UK votes to leave EU
The revolt continues: The voters of the United Kingdom tonight chose to leave the European Union.
The EU was a great idea, unfortunately spoiled in the past few decades by a crushing regulatory bureaucracy unaccountable to anyone, which is why every single time the question has been put to the voters in recent years the voters have chosen to quit the EU.
The unrest among American voters, fueling the success of outsiders and the defeat of incumbents in recent elections, is based on similar issues and dissatisfactions. I thus expect similar surprises here come November. This essay expresses these circumstances here in the states quite nicely:
This is not about ideology. If people trusted elites and institutions they defend to look out for them, in a non-ideological sense, the breakdown of our systems would have been mitigated or confined. The fact that it is so sweeping is due to a generation of elites who didn’t do their jobs well, or pretended things weren’t their job for too long.
We have breakdown, chaos, and upheaval in our politics today not because the people are “insane”, as Rauch writes, but because they are sane. They know the leadership class which held power for the past generation has not looked out for them. Don’t blame a people for turning on elites who thought they knew better but proved over and over that they didn’t. It is thoroughly rational to want something else instead. Even if that something else turns out not to deliver either, at least you know it’s not the same as what’s failed. [emphasis mine]
Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same failed thing over and over again, even though it is proven to never work. This what our elites have been doing for the past three decades. The voters, however, are increasingly showing that they are not insane, that they want to try new things. Kudos to them!
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The revolt continues: The voters of the United Kingdom tonight chose to leave the European Union.
The EU was a great idea, unfortunately spoiled in the past few decades by a crushing regulatory bureaucracy unaccountable to anyone, which is why every single time the question has been put to the voters in recent years the voters have chosen to quit the EU.
The unrest among American voters, fueling the success of outsiders and the defeat of incumbents in recent elections, is based on similar issues and dissatisfactions. I thus expect similar surprises here come November. This essay expresses these circumstances here in the states quite nicely:
This is not about ideology. If people trusted elites and institutions they defend to look out for them, in a non-ideological sense, the breakdown of our systems would have been mitigated or confined. The fact that it is so sweeping is due to a generation of elites who didn’t do their jobs well, or pretended things weren’t their job for too long.
We have breakdown, chaos, and upheaval in our politics today not because the people are “insane”, as Rauch writes, but because they are sane. They know the leadership class which held power for the past generation has not looked out for them. Don’t blame a people for turning on elites who thought they knew better but proved over and over that they didn’t. It is thoroughly rational to want something else instead. Even if that something else turns out not to deliver either, at least you know it’s not the same as what’s failed. [emphasis mine]
Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same failed thing over and over again, even though it is proven to never work. This what our elites have been doing for the past three decades. The voters, however, are increasingly showing that they are not insane, that they want to try new things. Kudos to them!
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Ripping good news, by Jove!
Commentary I have heard is that there is a distrust of politicians based upon the loss of jobs through letting immigration run rampant and the failure of politicians to protect their citizens from terrorists. The key thing that may have undone the remain campaign is that Obama went over and sided with the remain group. Obama has a very bad international standing!
And by some amazing coincidence Trump will be in the UK tomorrow attending to one of his business ventures. I would be surprised if announced that if he becomes President he would fast-track a new trade deal with a free U.K.
Phill O: I remember posting a comment just after Obama’s ham-fisted buttinsky visit to Old Blighty that he’d probably just swung at least another 5% of the electorate behind Brexit. Given that Brexit is now projected to win by 4 percentage points, I’m thoroughly enjoying a full-on frisson of schadenfreude.
Yeh, yeh … the first day of a better world! The major (real, hidden) purpose of EU is and was to contain Germany, also in name of USA. Now, the EU system becomes more and more similar to the former USSR system. There is no need of this kind of anti-nation, anti-European culture diversity, one-world, super-state “project”.
Trump could probably do himself the most good in the U.K. if he simply announced that, if he is elected in November, he will formally ask the U.K. government to send back the bust of Winston Churchill that Obama returned early in his first term.
Alex: I think the real purpose of the EU was to make all of Europe into a bigger version of France. The only real beneficiaries of the EU have been marginal parasite states like Greece, the long-standing French agricultural subsidy/protectionism policies, now enshrined Europe-wide, and the Francophone half of Belgium, in which much of the permanent EU bureaucracy resides. If, as I think likely, the EU rapidly deflates and the Euro founders in the wake of Brexit, Brussels will become as dismal as Liege, only bigger.
Europe would have been wisest to stop after having established the Common Market. But the Eurosocialists would not be denied their dream of a pan-European superstate and so here we are. One hopes a few lessons will be learned, but one cannot be very optimistic on that front. Europeans can be remarkably resistant to the acknowledgement of reality. World War 2 having been basically a renewal of World War 1 two decades on is all the proof one needs of this sad proposition. Europe had the U.S. to pull its chestnuts out of the fire and slap some sense into it after WW2. I doubt the U.S. will be inclined to do anything nearly so bracing and tonic in the wake of EU collapse, however, except insofar as it prevents NATO from coming unstuck in the backwash. If, God forbid, Hillary Clinton is elected U.S. President, even that won’t be forthcoming.
This will go down in history as the first shot fired in the fight of the people taking their countries back from the global elites.
Hope springs eternal…………in America.
My sympathies lie with those who wish for independence from the claws of the global elite, but lets not imagine it will be any easy process by any means. The UK people will be harshly punished for their insubordination and set before the world as an example of what happens when the will of the elites is resisted. Hopefully the fear they instill will not deter this country from following suit this November.
Dick Eagleson;
Excellent commentary!
A “Common Market” is one thing, the “united states of europe” is another thing entirely.
mpthompson: correct, it won’t be an easy process. The Referendum only triggers a formal notice that the UK will now negotiate it’s way out of the EU, under the EU rules. It will take a minimum of 2 years for the process to go forward.
Nothing worthwhile is easy, and this is very much worthwhile.
Regaining sovereignty and rejecting this “new world order” and the Obama attempt at intimidation is soooo worthwhile and is an important commentary being generated by the Brits. This may be seen as Magna carta II as the Brits show America the way to freedom and not the borderless, cultureless homoginized world imagined by the soulless Marxists among us.
A 4% margin is significant, lets see the same in November. After which both Britain and America will reunite in trade under a Trump administration and lead the world way from this New world order abomination.
Finally, something that Obama said that I fully agree with! I knew the chances were high that it would happen at least once within the span of 8 years.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/president-cavs-put-shirt-article-1.2686065
Al “This will go down in history as the first shot fired in the fight of the people taking their countries back from the global elites.”
Yup, it is the French revolution all over!
Dick “send back the bust of Winston Churchill that Obama returned early in his first term.”
Wow, did he really do that? Incredible!
The EU as an creation of the CIA, aAn interesting discussion about background of BREXIT:
BREXIT : Dr. Paul Craig Roberts 2016 : End the EU, a CIA Covert Operation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9otn_5LVQq8
Alex:
Come on… Dr. Paul Craig Roberts… really?
Wayne: I listen quite often to him. Good man, Reagan’s former assistant secretary of the treasury.
Militant Islam’s plan of Divide and Conquer seems to be working quite well.
And so, Death by a million self inflicted cuts continues at an ever increasing pace!
I think we would all be very surprised about the level that the CIA participates in things that go on all around the world.
What happens when a hollow, weak leftist makes a threat? Sometimes it causes entire country’s to take proactive steps in the opposite direction? I can’t wait for him to threaten our country to vote for Hillary “or else”.
https://youtu.be/v-jNvxBhPY8
Never make an overt threat and not be immediately able to back it up. Obama seems to do it with hollow ease.
On another note: If I was Hillary I would be beginning to get sweaty palms, if she does not win the presidency what do you think the odds are that she and the several people that surround her will be spending some quality time on a mandatory government vacation plan?
Another reason to be extra vigilant in regards to the accounting for and verifying the vote in November, there is a lot on the line and the Dems will lie, cheat, steal or worse to prevail.
Alex:
yeah, he’s been playing off that job for years. Doesn’t mean he’s a Constitutional Conservative by a long shot.
Granted, he’s not Alex Jones, but he orbits in those circles.
>>I wish the CIA was capable of doing all the stuff that has been attributed to it over the years.
As for Brexit– anything the media & Obama hate, I’m in favor.
I am amazed (but not surprised) how much the BBC pushed the Remain commentators to the front (of the cameras) after their defeat. The Scots made definite threats!
Militant Islam’s plan of Divide and Conquer seems to be working quite well.
Quite the contrary. The UK will be in a better position to defend itself and work with other countries on its own terms to fight Islamism.
I’ve gradually been selling stocks to raise cash for a rainy day. In the words of Richard Gere, “It’s raining!” Bought back stocks on sale Friday. Thank you Brexit.
I wanted us to stay in the EU and voted that way but over the months leading up to the referendum I grew quite tired of the constant scaremongering of how bad it was going to be if we left. Cameron’s stupidity in thinking that he could fool the British people into believing he had got any worthwhile concessions from the rest of the EU a few months ago was only eclipsed by Obama thinking that threats was going to help the stay campaign;- idiots.
The current position of the other EU leader’s trying to get us to leave immediately, in conflict with the agreed exit procedure, shows me the type of people we are having to deal with.
The UK is the 4th or 5th largest economy in the would I think we will be able to weather whatever the EU throws at us. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I think that this is a pivotal moment for us.
We will find out who our friends are and who is not.
Alex wrote: “The major (real, hidden) purpose of EU is and was to contain Germany …”
Perhaps Germany should also secede from the EU. They certainly seem to be paying the bills for their fellow countries’ failed policies, such as Greece. For the past few years, I have thought that they were getting a raw deal out of the agreement/union. In the US, we often call this, “getting the shaft.”
Why Germany would need to be contained is a mystery, as I am sure that it must be yet another country that is controlled by the imagined US empire.
“also in name of USA.”
I really doubt that all the ills of the world are the fault of the USA. I’m sure that some politicians in the USA are trying hard to be number one in the area of creator of the world’s ills and evils, but such conspiracy theories ignore the fact that there are smart and politically greedy people in other countries, too — much as many people might not want to accept it.
“Now, the EU system becomes more and more similar to the former USSR system.”
Yup. The idea of the EU is to turn Europe into one big centrally-run country, where the rights of the people are granted by the government as privileges, revocable whenever they become inconvenient to that government (notice Article 29, part 3 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ “These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.”).
But, if the EU were a conspiratorial plot by the USA, wouldn’t the USA make sure that the EU becomes more like the USA than its rival, the USSR? Clearly, the EU is not being obedient to what Alex considers its imperial master.
“There is no need of this kind of anti-nation, anti-European culture diversity, one-world, super-state ‘project’.”
I completely agree. Switzerland had it right when they refused to join. Switzerland still has its freedom and its culture, and no one is trying to tell them what shape their bananas should be.
There is no CIA conspiracy we did this to ourselves. What was originally a good idea was slowly subverted by various European governments into something that the British people didn’t want to be part of.
Would the US sign away its sovereignty? I think not so why think the UK would be any different. If the EU had got its act together (balancing its own budget and making sure that countries economies were sufficiently strong before letting them join the Euro would have been a good start) the vote might have gone differently.
“Containing Germany” has nothing what so ever to do with the EU, I think the UK has most in common with the German and French people but unfortunately their political leaders are following a different agenda to what their own people really want. There will have to be a pull back from full political union or there will be others who follow the UK out the door.
“Devolution and Secession in the Modern World”
http://www.fed-soc.org/multimedia/detail/devolution-and-secession-in-the-modern-world-podcast
Interesting audio podcast from the Federalist Society. The legal take on “secession” throughout history & the British EU referendum in particular. (from 6-22-16)
>More conceptual & legalistic nuts-n-bolts stuff, compared with the popular-media presentation.
Should have added, & did not realize; the Referendum result is not “legally binding upon Members of Parliament.”
The vote was to leave, now Parliament has to vote on the enabling-legislation & begin a 2 year process to negotiate their exit.
–I’m wondering how much of a ‘done-deal’ this Referendum actually is..
(ashamed to admit, I was not aware the British have no written-constitution. They truly make-it-up as they go, but Parliament is sovereign, especially in these matters.)
Yeah right Wodun,
Because uncertainty, financial chaos and instability are just so great for a coordinated and unified defense.
Andy Hill,
I’m glad to hear your opinion on this. It is one thing to ponder it from an armchair an ocean away, but another to live with the consequences.
I agree with you about Obama. His smartest moves come when someone else does his thinking for him, and even those aren’t usually what anyone would consider to be smart.
BSJ,
I am not impressed with the EU’s defense set-up (the US is not any better). The UK may be better off without being forced to take in enemy combatants along with unscreened refugees. Screening immigrants is not just a long held tradition for nations, it is mandatory for health, safety, and defense reasons. “IS” being the key word, there.