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The Dominic Cummings Charade of Boris et al

by Oui Sun Jul 28th, 2019 at 01:51:36 PM EST

Follow-up of my previous diary ...

○ Boris Invests In Next Election Win

Johnson's key adviser must face sanctions for contempt, demand MPs | The Guardian |

Prominent MPs on the committee investigating fake news and disinformation want Boris Johnson's aide Dominic Cummings, who has been found in contempt of parliament, to face sanctions in his new role at the heart of government. These could include docking his salary, denying him a security pass and putting pressure on the prime minister to force him to give evidence to parliament.

Johnson's decision to appoint Cummings as a key adviser outraged many MPs because it came less than four months after parliament unanimously passed a motion, tabled by the government , to censure him for failing to testify at the fake news inquiry.

Continued below the fold ...

Some also have concerns about his role as mastermind of the Brexit campaign. The official Vote Leave group has been found to have broken electoral law and referred to the police.

Continuing the Leave Campaign from Downing Street 10 ... contingency planning for a general election to gain superior majority. Johnson's best strategy is to defeat the House of Commons through elections ... project FEAR

Dominic Cummings previously described as the career psychopath of the Tory party. Interesting to read article of 2014, with descriptions as "Leninist fervour and idealogical zealotry" ... signs of authoritarianism, dictates and Trotsky intrigues.

H

Michael Gove forced to disown closest aide after attack on David Cameron | The Guardian - June 16, 2014 |

The shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, said: "This has all the Leninist fervour and ideological zealotry that surrounds Gove. He has forgotten that the way to sustainable change in education is by taking people with you, and focusing on what works, not ideology."

[...]

Cummings followed up his initial attack on Downing Street by describing the Conservative approach to the EU as "whining, rude, dishonest, unpleasant, childishly belligerent in public while pathetically craven in private, and overall hollow".

He added: "As the black flags of Isis fly and Putin seeks to break Nato, William Hague poses for the cameras with Angelina [Jolie] and Cameron's closest two advisers stick with the only thing they know - a 10-day planning horizon (at best) of feeding the lobby (badly) and changing tack to fit the babbling commentariat (while blaming juniors for their own failings)."

He argued that Whitehall faced a long-term inability to develop political institutions able to think wisely about the biggest problems in order to pre-empt crises or tackle long-term challenges such as autonomous robotics, synthetic biology, the rise of China, or the collision of Islam with modernity.

He insisted his attack on No 10 was nothing to do with any leadership ambitions for Gove, but just an honest attempt to set out the problems facing Whitehall.

PM Cameron backs Michael Gove but suggests former aide was a 'career psychopath'

Collision of Islam with modernity ... the Islamophobe theme used by rightwing states after the Saudi led 9/11 attacks on America. That's why the United States, United Kingdom and NATO states are supplying the most advanced fighter planes, guided bombs and military support to the most backward [religious] Arab States of the Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Can anyone tell me how this makes sense?? All in the name of spreading fear and terror to comply to the wishes of the military and intelligence complex running global conflicts despite lacking a clear mandate from Congress or Parliament.

Coming to your hometown, a brief review ...

The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked | The Guardian - May 2017 |

A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum.

    "The connectivity that is the heart of globalisation can be exploited by states with hostile intent to further their aims.[...] The risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty."
    Alex Younger, head of MI6, December, 2016

    "It's not MI6's job to warn of internal threats. It was a very strange speech. Was it one branch of the intelligence services sending a shot across the bows of another? Or was it pointed at Theresa May's government? Does she know something she's not telling us?"
    Senior intelligence analyst, April 2017

In January 2013, a young American postgraduate was passing through London when she was called up by the boss of a firm where she'd previously interned. The company, SCL Elections, went on to be bought by Robert Mercer, a secretive hedge fund billionaire, renamed Cambridge Analytica, and achieved a certain notoriety as the data analytics firm that played a role in both Trump and Brexit campaigns. But all of this was still to come. London in 2013 was still basking in the afterglow of the Olympics. Britain had not yet Brexited. The world had not yet turned.

Why would anyone want to intern with a psychological warfare firm, I ask him. And he looks at me like I am mad. "It was like working for MI6. Only it's MI6 for hire. It was very posh, very English, run by an old Etonian and you got to do some really cool things. Fly all over the world. You were working with the president of Kenya or Ghana or wherever. It's not like election campaigns in the west. You got to do all sorts of crazy shit."

[...]

To anyone concerned about surveillance, Palantir is practically now a trigger word. The data-mining firm has contracts with governments all over the world - including GCHQ and the NSA. It's owned by Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and major investor in Facebook, who became Silicon Valley's first vocal supporter of Trump.

[...]

There are three strands to this story. How the foundations of an authoritarian surveillance state are being laid in the US. How British democracy was subverted through a covert, far-reaching plan of coordination enabled by a US billionaire. And how we are in the midst of a massive land grab for power by billionaires via our data. Data which is being silently amassed, harvested and stored. Whoever owns this data owns the future.

High Court session in liquidation of Cambridge Analytica - secrets covered up by Emerdata - run by the Mercers

○ Cambridge Analytica's administrators misled judge, High Court told | The Register - Dec. 2018 |

The strange afterlife of Cambridge Analytica and the mysterious fate of its data | Fast Company - July 26, 2019 |

Since last year, however, Emerdata has been footing the SCL companies' legal bills amid bankruptcy proceedings, investigations, and lawsuits on both sides of the Atlantic. After both SCL Group and Cambridge Analytica ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy-or, in British parlance, "went into administration"-in May 2018, Emerdata also paid millions to acquire what remained of the companies while they are being liquidated.

According to its latest corporate filing, Emerdata purchased 100% of the share capital of SCL Group for £10,861,339 GBP, equivalent to around $13 million. Emerdata also noted its 89.5% ownership of Cambridge Analytica, just as it reported in previous filings.

A third and final wholly owned subsidiary listed on the document is Anaxi Holdings [?], a government contractor that was registered in Delaware ten days after the firestorm began to hit the companies last March. Emerdata has not acquired SCL Insight Limited, another government-focused company owned by Nigel Oakes, an SCL Group co-founder.

Emerdata now appears to be largely owned by conservative activist Rebekah Mercer and her sister Jennifer, whose shares are held in trust and via their U.S.-based Cambridge Analytica Holdings LLC, according to Cambridge's bankruptcy filing in New York. The remaining fifth of Emerdata's shares are owned by several prior SCL Group minority investors and a number of Hong Kong-based shell companies. Investigative journalist Wendy Siegelman first reported on Emerdata and its links to SCL last year.

David Carroll, an American professor who sued Cambridge Analytica to obtain his personal data, has alleged that Emerdata had surreptitiously tried to shield the defunct firms from scrutiny and liability.

Common Cause Holding Power Accountable - filing before the Federal Election Commission [pdf]

This complaint is filed pursuant to 52 U.S.C. § 30109 (a)(1) and is based on information providing reason to believe that Cambridge Analytica Ltd., SCL Group Limited, Alexander Nix, Nigel Oakes, Alexander Tayler, Mark Turnbull, Christopher Wylie and/or unknown persons ("John Doe(s)") violated prohibitions on foreign national election-related activities established by the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), 52 U.S.C. § 30101, et seq. and Commission regulations.

[...]

"Disbursement to Cambridge Analytica LLC 2013-14, FEC.GOV/DATA"

According to Commission records, during the 2014 election cycle, the following federal committees made disbursements to Cambridge Analytica for goods and services in the following amounts:  

    * John Bolton Super PAC: $342,025
    • North Carolina Republican Party: $150,000
    • Jobs Growth and Freedom Fund (Sen. Ted Cruz Leadership PAC): $133,333,33
    • Thom Tillis Committee: $30,000
    • Art Robinson for Congress: $20,000
    • McHenry for Congress: $15,000
    • Cotton for Senate: $20,000
    • Dr. Monica Wehby for US: $20,000

...  

"Disbursement to Cambridge Analytica LLC 2015-16, FEC.GOV/DATA"

According to Commission records, during the 2016 election cycle, the following federal committees made disbursements to Cambridge Analytica for goods and services in the following amounts:

    * Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.: $5,912,500
    • Cruz for President: $5,805,552,23
    • Make America Number 1: $1,476,484
    • John Bolton Super PAC: $ 811,274
    • Keep the Promise II: $570,000
    • Carson America: $ 438,065
    • Restore/Restoring American Leadership: $ 155,725
    • Thom Tillis Committee: $100,000
    • North Carolina Republican Party: $65,000
    • Walters for Congress: $20,000
    • Friends of Roy Blunt: $ 12,000
    ...

○ Ted Cruz Campaign Credits Data, Analytics for Success | GovTechData - Dec. 14, 2015 |

    To build its data-gathering operation widely, the Cruz campaign hired Cambridge Analytica, a Massachusetts company reportedly owned in part by hedge fund executive Robert Mercer, who has given $11 million to a super PAC supporting Cruz. Cambridge, the U.S. affiliate of London-based behavioral research company SCL Group, has been paid more than $750,000 by the Cruz campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records.

During the period Donald Trump was the Republican nominee for president, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica worked together in the Houston HQ of the Republican Party

○ Cloak and Data: The Real Story Behind Cambridge Analytica's Rise and Fall | Mother Jones |
○ Cambridge Analytica (Mercer) the Real Election Cycle Culprit

Cross-pollination between Trump-Bannon-Farage-Johnson mixed with Tommy Robinson hot pepper...

○ How Britain grapples with nationalist dark web
○ US - Donald Trump anti-Muslim video retweet sparks condemnations
○ Donald Trump Retweets Controversial Katie Hopkins' Praise Of Far-Right Politicians
○ Tommy Robinson: EDL founder begs Trump to grant him political asylum in US

Any doubt left America has got itself a racist white-supremacist president ...

○ Outrage as Trump brands mostly-black Baltimore 'infested mess'
○ Trump 'rat-infested' attack on Elijah Cummings was racist, Pelosi says

Related reading ...

○ After Brexit, Europe at a Crossroad
○ Cambridge Analytica diaries @BooMan

○ New York and Trump associates join fight to destroy the EU - World4Brexit

Display:
The Dominic Cummings Charade of Boris et al | 23 comments (23 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Brexit: Take Johnson At His Word (none / 1)
Is Corbyn caught napping at the steering wheel of the opposition party Labour? Internal forces and extrenal powers have distracted the Labour leader ... interpretation and definition of new anti-semitism.

○ A Coordinated Attack On Labour and Corbyn

Boris Johnson 'turbo-charging' no-deal Brexit plans, say ministers  | The Guardian |

Boris Johnson is "turbo-charging" preparations to leave the EU without a deal on 31 October as his government's number one priority, according to several senior cabinet ministers.

The new prime minister sent out cabinet ministers for interviews across newspapers and broadcasters this weekend as part of a publicity blitz about the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.

Their message is that the UK will be heading for no deal unless EU leaders agree to replace the Irish backstop.

Michael Gove, the new Cabinet Office minister in charge of no-deal preparations, said the government was "operating on the assumption" that Britain would leave without a deal on 31 October and it was a "very real prospect" because EU leaders had so far not changed their minds about scrapping the backstop.

He said in the Sunday Times that an agreement might not be struck with Brussels by then, but there was a "new clarity of mission, we will exit the EU on October 31, no ifs, no buts, no more delay".

Will the U.S. Democrats go by way of the European Labour parties? They just don't seem to get their act together. The Election 2020 is not that far away ...

Hasbara is a dead language

by Oui (Oui) on Sun Jul 28th, 2019 at 03:48:23 PM EST
Re: Brexit: Take Johnson At His Word (4.00 / 3)
If Trump is re-elected, the Democrats (and progressives anywhere) might as well quit politics.
by das monde on Sun Jul 28th, 2019 at 04:48:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit: Take Johnson At His Word (4.00 / 2)
No, Corbyn is not asleep at the wheel. Not that I can see anyway.

However, he does see brexit as a done deal; he is still leading an opposition party and cannot neither stop nor even influence brexit. So, to his mind there is little to be gained by promoting it and a lot to be lost by openly opposing it.

He is keeping his powder dry. He was personally mocked and declared irrelevant, yet from being a million miles behind in the polls, he nearly beat May in the last General Election. With the precariat and general conditions ofr people only getting much worse much more quickly and a far right nexus between Boris and Farage in the offing, I'm sure tht the next election campaign wil be fought over the heads of the media.

I notice that my age roup are easily caught up in FB manias, but increasingly evidence emerges that under 30s are less impressed. Especially as climate emergency is becoming to anybody willing to look. Reality seems to be outpacing the ability of billionaires to hide the evidence.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Jul 29th, 2019 at 08:14:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit: Take Johnson At His Word (none / 1)
and a lot to be lost by openly opposing it.

That is the part I don't get. The default position of the opposition should be to oppose.

I accept that opposing "Brexit" had a lot of potential risks, but what he should have been doing from a fairly early stage was vehemently opposing a "tory-brexit". He could have peddled the line that a "good" brexit was possible (which he probably genuinely believes), while hammering the truth that the tories were royally screwing it up and were in fact using it as an opportunity to ransack the country and worsen the lot of the majority of the population. The only risk would have been if the tories did a good job, and if he still thought that was likely to happen after the first six months has passed, then he wasn't paying attention.

by det on Mon Jul 29th, 2019 at 08:58:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit: Take Johnson At His Word (none / 0)
He did exactly that though? I think he even used "tory-brexit" as his main rethorical device.
by generic on Tue Jul 30th, 2019 at 06:55:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Brexit: Take Johnson At His Word (none / 0)
Corbyn a master of mixed signals throughout, not a leader in troubled waters during the Brexit debate and division in his own party ...

    "None of this addresses the wisdom of Labour's policy towards Brexit and a new referendum. All it does is indicate that its policy is specifically haemorrhaging remain votes without enhancing its appeal to leave voters. If the party's aim was to maximise support next week by appealing to both remain and leave Britain, it is failing spectacularly."

    [Source: YouGov poll: Labour's Brexit tactics are failing spectacularly (May 2019) ]

○ Labour and Momentum put activists on snap general election notice | The Guardian  - July 25, 2019 |
○ Brexit: Labour to back Remain as it calls for a new EU referendum | BBC Interview - July 9, 2019 |

Interesting read ...

○ The Technology Trap by John Harris, columnist @TheGuardian
○ The Democratic Hopefuls Have Endorsed the Green New Deal. So Why The Silence?

    "Climate is now the leading issue named regularly in polling of Democratic primary voters, after years on the bottom."


Hasbara is a dead language
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jul 30th, 2019 at 08:31:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Vancouver City Council Rejects IHRA Definition (none / 0)
○ In victory for activists, Vancouver city council votes against adopting IHRA antisemitism definition | Mondoweiss |



Hasbara is a dead language
by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jul 31st, 2019 at 02:26:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
First Day on the Job as UK FM (none / 0)

Getting the hang of it ...

Raab: UK will be better able to negotiate with EU after no-deal Brexit

Dominic Raab has claimed Britain will be in a better position to negotiate a "good deal" with the European Union if it crashes out of the bloc before the end of October.

The foreign secretary believes a no-deal scenario could provide more leverage in the context of a free trade agreement and resolve long-standing issues such as the Irish backstop.

The MP for Esher and Walton in Surrey also suggested the EU's "stubborn" behaviour would be responsible if the UK left without a deal and refused to endorse Boris Johnson's claim during his campaign for the Conservative leadership that the prospect of a no-deal Brexit was a-million-to-one against.

On leaving without a deal after 31 October, Raab told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The prospect of reverting and getting a good deal will be easier after we have left if that is the case. The reason being we do as an independent third country and less subject to effectively the demands of the EU as we are now."

...
The government has stepped up preparations for such an outcome in recent days. Michael Gove said over the weekend that officials were "operating on the assumption" that a deal would not be struck.

○ Johnson rejects Gove's claim that government now assuming no deal Brexit most likely outcome

Quick response from mainland Europe ...

'Complete breakdown': EU rejects Dominic Raab's 'easier' no-deal Brexit claim  

European officials agree that a precondition of talks would be a British pledge to honour the three core parts of the withdrawal agreement - citizens' rights, the Irish border and the financial settlement.

At the weekend, the EU budget commissioner, Günther Oettinger, told
Der Tagesspiegel the UK's credit rating would be hit if Boris Johnson carried out his threat not to honour payments promised to the EU.  

○ FactCheck: We can't find evidence that Dominic Raab warned of no-deal Brexit
○ Boris Johnson criticised for 'snubbing' Leo Varadkar | The National |

BREAKING NEWS:

○ No-deal Brexit: Government planning for direct rule in Northern Ireland, foreign secretary admits

○ FOREX: GBP - USD  1.2225 and falling

Hasbara is a dead language

by Oui (Oui) on Mon Jul 29th, 2019 at 06:46:12 PM EST
Re: First Day on the Job as UK FM (4.00 / 2)
You expect ministers to bullshit occasionally, but it's a sad day when you realise they actually believe their own idiocies

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Jul 29th, 2019 at 08:19:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
A Spin Doctor In Despair (4.00 / 2)
The right wing of Labour voices an opinion, Tony Blair's spin doctor cuts ties with the Labour party. The appointment was one of many mistakes Tony Blair made. Under Blair's leadership the Labour government participated willingly with Bush in the Afghan and Iraq military campaign/tragedies. The Blairites have succeeded to split the party from its roots of working class people. This shortcoming of Labour we have seen repeated in France, the US and The Netherlands [Lubbers and later Kok] where I live. Blair claimed ideas associated with the Third Way (TW) were the wave of the future for progressive politics. The Third Way turned out to be a blind alley leading nowhere but a boost to take politics to the right and today's populist [do I hear fascist?] stage of abhorrence for the weakest in society. The fictitious push of globalization between the financial and banking crisis of the nineties and 2008/9. In the first decade of the American 21st Century, the Third Way politics participated to spread capitalism across the former Soviet satellite states and give NATO [and Cold War 2.0] a boost.

Alastair Campbell says he no longer wishes to be a Labour member | The Guardian |

The former Labour adviser and campaigner for a "people's vote" has written a lengthy missive to Corbyn, part-published in The Guardian and in full in the New European [pay-wall], setting out his view that the party will not win a majority against Johnson, who he says is "embarked on a crash and burn strategy" designed to win a mandate for hard Brexit at the ballot box.

    "The culture you have helped to create has made the party one that I feel no longer truly represents my values, or the hopes I have for Britain," Campbell wrote. "I see no strategy in place that remotely meets the electoral or policy challenges ahead. On the contrary, in so far as I ascertain a strategy at all, it is one that looks more designed to lose. I fear the country may already have decided that it does not intend to make you prime minister."

    "What I do know is that this is indeed a moment of real peril. To have any chance of stopping Johnson and stopping a hard Brexit, you need to step up now, and signal leadership of the anti-Brexit, anti-populist cause, though it may be that loss of trust in your approach to Brexit means it is too late to win back many former supporters."

Next step in Hitlerism across the globe

○ Trump's threat to label Antifa terrorist group triggers row in Germany | DW |

Trending on social media ... #IchBinAntifa

A long read for a rainy Sunday afternoon ...

○ Dilemmas in Globalization
Exploring Global Trends and Progressive Solutions [March 2009]

○ The real costs of a culture of greed by Jerome a Paris @EuroTrib on Sept. 6, 2005

Hasbara is a dead language

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jul 30th, 2019 at 11:01:17 AM EST
Re: A Spin Doctor In Despair (none / 0)
from what I can see of the Labour blogs, the reaction to Campbell's tantrum is somewhere between a yawn and laughter. Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Jul 30th, 2019 at 11:51:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: A Spin Doctor In Despair (none / 1)
Funny thing about that terrorism label: I don't recall anyone from Antifa running over demonstrators with their cars.  But then I don't recall any Blue Lives Matter supporters being found in the trunk of a car after coming down with a bad case of the deads.
by rifek on Wed Jul 31st, 2019 at 07:34:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Tory-Brexit: Phone call Boris with Leo Varadkar (none / 0)

See also the comments attached ...

Hasbara is a dead language

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jul 30th, 2019 at 02:19:59 PM EST
Taoiseach and Boris Clash In Phone Call (none / 1)
Johnson and Varadkar clash over Irish backstop in phone call | The Guardian |

Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar have clashed over the Irish backstop in their first phone call, with the Irish taoiseach saying the EU is united in the view that it cannot be scrapped and the withdrawal agreement will not be reopened.

A spokesman for Varadkar said: "The taoiseach emphasised to the prime minister that the backstop was necessary as a consequence of decisions taken in the UK and by the UK government.

"Noting that the Brexit negotiations take place between the UK and the EU, the taoiseach explained that the EU was united in its view that the withdrawal agreement could not be reopened."

[...]

An Irish government spokesman added: "The taoiseach restated the need for both governments to be fully committed to the Good Friday agreement, the protection of the peace process and the restoration of the Northern Ireland institutions.

"He recalled that the agreement requires the sovereign government to exercise power with rigorous impartiality on behalf of all the people in full respect for their rights, equality, parity of esteem and just and equal treatment for the identity, ethos and aspirations of both communities."

After his Scotland visit, I'm sure Boris won't be knocking o the Dublin door anytime soon.

Hasbara is a dead language

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jul 30th, 2019 at 02:37:07 PM EST
The Union Will Be Great, Believe (none / 0)
○ 'This is not about a return to empire' - U.S. Congressman warns Johnson on Belfast Agreement  

○ Sterling is canary in no-deal Brexit coal mine | Irish Times |

Hasbara is a dead language

by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jul 31st, 2019 at 04:59:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Bullying: Johnson Is Talking To Electorate (none / 0)
Johnson's objective is a majority in the Commons | Irish Times - Pat Leahy |

The prime minister is not talking to Dublin, he is not talking to Brussels. He is talking to the British electorate.

  Photograph: Jacob King/PA Wire

British prime minister Boris Johnson: he is hoping that in a general election his simple, clear Brexit message will win through in a fractured political landscape.

Boris is talking to British voters, not the EU. So now we know. Boris will not reach out to Dublin and Brussels, to Paris and Berlin, with a genuine and realistic desire to seek a deal. There will be no last-minute tweak to the backstop just substantial enough to get through the Commons, not so substantial that Leo Varadkar couldn't stand over it.

Nope. It's Boris the bullish no-dealer, not Boris the pragmatic centrist. Brexit Boris, not City Hall Boris.



Hasbara is a dead language
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jul 30th, 2019 at 02:38:06 PM EST
Foreign Intervention to Thwart Tory-Brexit (none / 0)
Activists of the Friends of the Irish caucus make theier voices heard ...

We'll block trade deal if Brexit imperils open Irish border, say US politicians | The Guardian |

Any future US-UK trade deal would almost certainly be blocked by the US Congress if Brexit affects the Irish border and jeopardises peace in Northern Ireland, congressional leaders and diplomats have warned.

Boris Johnson has presented a trade deal with the US as a way of offsetting the economic costs of leaving the EU, and Donald Trump promised the two countries could strike "a very substantial trade agreement" that would increase trade "four or five times".

Trump, however, would not be able to push an agreement through a hostile Congress, where there would be strong bipartisan opposition to any UK trade deal in the event of a threat to the 1998 Good Friday agreement, and to the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

[...]

"The American dimension to the Good Friday agreement is indispensable," said Richard Neal, who is co-chair of the 54-strong Friends of Ireland caucus in Congress, and also chairs the powerful House ways and means committee, with the power to hold up a trade deal indefinitely.

"We oversee all trade agreements as part of our tax jurisdiction," Neal, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, said in a phone interview. He pointed out that such a complex trade deal could take four or five years, even without the Northern Ireland issue.

Maastricht Treaty, end of the Cold War, NATO expansion eastward and solidarity within the EU ...

○ Identity, Interest and the Good Friday Agreement

Hasbara is a dead language

by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jul 31st, 2019 at 02:43:58 PM EST
Steady Before Brexit-Trump-Boris Collapse (none / 0)

The trade disputes and pressure on multilateralism will end in an economic recession in 2020. Trump wants to get rid of Fed Chairman Powell, a rate cut should secure another year of corporate wealth and high stock prices to assure his re-election next year. Gaming the national economy ... until the boomerang hits you in the back of the head.

○ Fiscal exuberance of Presidnt Trump 2016-2020

Hasbara is a dead language

by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jul 31st, 2019 at 04:49:13 PM EST
Re: Steady Before Brexit-Trump-Boris Collapse (none / 1)
Fed cuts rates for first time since 2008
"The Fed's actions Wednesday follow through on market expectations for a 25 basis point cut. Heading into the meeting, federal funds futures markets were pricing in a 79.1% chance of a 25 basis point move, with a 20.1% chance that the Fed would cut by 50 basis points."

DOW 30 -333. Wait for the bounce in 3, 2, 1 ...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Aug 1st, 2019 at 01:09:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Steady Before Brexit-Trump-Boris Collapse (none / 1)
Today was worse than a dead cat bounce. Maybe tomorrow.


"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2019 at 02:11:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: The Dominic Cummings Charade of Boris et al (4.00 / 2)
Dominic Cummings must be a hero because Benedict Cumberbatch is playing him in a movie, just as he did Julian Assange in another movie a few years ago.

I wonder if he'll play both parts in the coming movie(s) about Russian election rigging. /snark

Solar IS Civil Defense

by gmoke on Wed Jul 31st, 2019 at 06:31:35 PM EST
Re: The Dominic Cummings Charade of Boris et al (none / 0)
○ Understanding Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's chief strategist

James Graham, screenwriter of the TV drama Brexit: The Uncivil War, talks about Dominic Cummings, the former Vote Leave director now at the heart of Boris Johnson's strategy team - podcast of The Guardian.

Hasbara is a dead language

by Oui (Oui) on Thu Aug 1st, 2019 at 09:23:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: The Dominic Cummings Charade of Boris et al (none / 1)
Cummings had a easy (?) job since the EU became less important to the Brits after 43 years of anti-EU propaganda.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
by ATinNM on Thu Aug 1st, 2019 at 07:12:45 PM EST
The Dominic Cummings Charade of Boris et al | 23 comments (23 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)


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