The Brits are always a step ahead of us.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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I’d swear that they look like siblings.
Tory MPs overwhelmingly favor May. She’s shown, at best, tepid support for Brexit since the referendum results, and seems intent on delaying invoking article 50 until at least the end of the year. The rank and file may prefer her opponent, Leadsom. Leadsom is definitely more of an ideologue (or at least strikes me that way) and has been a consistently vocal supporter of Brexit. She also will appear as more of an “outsider” given her relative lack of service in the House of Commons. Both will be bad news for anyone who is not part of the 1% in the UK – although that goes without saying, I suppose.
Sometimes way ahead. But when was the last time a POTUS was a poodle for the UK PM?
Thatcher became PM in 1979. Thirty-seven years ago. And she earned the position in her own right. Not inherited from a parent, grandparent, or spouse. That’s the only good thing I can say about the “milk lady.” Trashing poor people is how many politicians get ahead.
I can say one other good thing about Thatcher. In her younger years as a chemist she was on the team that invented soft serve ice cream. Really the best thing she ever did IMO. Too bad she didn’t stick with chemistry.
Yes, Thatcher made trashing poor people into a fine art, didn’t she? Certainly got her ahead. One of the latter half of last century’s leading “luminaries” of the “I got Mine, Eff You” club.
Wait… the membership of the conservative party is only 150K? That seems… pretty underwhelming. But google says that it costs 25 pounds to be a voting member. And Labour party membership is only at 380K… and they charge 4 pounds a month for membership. Apparently membership of both parties in the UK are at historic lows.
Hmmm… how long before our parties adopt this strategy and start charging for voting rights? It certainly would cut down on the chance of the riffraff screwing up the elections, don’t you think?
How it works:
It would be more akin to US party members voting for the chair of the DNC and RNC and choosing the nominees. Would DWS have ever been elected by Democratic party members? (Labour offers a discount rate of £1 a year.)
Check this out:
If possible, how many Bernie supporters would happily fork over £3 pounds to vote for Corbyn? Too bad that’s not possible.
As a CA resident, my presidential primary vote rarely counts. So, at no cost, I get no say. Would it really be less democratic if I had to pay a few bucks a month to have the same voting power in presidential primaries as the people in IA and NH have? By skipping the primaries, British citizens only have to engage in general elections for six weeks instead of our two year marathons.
An explanation of UK’s election funding and spending. They use a spending limit and not a donation limit model. We tried the spending limit for presidential primaries through the federal financing legislation. That was junked by candidates by 2004 (following GWB’s 2000 lead).
Hey, I would gladly cough up a few bucks to be rid of DWS! I guess technically donating to Tim Canova sorta counts for that as well. We can only hope.
Our primary system is some sort of weird mishmash between party rules and public elections… and we have the whole poll tax thing (not that I’m criticizing that particular reform…)
I understand that things are a bit different with a parliamentary system, but the interesting fact is that their “mainstream” party membership is declining (and at very low levels), which seems to be where we are heading too.
The CA primary ballot counting continues in several counties. In my neck of the woods, the results were slightly disappointing. HRC won by less than 3,000 and her vote margin held over the weeks subsequent to the election. Until the latest update. Bernie is now ahead by 5,572 votes out of 117,463 democratic ballot votes cast. GOP ballots were a fraction of Dem ballots — a mere 25.9%.
How have the statewide totals changed?
June 8 CNN. HRC 55.8%
Today — CA SOS. HRC 53.1%
You can do the rest of the math and take note of the counties that flipped. Can’t recall ever seeing a statewide election when a third of the votes remained to be counted after all precincts had been reported and that the later counting has been this slow.
I’ve seen it often in Cook County Illinois, notably when Richard J. Daley (father) was Chicago’s mayor but also under Richard M. Daley (son).
Fortunately, unlike North Korea, we don’t have a third generation. But then, we’re stuck with Rahm Emanuel.
Until this primary season didn’t appreciate the difference between Chicago and Cook county outside Chicago in reporting election returns. Chicago takes its time to make sure that its vote tallies are what’s needed.
They could have been some of that this year in CA, but if so, it’s definitely not refined into high art like Chicago. What we can’t know is the numbers that didn’t vote because HRC had already won (and who that hurt), people that left without voting because their name wasn’t on the register, and Ind voters denied a Dem ballot. It’s important to note that Dem voter turnout was as strong this year when the race was practically over as it was in Feb 2008 when CA Democrats had an ability to shape the primary outcome. To be technically correct, CA Dem voter participation increased 6.9% over that in 2008. That didn’t happen in but a few states this year. It was down in most state and in many down significantly. (GOP numbers were generally up.)
wrt Daley — too soon to declare that there is no third generation. Recall, there was a gap between Daley 1 and Daley 2.
Daley III comes to save us from the horrors of Emanuel? Could happen.
Everyone, black, white, and brown hates Emanuel, but they run multiple candidates and screw themselves.
IIRC in this latest election he was opposed by four candidates, two of them black to ensure that the black vote was split. Two black, one brown, one white, plus Emanuel, the last man standing. It’s already fading in my mind, so if I’m wrong, someone please correct me.
You live in Chicago? No wonder you hate DNC.
A suburban refugee. Born on the near West Side.
Wasn’t Chuy Garcia the good guy in the last election? He also stepped up to the plate and supported Bernie.
yeah. He stepped up when that lady got ill.
Not arguing the merits of any candidate, just that there were too many and polarized on racial lines. (Standard for Chicago)
I think the counting is over; California secretary of state reports zero uncounted ballots.
When I first heard about there being snipers attacking police, the image of my mind is what I grew up with in tv and movies – the sniper, perched alone, waiting for the opportunity to shoot.
Then, I remembered that this was Texas.
Texas, with their Open Carry Gun Laws.
Last night, 5 Dallas Policeman lost their lives. They lost their lives because those that meant them harm, used a peaceful protest to get up close and personal to their intended victims.
The NRA and gun nuts built this. In most states, the sight of someone with a rifle would be cause to ALERT AUTHORITIES. Not in Texas. Because they can walk in broad daylight with a rifle and nobody could say shyt. The police had to trust on faith that those rifles were not loaded. This is the summer. You just couldn’t have a rifle with you and not be noticed.
Without open carry, the sniper could never have gotten that close to their target. They would have had to hide and set up. By having to do so, the likelihood of someone seeing something and calling 911 goes up. The sniper was literally able to hide in plain sight and get up close to the intended target because of open carry.
Open Carry made the Dallas Police Department SITTING DUCKS for those that meant them harm.
Yes. Plus, sadly, I think a situation like this was bound to happen somewhere. Don’t agree with it but logically seems like the powder keg would go off at some point.
Yes, the NRA built this, but they’ll slither away from this so fast.
Most unfortunate for all concerned.
They definitely led the way in turning their public areas into an Orwellian panopticon of spy cameras.
NY Post declares “Civil War”
Police union in St. Louis and other places blames Obama.
Ex-Congressman Joe Walsh blames Obama and tells him to “Watch out”.
Smith & Wesson stock hits new high.
National media quick to blame #blacklivesmatter and call it a Black vs. Blue war.
The Republican National Convention starts in Cleveland ten days from now.
The Democratic National Convention starts in Philadelphia in seventeen days.
There were two horrible incidents of cops killing non-confrontational black men who where exercising their right to bear arms.
The Dallas Police Department has succeeded in lowering its incidents of officer-involved violence.
The Dallas Police Department has prided itself on trying to solve the problem.
The Huey P. Newton Brigade of #blackopencarry has marched peacefully through neighborhoods of Dallas with the Dallas Police Department scrupulously obeying their right to carry.
The “DPD” sent out a suspect picture of a guy later released who reportedly had ties to #blacklivematter. Almost immediately America Watch picked it up and blasted it out as the Most Wanted. The picture was of a black man holding an AR-15. He reported to the police and satisfied them that the AR-15 was unloaded at the the protest (that is one story, which in the context of the blast of rumors is highly suspect regarding whether he was indeed armed; I’ll wait for confirmation.)
There was a brief lockdown of the US Capitol based on a rumor of a woman with a gun.
Oh, yes, the Dallas Police Department has not identified the race of the people they have in custody nor the race of the person they killed “who had a bomb.”
There has been a Twitter flurry of an unsubstantiated report of the DNC and Congressional Black Caucus issuing a statement that was so even-handed that it implicitly accused #blacklivesmatter protests of causing the attack on police. IF such as brain-dead statement ever existed (which I doubt) it has now been withdrown; more likely, this is a disinformation campaign designed to leverage the discontent with the DNC to defeat downticket Democrats.
People who have been researching the security state are speculating whether what the police used to kill the suspect they were negotiating with was the first use by police of a drone. The extreme of this speculation was that the “bomb” story was cover for a decision to use a drone in a firefight to “protect police lives”. Watch for more interest in this angle, maybe even brags about this new police capability six months down the road, whether true or not. Believing police are using drones might be seen by some in law enforcement might be a deterrent of firefights in all but suicide-by-police cases.
There are probably some more threads of reporting off of this event by now.
My first take: Not only the investigation but police protective action is ongoing because no one knows, given who benefits, how widespread the potential threat of similar snipers is.
The Freedom Party wing of the Republican Party wants President Obama dead before he leaves office. Only Joe Walsh is crazy enough to say it out loud.
The police unions, Rupert Murdoch, and a whole host of others on the right want a race war (a Second Civil War) to spoil the end of a successful Obama two-term Presidency.
Firearms companies see this as yet another business opportunity.
Republicans are relieved that this will take the news media off the track of the latest two police murders of black men.
Wayne LaPierre will suddenly refind his voice, ignore the Second Amendment rights of blacks and assert again against all evidence that President Obama will take away your guns.
Law and order and Second Amendment just got yuuuger at the GOP convention.
The Democratic convention is on the spot, unless events change the narrative before July 25. The whole notion of justice as a political imperative for the US government is slowly being buried in fear.
And that just goes to the first level of opportunists.
If only I had put all of my IRA into S&W in 2008, I wouldn’t have to worry about Democrats cheating me out of my SS and pension.
Twenty years ago, I would have said Republicans but that was before Emanuel, Obama and Hillary and NAFTA/SHAFTA,TPP.