Metaneos

Nigel Farage has stepped down from the UKIP leadership. This is one complaint I have about the right wing, in general. They know how to break things down, but don't have a clue to when it comes to building things up. Anyway, this will probably muddy up the waters. There are calls for another referendum, but if the vote remains the same, then what? Has anything really changed, other than Johnson and Farage vacating their positions? Has the sentiment within the UK as a whole changed entirely, or are news reporters simply parroting Remain talking points? We'll see, I suppose.

Gary Younge - The Guardian  Just started reading this article. Will take time over the next day or two to really digest it in full, but so far, it's been excellent. One point made, that simply astonished me, I'll share: Neglect, both benign and malign, and indulgence, both covert and overt, left those prejudices open for opportunists to exploit for their own ends. Now that needs repetition, for our friends in power. Over and over, again and again: "Neglect, both benign and malign, and indulgence, both covert and overt, (leave) prejudices open for opportunists to exploit for their own ends."

Pulled out my copy of A Tale of Two Cities, just to read the opening. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. A rather cynical assessment, I suppose. Yes, the Brexit vote was profound, but it was neither the start nor end of anything. The real story should be austerity. It's crushing the UK, and dragging it ever downward.

It's chaotic, confusing, frustrating, fascinating. It's superlative after superlative. How long will it be before it settles itself? Not soon, I suppose. Some want it settled, now. Like just a moment ago, before I even wrote this sentence. But it's complicated. It needs to be hammered out. And while all that's happening, the hammer's dropping down hard on ordinary people. They're reaching out, trying to blame others for this, when it fact, it's simply the fault of history. No one told them the European Union would hammer them hard with austerity. It's basically killing the UK, dead. Its industry, six feet under. Its trade, mainly imports. Finances, in the red. Not much hope there, for them. And there's the nostalgia, remembering the time after World War II, after their economy had recovered, and they were second in the world, just after the United States for progress. Some where along the way, it was lost. They became purposeless, rudderless. ...

 Glenn Greenwald - The Intercept Corrupt elites always try to persuade people to continue to submit to their dominance in exchange for protection from forces that are even worse. That’s their game. But at some point, they themselves, and their prevailing order, become so destructive, so deceitful, so toxic, that their victims are willing to gamble that the alternatives will not be worse, or at least, they decide to embrace the satisfaction of spitting in the faces of those who have displayed nothing but contempt and condescension for them. Just another way of saying, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." The dream of the EU was beautiful, but the way it was implemented has become a nightmare for millions of people.

CTV News The Bank of England said it had made contingency plans for a "leave" vote and promised to take action to maintain stability. It noted that it has 250 billion pounds ($342 billion) in liquidity available for banks. "We are well prepared for this," the bank's governor, Mark Carney, said in a televised statement. When people state, no one could have foreseen this, remind them Mark Carney did. And not only that, had prepared in advance. It won't stop the worst from happening, but it should mitigate it. It should give the UK government time to plan, which apparently it didn't. Sink or swim time, now. Those who find the surface when you're twenty feet under water and disorientated, survive.

Decided to sleep on the results. Woke up, and Britain voted to leave the EU. Wow, sometimes the world changes without you knowing. Admittedly, it's probably not that easy to leave the EU. There's much to worry about, and plan over. One can't simply just stop following signed agreements without consequence. And the consequences will probably be severe for the British people. Granted, if they follow through on this vote, then they could become much better off, in the long run, but there'll be suffering in the short term. But the British people are already suffering from austerity, so what's the difference, in the end?