Zompist Bboard Again

Interesting analysis, Salmoneus, but I think it suffers a bit from your apparent conviction that economic policy is the "proper" measure for what is right-wing and what is left-wing in politics and every other possible axis is a deviation from the way things ought to be. If you look at the...

No idea. Probably nothing good, though, given their conservative roots.

Ok, update from yesterday on the Bavarian election: The Provisional Final Result (that is a thing in German elections, despite being, strictly speaking, a contradiction in terms) is: CSU 37.2 percent; Greens 17.5 percent; Free Voters 11.6 percent; AfD 10.2 percent; SPD 9.7 percent; FDP 5.1 percent; ...

I'd honestly say that revoking article 50 is flat-out impossible. Even if a majority of the population realises that staying in the EU is the only way to actually have a stable (and united ) UK, and even if a majority of MPs realise the same thing, I can't see Brussels allowing it. Good point. On t...

Re the palace intrigues reported by Salmoneus: I don't understand why the "rebels" would want to remove May now . If I was a British Tory MP with the ambition to be Prime Minister some day, I still wouldn't want to be PM right now - I would want to ensure that someone else than me has to p...

In summary, I give it 70% that we crash out chaotically in March, 25% that we crash out chaotically at the end of the transition period with either no agreement or one inadequate to our economic needs, 4% that the exit is successfully managed to minimise economic disruption, and 1% that we decide t...

I consider a CSU/Free Voters coalition most likely. The CSU had stated before the election that they won't form a coalition with the far-right AfD, and if they broke that promise, the effect would be a nation-wide political earthquake with disastrous repercussions since such a coalition would break...

Polls are now closed in the Bavarian state legislative election, and here's one of the exit poll based predictions: CSU 35.5 percent; Greens 18.5 percent; Free Voters (independent, sort of anti-establishment) 11.5 percent; AfD 11 percent; SPD 10 percent; FDP 5 percent; The Left 3.5 percent (not in t...

Which leads to the larger question: what to do about countries where most voters want a dictator? Accept the will of the voters, and you have a dictatorship; thwart the will of the voters, and you have a dictatorship, too.

Serious question: are there any, I mean, any, remaining May supporters? Looks to me that it's all just people who either can't agree on whom to replace her with, or who want to leave her in place until after Brexit so that no one else has to preside over that.

From liberal-leaning news website Talking Points Memo: "Hundreds Of Teacher Candidates Shake Up Midterm Elections" https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/hundreds-teacher-candidates-shake-up-midterms For one moment, I thought that in addition to all the other weird offices that are directly el...

(not that I'm much of a WSJ reader. We always have a copy in the breakroom at work, so I skim the headlines when waiting for my friends to finish making their elaborate pourover coffee. The Mansion section is the best bit because rich people spend their money in incredibly stupid ways; I enjoy read...

It being October, the heating at my place has been turned on again.

- polls suggest the Tories are now comfortably ahead of Labour again. To be fair, polls that are published now were probably taken before or early during the Tory Conference, but after the Labour Conference, which had its own share of chaos about supporting or not supporting a second Brexit referen...

mèþru wrote: ↑Fri Sep 28, 2018 10:32 am Ed Miliband? He's remarkably average in my POV

The British apparently decided that he's a complete weirdo a while ago, for reasons unknown to me, which apparently somehow involve a ham sandwich.

just in case some readers are wondering who this "Jacob Rees-Mogg" person, is I wouldn't have thought that was necessary - I thought JRM was one of the few politicians other than Treeza people outside the UK know about if only cause he's such an oddball. Most of what I know about Jacob Re...

From the Guardian : Air pollution fears fuel fight against new London cruise ship terminal https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/26/air-pollution-fears-fuel-fight-against-huge-new-london-cruise-ship-terminal-river-thames So the air pollution in London has gotten so bad that it has actuall...

A tweet by the AFP news agency:

"Kim seeks second Trump summit 'at an early date': Moon"

Of course, in this context, "Moon" refers to the current President of South Korea. But for one moment I read this as Kim Jong Un proposing a summit with Trump on the Moon.

mèþru wrote: ↑Thu Sep 13, 2018 1:35 pm John Delaney's the only major candidate openly running and he's only technically major.

Well, technically you're right.

NBC NEWS: "2020 Democratic hopefuls wage invisible primary for black voters" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/2020-democratic-hopefuls-wage-invisible-primary-black-voters-n909086 Pretty straightforward on its own, but the thing is, there are so many Democrats seemingly prepar...