Cool and wet.
Nice day yesterday, with a nice community event in the evening. Meatspace baby. Get to know your local pols.
Runoff election today, so I will be voting again. Local local local…
And all the stuff that has been piling up needs to get done this weekend. I’m not optimistic.
So, off to work I go.
n
I thought I might share some observations from the UK General Election of 12 December 2019.
The bottom line is that the incumbent Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson (minority government) won a overwhelming majority which should allow his government to do what they choose over the next fixed term of 5 years.
My personal opinions on why this came about are:
1. The British voting public’s belief in democracy. Having seen an unrepresentative parliament block the democratic will of the people, expressed in the Brexit referendum of 2016, for over 3 years, and having been told they were stupid, racist, ignorant etc by the metropolitan liberals – they decided to tell the politicians to do what they had been told to do and leave the EU. The UK will now leave at the end of January 2020.
2. The major opposition Labour party, was lead and driven by a Marxist leader and cohort, with a history of supporting anti-British groups and terrorists. They also produced a manifesto, which promised free everything for everybody (e.g. free high speed Broadband for all). The British public did not take kindly to being asked to vote for a terrorist supporter, and knew that free stuff would require their children and grand children to pay the price.
3. The incumbent Prime Minister (not someone you can trust) has an engaging, comedic and self deprecating style, which appeals to many ordinary people, even though he is from a privileged background.
My respect for British voters remains strong. However, it is worth noting that, as in the USA, the metropolitan areas continue to strongly vote for ‘liberals’ and it is the voters outside the metropolitan areas who are keeping British politics sane.
Paul
Thanks Paul, I was going to ask, but I got distracted. Always good to have a local observer.
As you know, I think the world is undergoing a large scale realignment, like what happened after WWII, and it will be “interesting” to see how it all plays out.
n
It should. Provide support for a single device. The IP address will be a routable IP address that Comcast assigns. That single device can be a computer or a router. My router is assigned an IP address by Comcast, again routable. My router assigns IP addresses to my devices, such addresses being non-routable.
For another time sink….
Oliver Springs where I live is a small town, very small. It has a historical society as there is a lot of history that dates way back, further than a lot of cities in TN because there was a mineral hot springs and a luxury (for the time) hotel, which is now gone.
The historical society put together an Old Time Christmas Show featuring local performers as a fund raiser for the society. Really some talented people who put on a very good show for a small town. I took pictures.
This is a link to the pictures. Enjoy.
Ray, is the one guy an Elvis impersonator?
Yes. Name is Greg Johnson. He has some expensive and elaborate Elvis gear. That outfit is one of his cheaper. He is actually quite good at the impersonation and has been doing so for years.
Pleeeease tell me he’s licensed to perform marriages in Tennessee.
As a Brit in Texas I concur with what Paul said. I’ve been pretty worried that the UK had changed and had fallen into the socialist trap. This election gives me hope that the real people of the country are still able to think for themseleves.
Unfortunately, the media and police are entirely liberal and they control how many people think and who goes to jail for thought crimes. Ingsoc!
Which reminds me: If you are wanted by the authorities, disguise yourself as such so you will not be recognized as a wanted one. However, there is only one place to which you must flee as you will really standout and catch attention in your Elvis attire and makeup. That one place is Las Vegas where you will fit in with many other Elvis impersonators.
Only cousins, half brothers by way of third marriage, and uncles by way of sister marrying prior stepson.
Texas! Tag, you’re it!
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2019/12/this-aint-gonna-work-out-like-you.html
Ironic here in the heart of California’s oil patch. They may have called them Oakies at one time but just as many came from Tejas both for the ag and oil fields. Growing up I heard as many “Y’all” as “You guys”. Of course nowadays it maybe “Hola y’all”.
Texas! Tag, you’re it!
I doubt the current trajectory will change. Texas currently has a leadership vacuum at the state level. The Governor and Legislature are more interested in new abortion restrictions than reigning in the increasingly activist Prog city governments in Austin and San Antonio.
There were positive developments in last month’s election with additional restrictions placed on establishment of an income tax, but the Progs have plenty of property and local sales tax options available.
If Texas goes Dem in either the Presidential race or US Senate vote next year, state Republican leadership needs a wake up call in the form of primary challenges.
Just for fun
https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2019/12/seasons-voicemail-greetings.html
“VA Democrat: Let National Guard Force Counties to Honor Gun Control”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/12/va-democrat-national-guard-force-counties-honor-gun-control/
“Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA) suggests Gov. Ralph Northam (D) can activate the National Guard and use it to force Second Amendment sanctuary counties to honor gun control.”
“There are dozens upon dozens of Second Amendment sanctuary counties and numerous sanctuary cities too. And the number continues to grow. On December 12, 2019, Breitbart News reported that Northam said Second Amendment sanctuary counties will face “consequences” for refusing to enforce gun control.”
Several of my relatives were in the Guard. I doubt any of them would have willingly participated in a door to door gun grab.
Several of my relatives were in the Guard. I doubt any of them would have willingly participated in a door to door gun grab.
Extra-regional law enforcement will do the door-to-door search once most of the sheeple head to the camps to stream the latest adventures of Baby Yoda. Maybe a National Guard soldier would have trouble shooting a fellow American, but a Portland cop shooting “Florida Man”?
Well, pensions are at stake …
Several of my relatives were in the Guard. I doubt any of them would have willingly participated in a door to door gun grab.
On second thought, who knows. I’ve written here multiple times about my experiences in HOAs in FL, and the irony of the people most intent on squashing my freedom in the interest of “maintaining property values” were the retired military people in my neighborhood.
“US has only one offshore wind energy farm, but a $70 billion market is on the way”
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/13/us-has-only-one-offshore-wind-farm-but-thats-about-to-change.html
“Another economic driver is advanced technology leading to larger, more efficient turbines that capture more wind. General Electric’s Paris-based unit GE Renewable Energy made a splash in July by introducing the Haliade-X 12 MW. Standing nearly 850 feet tall, with three rotors each spanning more than 720 feet, a single Haliade-X can power up to 16,000 homes.”
850 ft tall ! I wonder what that will do to ocean views ?
Still, offshore wind farms are the logical place for wind turbines with their constant wind.
How long does it take a 12 MW windmill to make back the energy used to manufacture an 850 ft tower that can withstand ocean storms, ship it, install it, service it, and decommission it?
“Did “Che” Greta Call for Execution of World Leaders Who Defy Her Commands?”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/12/14/st-greta-calls-for-execution-of-world-leaders-who-defy-her-commands/
“Time’s “Scold of the Year,” Greta Thunberg, told a crowd in Italy that “we will make sure we put world leaders against the wall” if they do not do what she tells them to do.”
Why do these people always want to turn the Earth into a dictatorship with them ruling the people who are left after their bloody revolutions and pogroms ?
Paul – Thanks for the update on the British election. As an outsider (Canadian) , I will offer this observation: What was Labour thinking? The election was positioned as “all about Brexit” and this was clearly the big issue in Parliament prior to the election. If the Conservatives are for it, should Labour not run strongly against it? Yet, Labour did not. Instead, they tried to make the election about how to run the economy (socialism and nationalization). Does that mean Labour thought being clearly anti-Brexit was a losing proposition? I think the evidence is that Labour had a massive defeat because they did not address the main issue squarely. They weren’t an “anti-Brexit” choice, they were a “look over here we want to talk about something else” choice. No one wanted to talk about that and they got trounced. Had they just been “anti-Brexit” I think they would have done better as they could hardly have done worse. They may still have lost but not like that. My opinion only of course and as a foreigner feel free to rain fire upon me for the temerity to say anything here. I just found the whole debacle (for Labour) fascinating (hard to stop watching the train wreck).
As a Canadian, I don’t have a horse in this race. I will say this though: Laws are enforceable because the overwhelming majority of the population agree it is a good or just law. People willingly comply and the lawbreakers are a small minority. Trying to demand compliance with a law people feel is unjust is a losing proposition in a democracy as those law-makers will look the fool and get booted the next election. I would think Prohibition was a good example in the USA. In the meantime, keep fighting the stupid. (i am reminded of a sig I thought hilarious: “Fighting stupidity since 1972. It is taking longer than I thought”).
@TV
Labour did much better in the 2017 election by adopting a ‘must respect the will of the people in the 2016 referendum’ approach. Even for ‘remainers’ this is a reasoned democratic approach. In my opinion, if Labour had adopted a pure ‘remain’ stance, whilst they would have increased their votes in the remain constituencies they were already going to win, they would have lost even more in the ‘leaver’ constituencies which lost them the election. This was their conundrum – which is why they claimed to sit on the fence (another referendum) whilst the majority of their leadership declared themselves remainers. I hope this helps clarify. Remember the UK have a first past the post voting system, so you need to win constituencies, not votes.
Paul