’twas the night before April Fools Day, and this writer has concluded that the USA needs no April Fool. We have an entire collection of them trying to run the Federal Government right now.
1. Brexit
This article by Dennis McShane lays out in stark detail exactly how weak the UK’s negotiating position is on Brexit. The UK has no influence in Europe worth a damn, and is outnumbered numerically and economically. The initial letter from the UK triggering article 50 has landed the UK in hot water already because of what was widely seen as an attempt to link security co-operation to the negotiations. Note how the EU leaders that the UK is going to have to deal with are bending over backwards to show that they took it as a threat.
I believe that the most likely outcome at present is that the Brexit negotiations will fail and the UK will then crash out of the EU (the “hard exit” that some people have forecasted), and that this will lead to the break-up of the UK. I believe that once Wales finds out how much less money it will be getting from the EU, voters’ remorse will kick in. The only alternative is for the Tories to back away from Brexit. As for the Labour Party…they seem to be totally AWOL on Brexit, behaving like a collection of spineless and mute dumbasses. The Liberal Democrats have been consistently pro-EU, and may find their fortunes improving as a result.
I remain amused at the demands from Brexit supporters that the other side should “get over it”. I have been listening to and reading 40+ years of pissing moaning and whining from UK politicians (mostly Tories) about the iniquities of the EU, so no, bollocks to that. I think Brexit was a terrible decision that should never have been made via a referendum, and the Brexit scolds can go piss up a rope.
2. The Petulance of the POTUS
It seems that Donald Trump cannot handle any awkward questions. Asked about General Michael Flynn at an Executive Order signing ceremony today, he got up and walked out, having not signed a single document, leaving VP Mike Pence to pick up the pieces.
I have a word for this kind of behavior. It’s childish chickenshittery.
Ideally a few people would go into the Oval Office and tell the POTUS to stop behaving like a petulant dickweed, however, it seems that nobody wants to be the first person to tell him this. He is currently surrounded by spineless weasels. In other words, we elected a carnival barker, who promised to drain the swamp and then surrounded himself with sycophantic beneficiaries of the current system.
What could possibly go wrong?
