Friday, September 6, 2019

Politics Corner, September 6th



I'm writing this early today. Two reasons. There's already enough news to talk about. More importantly I'll be continuing a Wisconsin tradition and enjoying a fish fry with friends. Friday fish fries are a tradition that goes way back and may have something to do with meatless Fridays but probably has more to do with plentiful fish year round. We're surrounded by Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers and we have plenty of lakes, rivers and streams in between. Door County has a separate fish boil tradition while the rest of us prefer our fish fried either in breading or a beer batter. I'm hoping for walleye with potato pancakes and rye bread.







As expected, taking the Extradition Bill off the table was not enough to end the Hong Kong protests. If anything they seem to have intensified and rubber bullets are not going to stop this. [Al Jazeera]


The UK joins in the chaos. Chaos is Boris Johnson's specialty but it was always assumed that he threw the chaos up front to cover what he was up to in back. It turns out that it's just all chaos all the time. The House of Lords also said no to a no-deal Brexit so Johnson gets nothing. He claims he won't resign but he lies like Trump so who knows? We could get Prime Minister Corbyn and no one but Corbyn wants that. Here's a look at last week. [CNN]




Tip of the hat to Cali who brought this to our attention in Headlines this morning. We've got some doctors who think discussing Trump's well-being (or lack) is more important than following the Goldwater rule. Maybe they're not afraid of being sued since Trump almost never wins lawsuits. [WGBH]


Of course the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation are threatening the state of California while the Department of Justice is investigating major automakers because apparently working together for the public good is considered a violation of anti-trust laws. [Los Angeles Times]




The Trump administration wants to reprivatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because that worked out so well for banks and so badly for homeowners the last time around. The wonder is that supposed real estate genius (who loses money on casinos) Trump has waited so long on this. [NPR]


Anyone who has problems with the Democratic National Party and its behavior might take a look at how Republicans are shutting down primaries to lock out challengers to Trump. South Carolina seems especially egregious considering how early its primary is. It might also be a mistake for Republicans since it cedes an awful lot of attention to the Democrats. [CNN]




Another tip of the hat, this time to Sillstaw, Robert Mugabe died and I'd like to be the first to say good riddance but I was beaten to that by just about everyone who knew about it first. Once upon a time Mugabe was seen as a liberator of Africans from European colonial power. Instead he'll be remembered as a brutal power mad dictator. [The Guardian]


Before power went to his head Mugabe was commonly listed with other actual heroes. Here he is in a song from Phil Lynott.



Political discussion welcome.

No comments:

Post a Comment