A Horse Named Stranger

Please proceed. But seriously, whatever you feed to your President, I recommend less acid.

Nah, just me being random, while also making my dislike for that show known. Can't a guy just dream of this big Hollywood writer career by pitching an idea for the best Friends episode never made?

Didn't know animated shows count as SitCom. In that case I think a couple of South Park eps would be on my list. With Apologies to Jessie Jackson Krazy Kripples with Christopher Reeve and his embryo drinking habit. Up the Down Steroid. With Cartman's participation in the special olympics. "But mum, you always told me I was special." "What the kid's condition?" "Sweetie what's your condition?" "How the fuck should I know, I am retarded."

With whom? The EU won't sign any deals with the UK unless the points from the WA are settled, namely the Irish border, citizens rights, and the UK's financial obligations. Otherwise they'd need to start negotiating new trade deals pretty much from scratch. Ofc they will presumably try to get other countries to roll over existing EU trade deals, while those countries might want to wait and see how the UK-EU relationship pans out, or get some more concessions out of a pretty desperate for a deal (and weak) UK goverment, with not so much expertise in negotiating those deals themselves. Remember those EU trade deals were negotiated with a market of roughly ten times the size of the UK, so with much more power behind it. Of course they can run to the US and hope for a fair and balanced America First class trade deal. I have that odd feeling the colonists might not have the best interests of the crown at their hearts - this is gonna be fun for the farmer's in the heartlands, with very little heartbreak. India has made it clear if the UK wants a post-Brexit FTA with them, they want more FoM. Well, and there's always China. So where would you go first? The relatively easiest FTA target would be Canada, but that would also take years to negotiate. Fun times.

Has anybody mentioned the Friends episode where Rachel and Monica murder that homeless guy and Joey ends up in Deathrow?

Clarke is a pro-EU Tory and the longest serving member of parliament. He won't stand for re-election. So he has no designs to stay on for much longer. Harmann is the senior Labour MP (longest serving female MP I think). As for the Labour parliament faction, I think the number of actual Corbynista is fairly limited. They tried to oust him about three years ago. So of course there're the Long Baileys, but I'd think you win far more in the centre than you lose on the fringes of the Labour MPs. Not that many. There are maybe 8 die hard leavers in Labour I think (somebody with a better view on Westminster can happily correct me on that number). However the the arithmetic still says, there are far more MPs opposed to Corbyn than that. Keep in mind, the Tory MPs are presumably already ending their political career by bringing down their Goverment. So what is JC superstar willing to sacrifice? I'd hope that somebody launches a leadership challenge if that game of chicken continues. I think this time they'd be better positioned to do it, than with this patheticly botched last one. That's the entire point. And why I think the probability for a head-on collission (aka no-deal) is quite high. Voting down the Goverment is one thing, that will happen rather sooner than later. The issue is to form that caretaker goverment, where you need somebody to be voted in with a majority across the House. I don't think it will be Corbyn. I'd consider it as likely, that a majority Labour MPs simply ignore his whining and vote somebody else in. Then he can whine about getting stabbed in the back. As mentioned above, I don't think his grib on the Labour MPs is as iron clad, as he likes to think.

Had some Harisa flavored Bulgur with peppers and feta and peanuts. One of my favorite vegetarian dishes.

I don't think so. The WA is what it is, and it will stay this way. It took them years to hammer this one out. The The red lines will get interesting again during the next phase of negotiations, which deals with the questions where are we gonna end up wrt to the EU-UK relationship. If the the silly red lines drop (if it's one by one again, it will take longer), you might end up with some sort of Norway-like deal (I'll leave out the silly +/- thing), or EU membership lite if you will. That won't really remove the Irish sea check, but might take out some of the toxicity. But the Brexiter's howling about it being worse than membership, and the UK ending up living by the rules made by the EU will stay (to whcih the obvious reply is d'uh). And remainers will be equically unhappy, because it's not as good membership (again d'uh). So that begs the question, what is the desired outcome of new negotiations, as any deal will be worse than membership.

That is attributing rationality to British politics, that seems to have left some time ago. We have the Tories lieing to themselves and the electorate about the consequences of no-deal. As in it will all be fine. Then we have Labour who woud presumably end up campaigning on some sort of Corbyn Brexit. As in, he would get that sweetheart deal the Tories couldn't, because. I mean, the latest from Comedy Central, aka Corbyn's POlitburo: Labour cold very well stay neutral during a second Brexit referendum. Brexit is the biggest political issue and challenge for the UK for the last 50 years or so. And the wannabe Caretaker PM wants to continue with his handwringing and wonders why there are so many remainers that don't consider him trustworthy. So, if he wants to stay neutral on Brexit during a second referendum, how do you position yourself during a GE campaign on Brexit? And no, this isn't just a rhethorical quesiton, as I've no idea how that is gonna work. What your position on BRexit? We want to end the dangerous ideologically driven austerity policy, that has harmed this country under the Tory goverment. Yeah, but what's your position on Brexit? We will have another referendum. What's your position? There'll be another referendum. Yeah, but what's your preferred outcome? We will have another referendum to have the British people have their voices heard. Continue ad nauseam, Now then the problem with FPTP is that the Remain vote is far more fractured than the leave vote, and then as mentioend above, we also have the whatever party, aka what used to be the Labour party. While the Leave vote is pretty consolidated around the two parties on the right and far right. I said two parties, as I think oldkip is pretty dead, and it's really just the Tories and NUKIP. No, it's not a total outrage, but I don't think it solves anything. I think we'd end up roughly where we are now. No, like I said, I think Clarke and Harman or whoever could command majority, if Corbyn decided it's not about him becoming PM. I ahve very little hope for him to stop this farcial game of chicken he is right now playing with parliament. I mean, right now, he'd need all the remain MPs to vote for him, while he continues with his constructive indifference approach towards Brexit itself. Again, Corbyn needs the votes from across the house to get a tiny majority. And he is not likely to get them. That's why he has resorted tot his political game of chicken with them.

Short summary. We don't want it. We are committed to the GFA and no hard border, and have no solution for the problem [at least he recognizes the repoblem as such], that is the Irish border. However, we would like to have the non-existent solution to replace the backstop, because we don't like it. Surely you can see the reason behind this balanced approach, so we can [pretend to] talk about our non-solutions.

I know factual accuracy isn't the strong suit over at the Mail, but really, pick a number and get in line.

Thought it was €12m/p.a. Not that it makes much of a difference. But yeah, the wages are the kicker. Ok, now that Coutinho is off the books, will they now make that move for Neymar?

Moving on. Now that Olaf Scholz has announced it's intention to run for the SPD chair afterall, I finally have the opportunity to include this neat little song in a post. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlyclVRzL0o No, it's not Extra 3, but from one of the few good things to emerge from Bavaria.It doesn't make up for the CSU assclowns, but I appreciate the gesture and effort you put into it each year.

Coutinho to Bayern now officially confirmed. Loan Fee 8.5m €, with an option to make the move permanent for 120m €.

Let's assume Corbyn steps in, asks for an extension and calls a GE. Then what? This is the bit that really puzzles me with this scenario. Chances are you get back with another hung parliament. Tories losing some seats to their right to Frogface's NUKIP, and Labour losing seats to the remain Alliance (LibDems, Plaid Cymru, Greens, and presumably the SNP). Personally, I think with the FPTP system in the UK this actually might tilt the scales in favour of no-deal. Then Britain will have emulated the US electorally. A majority of the electorate being pro-Remain by now, being presented with no-deal, similar to Twitler winning the US Presidential election, while losing the popular vote. The (presumably) Tory lead goverment, would need to form a coalition with the DUP and Frogface. If you felt like mocking May's election with her strong and stable goverment catchphrase, then you really have seen nothing yet. On the other hand, if we get again a return of a majority of remain MPs, we are roughly in the same spot we are now. Corbyn proclaiming to be the only real person to lead such a goverment, while the LibDems and SNP do not particularly like him. The SNP is willing to cooperate with him for now to stop No-Deal, but they are hardly in it for their love for Corbyn. Having that said, I don't think neither side is looking too good with that circus. Let's face it, both sides are playing a game of chicken with no-deal. Both sides calculating that the other will given in to avoid no-deal. Swinson said, even with all the LibDems voting for Corbyn, he would still lack votes to get elected, as in CHUK (without Chuka, or the Soubry bunch) will not vote for him, Grieve and the other Tory rebells will not vote for him, and that's not even accounting for the few brain dead Labour Leavers like the Red Kipper Kate Hoey not voting for Corbyn, because they really want Brexit to happen. FWIW, I think this game of chicken has a high probability to end with a head-on colission. For Corbyn Brexit is that inconvenience that stops him from talking about austerity, and he is at best indifferent to the whole thing, so will he blink? No, idea. On the other side we have the group of MPs who flat out despise Corbyn for one reason or another and are not willing to vote him in, will they be willing to hold their noses and vote for him? Again, no idea. Also, I have no idea how many Long-Baileys (which is Labour's answer to McVey in terms of stupid, I believe) there are, but I hope there are not enough to insist that Corbyn is bigger than Jesus, or Brexit. FWIW, I believe caretaker PM should be whoever commands a majority in parliament. I don't really care whether that's Corbyn, Clarke, Harman, or Caroline Lucas for all I care. Corbyn can stomp with his feet all day long and insist he is heading the biggest opposition party, it doesn't matter if he can't command a majority in the HoC. This would be a temporary goverment of unity, and Corbyn is obviously not a unifying figure. On an unrelated note, I see people are still taking time off from their well paid goverment position at the Mail to engage into troll feeding.