We will see. If they keep pushing things out the people are not going to remain civil. The vote was historic in its defeat of a soft drug out Brexit. The people and thankfully their representatives want out and are not willing to be strung along. How Brexit will affect N Ireland will be interesting. It certainly has consequences that will affect them and their agreement on citizenship.
I can't help but look at this and compare it to American history. From what I've been reading, while the press has been presenting Brexit as strictly an economic struggle ("How else will the British fishing industry survive?"), it seems to me that the core issue is that of (broadly defined) national sovereignty. I think if Brussels would agree to allow England to limit immigration, all the other complaints and issues with Brexit would magically disappear from the House of Commons. Brussels CAN'T do this. Otherwise, they'd have to let Hungary and Poland and Italy and all the rest decide that they WON'T accept XYZ. These nations MUST SUBMIT to Brussels, otherwise (in Brussels' view) the EU has no reason to exist. In America, the question was a mini-sovereignty issue, known as "states rights". The 10th Amendment to the Constitution (the last of the original amendments known as the Bill of Rights) declares that rights not reserved to the federal government or jointly held by the federal government and the states devolve to the states, or the individual citizens. This allowed individual states to allow slavery within their borders. The American Civil War, however, did not result from slavery. It resulted from taxes, to whit, tariffs. Long story short, the then-current system of national tariffs was hurting South Carolina, and South Carolina was looking at simply not collecting the tariffs. When Lincoln, in his First Inaugural Address threatened to invade any state which did not collect the tariffs, that was viewed across the southern states as a declaration of war, and lead to the states seceding from the Union, and launching the Civil War. It was, at its heart a conflict between federalism and states rights: which will be supreme? We fought a war to determine that federalism is supreme, and the states must follow federal law. The thing is, when the original 13 states ratified the Constitution, they all knew they were embracing federalism and surrendering some of their privileges. The biggest political battles in the early Republic were over the LEVEL of federalism that would be tolerated. Nothing I can find in the debates over the creation of the EU indicates that the surrendering of national sovereignty was mentioned, much less seriously considered. Individual nations recognized they were surrendering some sovereignty but were expecting to gain economically in exchange, and by and large that has been the result. Migration from outside of the EU, much less the massive migrations that have occured, was never considered to be a serious concern. Since individual nations only considered that immigration and migration would only be with other existing members, no rules were put into place or even considered back when the EU was being created. Now, there is a federal government in Brussels which says that these migrants MUST be admitted and taken in by individual states, even if the individual nations don't want to have their national identities diluted. So I think the very real issue that must be considered is: will war break out between the sovereignty states (England, Poland, et al) and the center states (German, France, Spain, et al)? I think that issue MUST be discussed and decided NOW. Otherwise, things will creep up, getting more and more serious, until someone stands up in Commons and announces, "Gentlemen, they have fired upon the Cliffs of Dover!", all because no one wanted to consider the possibility, and so the possibility became inevitable.
Yes, it is always first the carrot and then the stick isn't it? A bit of financial gain here for the freedoms one has long been accustomed to such as your own borders and citizenship, territorial rights and claims to resources etc. Being told one will not produce product A but instead purchase it from another far away land is always appealing when you can make a better version of it and sell it for a fraction of the cost. Not to mention the regulatory laws which are neither voted on nor needed but are invented and applied via non elected bureaucrats wholly across the entire EU member body. Regulatory laws which stifle and suffocate small businesses like no other. Do you really think it will come to that extreme? If it does it is even more reason to leave it to the dustbin of history IMO.
I think yes. I think in stage one, there will be another Brexit referendum. It will be a close vote, but once again Britain will vote to leave. It might be due to civil unrest by Muslim immigrants which will tip the scales, it might be the death of the Queen (God Save Her Soul) and the ascension to the throne of Mad Prince Charles (God Save Us All) who will propose further surrendering of autonomy in the name of Globalism and Gaia that leads to breaks in British society, but a majority of the British public will reject being told by the elites what to do. This will be the signal for the Antifa people to start rioting (excuse me -- active acts of civil disobedience) which will force the government to crack down on them. Things will start to spiral out of control, with the end result being the dissolution of the British Commonwealth as member countries renounce loyalty to the British Crown. (Addendum: eventually Charles is forced to abdicate in favor of Prince William, which results in a surprising return of Britain to Christian Culture.) In the meantime, the EU will send troops (sorry -- augmented police forces) to Hungary, et al to enforce European Court of Justice rulings that these countries are legally required to accept Muslim immigrants. This will not end well. (I remember when the Brexit result was announced, and all the elites were gobstopped, and news sources reported that the next day "Brexit" was the most searched term on Google in Great Britain, I thought that the powers-that-be had done a WONDERFUL job of telling the public, "There, there! You don't need to worry! This is much, much too complicated for you to understand. Just let us do the thinking, and things will be all right. Besides, polls show that Brexit will lose, so you don't have to worry about a thing!" So much so that when the public entered the polling booths, they thought, "Well, if Brexit is going to lose anyway, I might as well vote for it and show those fancy b*strds what for!") Question: Americans have "them there smart fellas" who know all about economic theory but can't change the oil filter on their car to save their lives. Is the British equivalent a "fancy b*strd" or what Monty Python called "a British Upper-Class Twit"?
Another side note: If you go to an American of a certain age and start singing, "Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function", chances are they'll join in. There were a series of 3-minute animated musical "things" called "Schoolhouse Rock" which made basic ideas easy to remember. One such thing was called "I'm Just A Bill On Capitol Hill" which explained how a bill becomes law, and did it in under 3 minutes. I recently looked at a graphic on Wikipedia on how a bill becomes law in the EU. There were so many arrows pointing here and there, and so many entry points for starting the process, there is NO FREAKIN' WAY you could summarize that process in under 3 minutes. 10 minutes might be pushing it.
Ah you mean back in the days when people actually wanted to understand how these things worked. That was a long time ago my friend.
I'm not so sure that Brexit would win if they had a re-run of the referendum. Immigration wasn't the only reason the Brexit side won. A soft Brexit won't satisfy the hardcore Brexiteers but it would satisfy many Remainers if it were soft enough. May's deal was dead in the water because she tried too hard to please everyone which was never going to happen. The most likely scenario now seems to be a Norway type arrangement which would be far removed from what the Brexiteers set out to achieve but would help save face for those who joined the campaign never expecting to win. The Remainers would be happy enough with a Norway deal because the only significant difference would be that Britain would lose its representation in the European Parliament, the Commission and other European institutions. They would put on a show moaning about the negative effects but would begin the process of working towards re-joining within a few years. I don't think that Brexit would affect citizenship for NI residents because that's covered by the Good Friday Agreement. The main stumbling block seems to be whether we would return to having a hard border on the island of Ireland with customs, etc. Although I haven't been paying much attention to the Brexit news, I think that's what the backstop was meant to address. If Ireland were to join Schengen, that could lead to problems for the Ireland/UK Common Travel Area arrangement. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the NI Unionist parties making a big deal about wanting a hard border. The re-introduction of customs regulations doesn't suit their voters but they have to talk the talk to make themselves appear important to their hardliners. That's my tuppence worth, but I don't pay much attention to the news these days and I could be way off the mark. I did watch a discussion on a financial programme a couple of months ago where a British businessman said something that made sense to me. He was of the opinion that May's biggest mistake was approaching the Europeans looking for a deal. He seemed to believe that she put herself on the back foot by not starting out with the hard Brexit line and waiting to see what concessions the Europeans would offer to save all of Europe the negative effects of a hard Brexit because it would affect all of Europe even if Britain suffered most in the short term.
It makes perfect sense. She led with the chin and its a miracle she doesn't end up with an overwhelming no confidence vote for it IMO. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand basic horse trading techniques. That is if she ever intended to truly represent the people in the first place. I would have some serious doubts if she were my PM.
Micro Earthquake Rattles Malibu ....The quake comes on the 25th anniversary of the Northridge Quake, which ravaged much of the Los Angeles area with a magnitude-6.7 earthquake.
Good article....more and more what has been hidden in darkness is being exposed...or even forced....into the light. They now own their sin as they now admit it and promote it. Former Planned Parenthood Clinic Director: Witnessing an Abortion Made Me Pro-Life ........ Johnson concluded, “We see that Planned Parenthood is more vocal about their support of abortion. Their current president, Leana Wen, two days ago, coming out on Twitter and saying, ‘Planned Parenthood is focused on providing abortion.’ Great. Get it out in the open. Stop trying to hide behind this false three percent number. Let’s be honest about the number of abortions you’re providing. Stop saying it’s only three percent. We all know that’s a lie. Just be honest and come out with it.” https://www.breitbart.com/radio/201...c-director-witnessing-abortion-made-pro-life/
From my side of the pond, I'm wondering if NI could become Europe's "Hong Kong". HK is under Chinese control, yet they're the ones who provide the capitalist face and force to the Communists.
I must say, this is the biggest bunch of gobbledy gook I have ever read. You must not sleep at night. eesh.
Just a reminder: Total lunar eclipse meets supermoon Sunday night CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Here comes a total lunar eclipse and supermoon, all wrapped into one. The moon, Earth and sun will line up this weekend for the only total lunar eclipse this year and next. At the same time, the moon will be ever so closer to Earth and appear slightly bigger and brighter than usual — a supermoon. “This one is particularly good,” said Rice University astrophysicist Patrick Hartigan. “It not only is a supermoon and it’s a total eclipse, but the total eclipse also lasts pretty long. It’s about an hour.” The whole eclipse starts Sunday night or early Monday, depending on location , and will take about three hours. It begins with the partial phase around 10:34 p.m. EST Sunday. That’s when Earth’s shadow will begin to nip at the moon. Totality — when Earth’s shadow completely blankets the moon — will last 62 minutes, beginning at 11:41 p.m. EST Sunday. If the skies are clear, the entire eclipse will be visible in North and South America, as well as Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and the French and Spanish coasts. The rest of Europe, as well as Africa, will have partial viewing before the moon sets. During totality, the moon will look red because of sunlight scattering off Earth’s atmosphere. That’s why an eclipsed moon is sometimes known as a blood moon. In January, the full moon is also sometimes known as the wolf moon or great spirit moon. So informally speaking, the upcoming lunar eclipse will be a super blood wolf — or great spirit — moon. In the U.S., the eclipse will begin relatively early Sunday evening, making it easier for children to stay up and enjoy the show. Plus the next day is a federal holiday, with most schools closed. But the weather forecast for much of the U.S. doesn’t look good. Parents “can keep their kids up maybe a little bit later,” said, Hartigan, who will catch the lunar extravaganza from Houston. “It’s just a wonderful thing for the whole family to see because it’s fairly rare to have all these things kind of come together at the same time.” “The good thing about this is that you don’t need any special equipment,” he added. Asia, Australia and New Zealand are out of luck. But they had prime viewing last year, when two total lunar eclipses occurred. The next total lunar eclipse won’t be until May 2021. As for full-moon supermoons, this will be the first of three this year. The upcoming supermoon will be about 222,000 miles (357,300 kilometers) away. The Feb. 19 supermoon will be a bit closer and one in March will be the farthest. https://apnews.com/5b27b0327a6f45609ec3e899a232445e
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2019-january-21 There is a link below the graphic that will show what time it will be visible in your location if you are in the US, Canada, or S America. On the west coast we should see totality around 9:10PM.
More EQs! Tokyo earthquake: 'Crazy' quake rattles Japan’s capital - Ring of Fire on alert TOKYO has been rattled by a strong earthquake, with residents reporting shaking in the Japanese capital. Tokyo was hit by an earthquake at around 11.45am GMT, with the quake initially registering a magnitude of 5.8. It was later downgraded to 5.0. Shocked residents recorded their experiences on earthquake-tracking website EMSC-CSEM. One said: “That was a nice little shake, enough to scare the kids.” Another said: “A sudden jolt, short-lived dramatic.” One resident said on Twitter: “Toilet starts shaking and I thought I was just having a rough one but then I see the door start swaying.” A resident of Zama described the quake as "crazy", while another said it had been felt in Tokyo Bay. No tsunami warnings or alert were issued. https://www.express.co.uk/news/worl...n-earthquake-ring-of-fire-japan-tsunami-tokyo
One simply can't make this stuff up, nor would one want to! https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01...-on-sale-for-the-old-in-san-francisco-report/ You don’t have to drink the blood of children to reclaim the vigor of your lost youth. You can mainline it. For $8,000 a liter. Ambrosia, a startup founded by a Stanford Medical School graduate, has begun pouring the blood of the young into the hardened arteries of their elders in five cities, one of them San Francisco, according to a new report. Founded in 2016 by Jesse Karmazin, an MD never licensed to practice medicine, Florida-based Ambrosia claims to be able to combat aging through infusions of blood plasma from younger people. It’s now infusing patients in Los Angeles, Tampa, Omaha, Houston and the city by the Bay, according to Business Insider. Initial interest was high, with about 100 potential patients contacting the company in the first week after it put up its website in September, the business website reported. Tech entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and Palantir and said in 2014 he was taking human growth hormone in hopes of living to 120 or beyond, has expressed interest in Ambrosia and said of death, “I prefer to fight it.” So far, nearly 150 patients aged 35 to 92 — including 81 during a clinical trial — have received Ambrosia’s treatment, according to Business Insider. The company calls its intravenous interventions “young plasma treatments.” Ambrosia says it sucks the blood (so to speak) of donors aged 16 to 25. For the older patients undergoing what the startup acknowledges is a “medical treatment,” there’s a pretty juicy volume discount: $12,000 for two liters. Patients are 30 or older, according to the company. Karmazin, who worked for about two years as a medical resident but moved into entrepreneurship without becoming a licensed physician, said last year that an Ambrosia study found the treatments led to a 20 percent reduction in levels of two proteins, one linked to cancer and one to Alzheimer’s, The Guardian reported last year. At the time of that report, the median age of participants in the study — which cost participants $8,000 each — was 60, according to The Guardian. The treatment was inspired by experiments on mice, Ambrosia says. Harvard University researchers have identified a substance in mouse blood they believed partly responsible for an anti-aging effect seen in old mice transfused with blood from young mice, The Guardian reported. Stanford researchers have also been studying such transfusions, known as “parabiosis,” since around 2000, according to Science magazine. Some 50 years ago, the late UC San Francisco researcher Frederick Ludwig used rats to study the effects of parabiosis on longevity. Two UC Berkeley researchers who have researched parabiosis in mice last year described Ambrosia’s treatments as “dangerous.” “They quite likely could inflict bodily harm,” researcher Irina Conboy told Business Insider. “It is well known in the medical community — and this is also the reason we don’t do transfusions frequently — that in 50 percent of patients there are very bad side effects. You are being infused with somebody else’s blood and it doesn’t match.” But Karmazin disputed Conboy’s conclusion, saying it was not supported by data or clinical experience, Business Insider reported. “Millions of plasma transfusions are performed safely in the US each year and the FDA monitors the safety of the blood supply and transfusions closely,” Karmazin said. Blood transfusions are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which allows Ambrosia to provide them as an “off-label” type of treatment, Business Insider reported. Conboy said research in mice linking anti-aging effects to blood infusions is not conclusive. Ambrosia, in a filing with the U.S. National Library of Medicine about its clinical trial, had said the project would focus on inflammation, nerve development, stem cell proliferation, blood clotting, immune function and brain plaque associated with Alzheimer’s. “Organ function which will be specifically measured includes the liver, bone marrow, kidneys, pancreas, muscles, cardiovasculature, cerebrovasculature, and the thyroid,” the filing said. “Specific disease states connected to these biomarkers include anemia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, elevated risk of cancer, atherosclerosis, dementia, and cataracts.”
