look out “island in the Pacific”!
JPL
@Chetan Murthy: It was poorly stated since she does have some good ideas, but I don’t think her policies towards China would help.
In a perfect world, her ideas are great. Unfortunately, we have to recognize what is possible.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Does that mean you can come and go as you like? That they can’t tell you “you have to be here on the 4th of July.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Brachiator: I believe he said Hong Kong was a very interesting situation and we’ll see what happens.
There’s a huge vacuum at the top of the American government.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Reading that story now.
And KDP is the Kentucky Democratic Party. So the Republicans would be …..
I wonder what they do call themselves.
Gravenstone
@Cheryl Rofer: Other than a couple related to Sen. Graham (and my, hasn’t he since then turned into Trump’s biggest little pitbull defender on all things racist?), nope – nary a thing from the purloined Republican materials. Things that make you go hmmmmm.
satby
@NotMax: I have embraced the cray-cray. A clean tub entices whichever culprit thinks that’s the hooman litter box to use it again, so I’m resigned to the fact that as long as they’re here it’s going to be a mess and continued job to clean each day. But in better news the feral baby has accepted me as the giver of food and lets me momentarily hold or pet him. He’s not enthusiastic about it, but it’s an improvement. They may be leaving by the end of this week.
Of course, then I’ll miss the little buggers very much. Though I’ll be consoled by my clean, disinfected bathtub.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: On my father’s side. Ma was a mix of English/ Scots, long time southern family..
Another Scott
The traders must love this stuff.
“OMG Panic!! Sell Sell Sell!!!1”
Next day
“OMG Panic!! Buy Buy Buy!!111”
Krugman earlier today:
Yup.
Of course, given our “leadership” there’s no telling what will happen, but fundamentally there’s no reason to panic.
Cheers,
Scott.
catclub
@Steve in the ATL:
what Trump has in mind is that US multinationals are allowed free reign in the UK. Banks, Facebook…
Mutton is from New Zealand, anyway.
mrmoshpotato
@Martin:
Six years is closer to the time needed.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: lol That’s such a sweet story.
NotMax
@satby
Have they discovered that marvelous toy hoomans boringly named “a roll of toilet paper?”
:)
Chris Johnson
@Elizabelle:
Well, THAT’S aggressive. I like it.
I also think she wouldn’t be saying that if she didn’t know full well it was absolutely true. Seems like impeaching Trump is a lot trickier, but establishing that Mitch is paid by Putin? Apparently that’s an open secret.
At least, among our leaders and betters. I guess there was no point worrying our poor little heads about it until it became sufficiently obvious? That’s annoying.
However, I’ve been saying for ages that it would explain a lot: Pelosi wouldn’t act because she knew the full extent of the treason, and was jockeying for position. I feel like this suggests it’s true, and that we’ve got a position now solid enough to run with. I’m game. Give ’em hell, Nancy!
Chetan Murthy
@JPL:
United States waking up to Chinese abuses, US Senator Elizabeth Warren says in Beijing
In what manner is she wrong? Also, a little story. When I worked for IBM, once a friend was sent to fix a problem with some software that ran on a machine IBM had sold to Huawei. He was one of the last-ditch troubleshooters, and had some specialized software he’d use to analyze problems. As it turns out, I was also a last-ditch troubleshooter, and worked with him a lot, so we discussed his little … “odyssey” a good bit. It turned out, that in order for him to work on the problem he was required to provide IN SOURCE CODE FORM all the tools he used. All of them.
Look: I’m a *patriot*. I think that American companies, esp. in high-tech, where we’ve all paid handsomely to create technology [via taxes] should be giving away that technology to one of our two greatest geopolitical competitors. And I see nothing wrong with Sen. Warren’s position on this. And I hasten to note that many/many/many of these Chinese companies are owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Chinese state. They’re not “actors in a free market” — they’re organs of one of our main geopolitical adversaries.
ETA: And his story was just one example of a pervasive pattern, which Sen. Warren highlights. You wanna do business in China? You have to work with a “local partner” who will have access to ALL your tech, and will over time get to where they can compete with you: first in China, and then in the entire world. And that local partner is often owned by the government.
I’m a fucking patriot.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: How DARE you forget about the Waterweiser beer can! For! Shame!
Gravenstone
@Chetan Murthy:
A scifi trope these chuckleheads always seem to forget, why would any bespoke security force remain bespoke in the aftermath of a major upheaval is their compensation loses value? Pair that with “their” security team likely having dependents and others whom they wish to protect and care for, and suddenly their little private armies either vaporize, or aren’t so little anymore as they swell with the ranks of dependents and other retainers.
Bill Arnold
@Chetan Murthy:
How does they and their extended family protect themselves against elite roving assassination teams created by people who blame them for The Event? Alternatively, they could use some of their resources and talent to try to stop The Event.
Wallis Lane
@Elizabelle:
WKRP Near Cincinnati
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
Trying West Country Farmhouse Cheddar for the first time made me appreciate why so many people want to imitate it. More importantly, it made me realize what a terrible job they’re doing. Cheap, pre-ground Parmesan is a much better imitation of Parmigiano-Reggiano than bulk Cheddar is of West Country Farmhouse Cheddar. Even quality American cheddar, while an excellent cheese, is not a close replica of the original.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: yes. I have much more flexibility as an owner than a renter. Including a vote on being open holidays.
Elizabelle
Video of Nancy Smash’s speech today, youtube put up by Fox News (!).
Little more than 20 minutes. She is resplendent in pink, pearls, and purpose.
Haroldo
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Yep. This in spades. (Pardon if this has been commented upon upstream.)
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
Oh, it sucks so bad.
Chetan Murthy
@Gravenstone:
I think it’s actually really simple: the head of your security detail does a “decapitation strike”, taking out [the generic] you and all your male relatives; he proceeds to take over. I mean, it’s not like there’s any po-po gonna show up to investigate, if you suddenly die.
satby
@NotMax: I take it with me and hang it on the doorknob outside. This isn’t my first kitten rodeo ?
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: Fuck ‘civility’ with a party that punches you in the face at every chance.
“When they go low, we go high.” was nice and flowery. I’ll take Eric Holder’s “When they go low, we kick ’em.”
Mike G
@TenguPhule:
Either way, it says Banana Republic.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
While fully cognizant that one’s palate and taste change as the years pass, still would swear on a stack of Cole rants that American cheddar tasted much better and more full-bodied 40 or 50 years ago.
Mayur
@Elizabelle: “Baby, if you ever wondered / wondered whatever became of me / I’m living on the air in [kentucky]
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Ma was somebody nobody wanted to mess with, she played no games. After they got engaged the little dust up in Korea began and the old man got called back. He said, “Maybe we should wait?” Ma said, “Fuck that shit, it’s now or never Buster.”
They had a very small wedding in Gram and Gramp’s house to which only 1 of Pop’s 7 bros and sisters made it.
Elizabelle
@mrmoshpotato: Strikes me that calling him “Moscow Mitch” will ensure more press coverage than “Democratic legislation outlook.”
Chetan Murthy
@Roger Moore: Where does one get this …. West Country Farmhouse Cheddar. I mean, in these here United States, of course. I searched around, to no avail.
catclub
@Haroldo:
They say that motivations are important.
In this case, if they say those things they might lose treasured access.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Cool. Worth the investment for that alone.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Not alliterative but would opt for Dead End Mitch. More evocative of the obstructionism, IMHO.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hello In There.
John and Linda live in Omaha
And Joe is somewhere on the road
We lost Davy in the Korean war
And I still don’t know what for, don’t matter anymore
Sloane Ranger
@trollhattan: Johnson won scholarships to both Eton and Balliol college, Oxford. He won prizes at Eton in both English and classics and graduated Oxford with a 2.1 class degree. Both argue for him having above average intelligence.
As for why Russian influence isn’t an issue over here; well, British voters are too sophisticated to be taken in//
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: Hope so – for the Democratic party and Moscow Mitch’s traitorous turtleshit.
Another Scott
@Litlebritdifrnt: The BBC is actually pretty good about this, at least on their web pages, but you have to scroll down. BBC on Bolton’s trade comments:
Trouble is, almost any TV or radio report is going to be too short to cover the reality of what Bolton (or any of Donnie’s minions) are saying.
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: John Prine is a treasure.
TenguPhule
@Gravenstone:
The rich folks asking the question wanted to know the viability of either being the only one with the control codes for the food vaults or planting unremovable kill devices on their security forces as a loyalty insurance.
germy
RAVEN
@OzarkHillbilly: Ain’t it funny how an old broken bottle, looks just like a diamond ring. . .
Elizabelle
@NotMax: I prefer Moscow Mitch. Frames the issue: he is fine with Russian (and other) interference in our elections, and why is that?
McConnell’s calling himself “the grim reaper” so he would probably welcome “dead end Mitch.” The buck stops with him.
Ruckus
Betty
You may not know squat about the economy, but you know more than shit for brains and all the shitlets put together. Their idea of the economy is ME, ME, ME, Daddy!, ME, ME, ME, DADDY!!!…… and it’s an endless loop till the first shovel full hits the box, at which point it’s “Why ME?”
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
Different in some aspects (not as what would be the term – earthy?), Costco sells a brick of a pale Irish cheddar which is luscious, semi-crumbly goodness.
Heywood J.
@Baud: True, but you could say that about everything they do now. If they’re going to holler something at him over the prop-wash in the driveway, like the useless stenographers they are, might as well be something that annoys and/or confuses him.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly: We almost lost him. Didn’t he have throat cancer a few years ago?
Tony Jay
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Everything the Right says is viewed through the prism of “Will this cause a problem for them with their voters and/or funders?” not “Is it true or false?“. If the answer is no, then there’s no story. It’s not seen by the Media as their job to hold them to account, that’s the Opposition’s responsibility. OTOH, on the rare occasions when the Opposition are given a platform to point out the dishonesty the same Media applies the rule that whatever the Left says has be viewed through the prism of “Will this cause a problem for the Right with their voters and/or funders?” not “Is it true or false?”, and the answer to that is almost always no, in which case the Media does feel it has a responsibility to hold them to account for wasting everyone’s time with “pointless, partisan posturing“.
And, of course, the BBC is run by and for lifelong Tories. The odious Nick Robinson was only telling the truth when he gaffed about Johnson being selected as “Our new leader… uh… sorry, the new Prime Minister.“
Another Scott
@James E Powell: Has anyone there won a Nobel Prize??
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Another Scott: They should award Megan Rapinoe the Nobel Prize just to make Dump’s head explode.
Sister Golden Bear
In today’s edition of “watching my rights disappear in real-time”:
Trump’s Latest Proposal Would Let Businesses Discriminate Based On LGBTQ Status, Race, Religion, And More
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: From Wikipedia:
Betty Cracker
@catclub:
Maybe, but that assumes people in the Trump administration are capable of strategic thinking — never a safe bet! I suspect Trump is behind a no-deal Brexit because that bellicose toad Nigel Farage thinks it’s a great idea, and Trump assumes Farage is a genius because Farage backed Trump in 2016.
The Trump admin probably wants to fast-track bilateral trade deals for similar reasons — Trump’s pals are on the hook if the whole thing goes south, and “Brexit” and “Trump 2016” are linked in Trump’s tiny mind because both were improbable events that happened in roughly the same timeframe. (Never mind that the same fourth-rate kleptocrat actively worked to achieve both ends because it made his enemies ridiculous — none of the players will ever admit they got played.)
But if BoJo & Co. are in a position to play their cards right (i.e., flatter Trump), they can walk away with New England in exchange for a wheel of Double Gloucestershire and a can of Old Speckled Hen. (“It was called ‘England’ anyway…”)
trollhattan
@Sloane Ranger:
Thanks, levels several holes that needed filling.
As to going to sleep on the Russians, it’s like finding out your “smart cousin” who has been running the family business it’s so smart after all. One has concerns.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: lol Like father like son.. f.k that shit..
OzarkHillbilly
@RAVEN: One of my favorites:
She don’t like her eggs all runny
She thinks crossin’ her legs is funny
She looks down her nose at money
She gets it on like the Easter Bunny
She’s my baby, I’m her honey
I’m never gonna let her go
He ain’t got laid in a month of Sundays
Caught him once and he was sniffin’ my undies
He ain’t too sharp but he gets things done
Drinks his beer like it’s oxygen
He’s my baby, I’m his honey
I’m never gonna let him go
trollhattan
@germy: @OzarkHillbilly:
One cannot over-praise John Prine. It is unpossible.
NotMax
@Sister Golden Bear
Decisions, decisions. Now have to fret over which font is best suited for the “No Christians” signs.
//
Chetan Murthy
@catclub:
FTFY. Our long-term interest is in having strong allies and trading partners who will enforce a rule-based international regime we set up (hence, intrinsically biased towards us). It is *not* in fomenting chaos and enmity amongst those very allies and partners, weakening them at a time when our actual adversaries are formidable and some are growing in strength.
Villago Delenda Est
Cotton should have been Niedermayered in Iraq.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
Made me think of nothing so much as this:
“We become strong, I feel, when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look to for moral guidance.”
– Benito Mussolini
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: That ones easy, Satanic.
Sloane Ranger
@trollhattan: It came as an unpleasant surprise to me too.
dww44
@bluehill: He is not only the most insufferable, in my opinion, he’s also the most dangerous, after McConnell, of course, because the latter has more political levers at his disposal. Cotton is extreme, but also not dumb. An evil smart man is to be feared over an evil dumb one.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Dow finishes down 800 pts
So much winning.
Yutsano
@trollhattan:
There is a SHIT TON of Russian money in British real estate right now, especially in London. And more than a few MPs have investments in real estate or real estate trust instruments. Russian oligarch money is part of why London housing prices are so high. And why almost no one in the British government wants to look under the bonnet.
You don’t ever piss off the dealer.
OzarkHillbilly
@trollhattan: The greatest song ever written.
mrmoshpotato
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Agreed. Nobel prize for physics – physicsing the football into the goal.
Sadly, there’s no Nobel prize for being awesome at football.
Ruckus
@James E Powell:
He grabbed a woman in Kashmir once. It was a pretty green color. No, it was twice.
JPL
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Merry Christmas Again.
germy
Haroldo
@catclub:
I wasn’t commenting on ‘why do they do this’ so much as agreeing its slavish behavio(u)r has made the BBC’s political coverage as bad as its US cousins.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Roger Moore: I once went to Cheddar Gorge and ate a Ploughman’s Lunch at a Pub there. Eating an cave aged cheddar in the place where it was aged in the caves around me was amazing. Have never eaten a cheese like it since.
laura
@germy: yes, and yet he still tours like a beast. Oh how I love JP! Songs of truths simple and deep and meaningful. In Spite of Ourselves is “the” song for me-n-spouse, but hello in there and angel from Montgomery, and it’s onion cutting time.
germy
@laura: I remember way back when he first appeared on the scene. He received the kiss of death from music critics. They called him The New Dylan. That usually was a career ender.
Fortunately he survived that, and continues to this day doing his own thing.
Kent
The really fucking stupid thing about all of this is that there is no way that the US will replace the EU as a market for British goods. Lots of UK agricultural products go to the EU. There is zero chance that US agribusiness will start importing milk or produce from the UK when it is so much cheaper to get it from Canada and Mexico and those pipeline and distribution networks are already established.
British cars? Bwah ha ha.
British electronics and software? Ha.
Pharmaceuticals? Maybe but the process for approval is long and complicated
What is the UK actually going to export to the US under a new trade deal?
trollhattan
@OzarkHillbilly:
As one pushes past life’s various phases, there’s something different to pull from it after each. Can’t think of higher praise for a song.
Because YouTube just keeps chugging along, it spun up this for me: an allstar (in the good sense) take of “The Weight.” These conglomerations don’t usually work, but this one does. Chills guaranteed or your money cheerfully refunded.
debit
@Kent:
Father Ted DVDs
Tony Jay
Since the 2017 Election stripped the Conservatives of their majority and stopped them pushing through Brexit on their own terms this was always going to be the Endgame, just a loooong wait to see if there are enough Tory MPs with the decency and patriotism to bring down their own Government rather than let the far-Right drag the UK out of the EU without passing a withdrawal deal.
This is why the Lib-Dems and their allies of convenience on the Labour Right are trying desperately to erect a frame in which Corbyn has to step down as Labour leader before the coming General Election or else take the blame for them refusing to join a short-term anti-No Deal Government with him as PM. They can shove it up their arses. Sideways. Wrapped in peppered sandpaper.
Roll on Election 2019.
Another Scott
Kinda OT – CalculatedRisk: Don’t Freak Out about the Yield Curve:
See the original for additional embedded links.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tony Jay
@Kent:
White people who speak English.
Now it makes sense!
Ladyraxterinok
@RAVEN: In other words, guys–do what you want. No consequences. It’s all good. (Quit yer bitchin’, wimin!)
catclub
@Chetan Murthy: yes, of course. but once the UK has brexited, any other US government would negotiate for the best trade deal it could get with the UK.
NotMax
@Kent
All school lunches will be required to include Marmite.
catclub
@Another Scott: Interesting. This time it might be different, since rates are already so low to begin with.
The bond market is definitely telling the US to build infrastructure – paid for with long term bonds. But that is too sensible.
mrmoshpotato
@JPL: So. Much. Christmas. Christmas trade wars are tremendous bigly to win!
Roger Moore
@Chetan Murthy:
Your better quality cheese shops should have it. Even Trader Joe’s has been known to carry it on occasion. Just to be clear, according to the rules governing this kind of thing, cheddar has spread enough geographically that the English can’t try to claim it as a geographically protected name for a cheese. Instead, they created the new “West Country Farmhouse Cheddar” designation so they could get a protected designation of origin.
catclub
@mrmoshpotato: Trump fired Janet Yellen because she did not look like a central banker, and hired Powell.
Yellen is much more of a dove than Powell. (Although Powell was fairly well aligned with Yellen).
All blame goes to the guy who hired him.
Ladyraxterinok
@Adam L Silverman: We were in Newfoundland 76-77 (My ex had a sabbatical in St John’s). The now Candian province (was part of England until 1949) was settled by Irish and English.
I was stunned at how much anti Irish feeling there was.
Bill Arnold
@catclub:
Can’t – Republicans gave away all political capital related to deficit spending to the rich, in the form of irrevocable tax cuts, per the “tax protection pledge”.
Jay
@Kent:
Mediocre Upperclass White Male Pompous Upper Class Twits like Sully and Pierce.
TenguPhule
@Kent:
Stupidity and ignorance?
Sloane Ranger
@Tony Jay: I disagree. As far as I’m concerned the only thing that matters at this moment is to avoid a no deal Brexit. If the only way to achieve enough votes in the Commons is to form a short term coalition government under Ken Clarke or Yvette Cooper or Winnie the Pooh for that matter, I’m willing to live with it.
This has been the problem since the referendum. Everyone talks about putting country over party but no one is willing to actually do it.
Catherine D.
@OzarkHillbilly: And with Iris DeMent to boot!
realbtl
@RAVEN: “She was a level headed on her way to alcohol . . .”
Mike in NC
When we visited Belfast last week, one of the stops the tour bus made was at their lovely Parliament building. It’s been closed for about 2-1/2 years.
realbtl
level headed dancer – curse you lack of edit.
NotMax
@Sloane Ranger
And we all thought Alan B’Stard was a fictional construct.
Jay
@Ladyraxterinok:
Saint Johns is hated by the rest of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Irish and working class Englishmen settled in the Outports and manned the fisheries.
The toffs settled in Saint Johns and ran the banks and trade, starving the outports to keep prices and profits high.
The Townies had to hate the Irish to self justify their cruelty.
Spc
@Adam L Silverman: northeast italy
Bill Arnold
@BC in Illinois:
Thanks, hadn’t seen that before. (full lyrics) For TV Tropes addicts,
Self-Destruct Mechanism (bold mine)
In the UK, the self-destruct mechanism was activated by 17,410,742 voters. (Sorry, 16,141,241 Remain voters.)
J R in WV
@Gin & Tonic:
I always regretted I didn’t have a sister. Only a RWNJ brother… also in the BSA cult
;-)
Matt McIrvin
@mad citizen: I regret to inform you that those theories definitely are out there. Most recently expressed by none other than Arthur Laffer. The market, you see, in its prognosticatory wisdom, predicted both that Obama would win the election and that his liberal meddling would cause a hellacious recession, so it crashed in advance.
Roger Moore
@Kent:
You can start by looking at what we currently import:
So yes, agricultural imports are likely to remain negligible. I suppose we could import more British cars- doesn’t everyone want a Jag, Rolls, or Bentley- and quite possibly more machinery. And we could certainly do more tourist trade with them.
Tony Jay
@Sloane Ranger:
Sorry, but no. The route to avoiding a No-Deal is for the smaller parties that claim to be all about Remain to back the official Opposition in a No Confidence vote to remove Johnson’s insane regime, then forming a short term Government, asking for an extension from the EU and calling for a General Election where the Public can decide what kind of Parliament they want. If they won’t do that because they prefer a No Deal under Johnson over the idea of voting for that icky Jeremy Corbyn then that’s on them.
Seriously, what’s the point? Why on earth should it be necessary to have someone like Ken Clark take charge? Doesn’t his loud and derisive condemnation of the Tory Party’s Brexiteer wing make him a divisive figure? Why is Yvette Cooper a unifying figure when in reality she could only garner the support of a tiny number of Labour MPs in the leadership contest? Why shouldn’t it be the actual Leader of the actual Opposition? The real one, rather than the cartoon villain version popularised by the crappy Media and his opponents inside and outside of the Party. This wouldn’t be asked of any other Party Leader, just of Corbyn. It’s bollocks and it just feeds the smear campaign waged against him since 2016.
No. This is a question of character. Do they want to stop No Deal? Get an extension? Have an Election and a chance at a Referendum? Then get behind the Opposition Party that will do all that and stop playing stupid games. Do they want to stop Brexit or do they want to exploit Brexit to get more seats in Parliament? That’s the question the Lib-Dems should be asked.
But they won’t be.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
They have exported a lot of right wing pundits, so this seems like a logical extension of the trend.
J R in WV
@NotMax:
Locally, in the WV boonies, we can get a Welch cheddar which is very crumbly, and very sharp and rich, at Kroger’s. I like it!!
Sloane Ranger
@Tony Jay: People feel and believe what comes they feel and believe. All the passion in the world won’t change that..
At this stage I don’t care about who’s in the right, I just care about stopping a no deal Brexit any way that works. This is a time for pragmatism.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
I am not even certain that Trump intends these words to have meaning. I think it more likely that he just wants to sound disapproving.
TenguPhule
@Sloane Ranger:
Corbyn IS the pragmatic option. The rest of them are asshole vulture shitweasels.
HinTN
@raven: That’s a gorgeous quick shot of the Korean memorial on the Mall. I think it’s power rivals that of the wall of names.
And, yes, John Prine is a treasure.