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We had Davos, and Macron in particular making a bid for leadership in Europe (probably a good thing but does it mean much?) and also Trump proclaiming his brilliance. Big business liked it, mostly.

We had a Trump interview with Morgan in which he claimed to get lots of fan mail from Brits and expressed his support for brexit and a huge US/UK trade deal.

We have Rees-Mogg and his right wing no deal brexiters claiming May is betraying brexit and people positioning themselves for a leadership contest in the Conservatives.

Parliament is split in all directions: Conservatives badly split, Labour also split so not opposing effectively (though I just read a Polly Toynbee article saying that might be changing - wishful thinking?) but generally Parliament is anti-brexit in sentiment though going with it as the will of the people. Will they go with it if utterly convinced it leads straight to disaster? It has been established for several centuries that MPs are elected to use their judgement on behalf of their electors, not simply reflect their majority view...

The Lords may become very important in the next months. They can't actually stop anything, but they can slow business to a crawl. They are also as concerned with misuse of the Henry VIII clauses* as the rest of Parliament.

Ugh. Usually watching this sort of stuff is trying to pick out a few clues from a generally quiet background. Now the signals are going off like explosions in your face and it's knowing what the heck they are is the problem. This all feels significant but I can't put it together so I'm just registering a few points that occur to me, as much for later reference as anything else. If anyone has stuff to add please feel free.

edit: I DID see one edifying thing in politics last week: popped onto the Lords' Parliamentary channel and caught the tail end of a bill going through where the Conservative minister was thanking the Lib Dems and Labour for their help and the opposition Lords thanked the Minister for listening to their concerns. Good to see. I'm not sure what the Bill was, but a detail I caught was protecting victim's (almost always women) tenancy rights in cases of abuse where there was a shared tenancy, so allowing them to stay in their home if they wished. I'm glad to see that, but what cheered me up was seeing the Lords genuinely co-operating to improve legislation.



*The modern "Henry VIII clauses" are a Parliamentary convenience to speed up business. They allow ministers to change the law on non-controversial issues without consulting Parliament. The thing is, by applying it to the transfer of EU Law to UK Law there are a huge amount of VERY controversial issues which Government Ministers personally would be able to change as they liked without consulting Parliament. That's things like Health and Safety, maternity rights, holidays, working time...all could be changed as the Minister wished without Parliamentary approval. The name comes from the source: The Statute of Proclamations 1539 which gave Henry VIII power to legislate by proclamation, without consulting anyone.

I think all I'm registering here is that a boiling ferment is the new normal.

The latest from the US I've seen is that Nunes is suspected of altering a report after it was accepted by a committee but before Trump saw it.

It's the big constitutional threats that concern me most, I think. Misuse of the Henry VIII clauses here is a very serious matter. It means that Parliament is NOT Sovereign, Ministers are. That really is dictatorship and I do not want anyone, let alone people like Johnson, Gove, Davis and god forbid Rees-Mogg and his sort, to have that sort of power.

In the US it seems to me (as to so many others) that Trump is also behaving like a dictator, certainly that he is using the Presidency to further his business interests first and foremost and his powerbase has a lot of people who favour white hoods.

I gather his trillion dollar tax break for big business from the cut in corporation tax has resulted in few pay rises, but rather more one-off bonuses of $1,000 or so. Perhaps that's not really the case. Time will tell.

As far as the US economy goes, what you're omitting is that he's put the economy into extreme overdrive. While that may lead to an appalling crash eventually it will be after he's left office and for the time being it has the potential to make him very popular indeed.

Something that comes to mind a lot lately, a Band named Steppenwolf did a piece called Earschplittenloudenboomer back in the sixties. I think we are in the middle of a modern manifestation of the concept.

LarsMac;1517665 wrote: Something that comes to mind a lot lately, a Band named Steppenwolf did a piece called Earschplittenloudenboomer back in the sixties. I think were are in the middle of a modern manifestation of the concept.I was a big Steppenwolf fan in my younger years. That's the first time I've heard that tune.

spot;1517660 wrote: As far as the US economy goes, what you're omitting is that he's put the economy into extreme overdrive. While that may lead to an appalling crash eventually it will be after he's left office and for the time being it has the potential to make him very popular indeed.


Thanks for the emphasis your post adds - I hadn't noted it enough though I had taken it for granted. (My point about $1,000 dollar bonuses assumes it as you know )

Earschplittenloudenboomer


I love German. Don't speak it really. Love it though. Just for words/names like this.

edit: ...and then something in my head went "...hang on..." and I checked wiki and it's a Can/US band!

Still, Kraftwerk might have done it!

spot;1517660 wrote: As far as the US economy goes, what you're omitting is that he's put the economy into extreme overdrive. While that may lead to an appalling crash eventually it will be after he's left office and for the time being it has the potential to make him very popular indeed.


This is th norm for Republicans. They come in, spend like crazy, then leave the mess for the Democrats to pick up for the next eight years.

Saint_;1517683 wrote: This is th norm for Republicans. They come in, spend like crazy, then leave the mess for the Democrats to pick up for the next eight years.


So true! Meanwhile, they will look for ways to cut programs that actually help people so they can build up the military even more.

LarsMac;1517665 wrote: Something that comes to mind a lot lately, a Band named Steppenwolf did a piece called Earschplittenloudenboomer back in the sixties. I think we are in the middle of a modern manifestation of the concept.


I never heard that before, nice music.

What bothered me is why did the opening Announcer: "Though I have good news and thought bad news. A companies made have a new system called is which, Earschplittenloudenboomer."

(rest of it is instrumental) was done in German.

We all know why because it was a cheap allusion to Hitler and his evil. I keep running in my mind other accents and my impressions of what that might be.

tude dog;1517685 wrote: I never heard that before, nice music.

What bothered me is why did the opening Announcer: "Though I have good news and thought bad news. A companies made have a new system called is which, Earschplittenloudenboomer."

(rest of it is instrumental) was done in German.

We all know why because it was a cheap allusion to Hitler and his evil. I keep running in my mind other accents and my impressions of what that might be.


You need to consider the time when it was recorded and released, and listen to it in high volume, to the very end.

spot;1517660 wrote: As far as the US economy goes, what you're omitting is that he's put the economy into extreme overdrive.


To me, such an assessment would be good news! About time!!

spot;1517660 wrote: While that may lead to an appalling crash eventually it will be after he's left office and for the time being it has the potential to make him very popular indeed.


I sit here watching many getting excited at the rise in the stock market as if it represented the strength of the economy. Anybody who pays attention to Wall Street [and other major markets] knows it is all driven daily by faith and perception by short-term investors.

Dow Falls More Than 600 Points, Set for Worst Week in Years

Hardly a crash, just eventual.

tude dog;1517687 wrote:

I sit here watching many getting excited at the rise in the stock market as if it represented the strength of the economy. Anybody who pays attention to Wall Street [and other major markets] knows it is all driven daily by faith and perception by short-term investors.

Dow Falls More Than 600 Points, Set for Worst Week in Years

Hardly a crash, just eventual.


It annoys me when reporters or politicians try to present that day's stock market results as the state of our economy. The Dow going up to not translate into economic health for the majority of citizens. Just like the recent tax scam law, the stock market grains/losses help the few while ignoring the majority.

help the few while ignoring the majority.


That is Trump, and brexit, in a nutshell.

Clodhopper;1517703 wrote: That is Trump, and brexit, in a nutshell.
Except that Trump got a Minority of the votes. Brexit got a Majority.

Liar Johnson made a speech today that was supposed to convince Remainers to support brexit. It was just a rehash of his campaign speeches, had no specifics whatever and basically said, "Trust me, it will be great."

Honestly, the fact that even at this point he can't come up with anything concrete about brexit speaks volumes for the competence of the cretins supposed to negotiate brexit and implement it when they can't even agree among themselves what they want.

Brexit had better be a success because if it isn't brexiters will be blamed and if people are losing jobs and homes because of brexiters (who are solely responsible for brexit because without their votes it would not have happened) then I'm not sure how restrained that blame will be.

FourPart;1517807 wrote: Except that Trump got a Minority of the votes. Brexit got a Majority.


Are you really trying to claim that because brexit got 52% of the vote as a consequence of lies, illegal bots and Putin's interference that means it is not for the benefit of a small, ultra-rich minority who can move money around easily to take advantage of changes? Did you know both Rees-Mogg and Redwood are advising their rich investing clients to move their money out of the UK for a few years (which only makes sense if you can then come back and buy when the economy has tanked and prices of say, property, are lower)?

Are you really claiming that because 52% voted for brexit that fact makes it for the benefit of ordinary people?