I suspect "Brexit" will be one of the words of the year this year. Deal? You don't Brexit and we won't elect the Trumpster? We'll know tomorrow, won't we?

If only we could solve our problems so simply.

Now that it's happened, you Brits will get your own version of Trump.

Good luck.

Oh, my. I am speechless and so surprised. Definitely the UK will have its own dose of Trump now. He supported the vote and is talking about how smart it was - in Scotland of all places where they are talking about leaving the UK because of the Brexit vote. Trump is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, that's for sure.

I no longer follow Richard English on Facebook because of some anti-American comments he had made. However, he is still a FB friend, so I checked his posts today. As suspected, he was a huge Brexit supporter. Lots of propaganda on his facebook.

Well, British friends, I hope it works out for you. I am skeptical, though. And we may have our own version come November. Polls have been fooling everyone lately.

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
- H. L. Mencken

Good quote.

The problem is, that vote has created havoc for people around the world who had nothing to do with it. In the U.S. our stock market fell by more than 600 points, and that happened worldwide.

However, I was glad to see that Obama has come out supportive of England, even though he was against Brexit.

My prediction is that the UK will now go into a recession that makes the previous one look like the good times and the government will impose austerity measures that make the previous ones look like a Christmas party. Scotland will leave. Northern Ireland and will start thinking about it. Boris Johnson will be our next PM. We will all go to hell in a handbasket. And the newspapers will blame it on immigrants.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
The problem is, that vote has created havoc for people around the world who had nothing to do with it.

I expect the rest of the world felt the same way when our 30/yrs-in-the-making financial bubble burst in 2008. Ain't globalism great?

Why don't they just change their mind. Have another referendum if they have to

Switzerland's not an EU member and they do well. Maybe England can start money laundering on a grand scale too? Boris Trump would love it.

quote:

Originally posted by goofy:
Why don't they just change their mind. Have another referendum if they have to

The rules allow that in such a close vote and more than two and a half million people have already signed a petition asking for it.

Love this video.

quote:

I expect the rest of the world felt the same way when our 30/yrs-in-the-making financial bubble burst in 2008.

I don't see it as the same thing at all. That was not a conscious vote of the people. Yes, mistakes were made with our recession, but they've been made with many other events as well. This, however, was so intentional - even with warnings from all over the world.

Apparently on that video above, the Huffington Post didn't have the right to post it. So here it is on YouTube .

Kalleh the American public kept (& keep) voting in the people who engineered it-- who shamelessly whooped up the mainstream with mantras about small govt & low taxes while steadily untying every legislative protection we had against return to robber barons, monopolies, speculation & fraud in financial markets. American voters have merrily been voting wolves into the chickenhouse for many yrs now. However, the public is a ass (to misquote Dickens). Now Trump has got them believing he can restore the chickens with fairy dust. Same sentiment behind brexit.

Personally I think the Trump phenomenon (& the Sanders phenomenon) & the brexit vote are healthy signs that democracy is still alive. Despite years of legislation (& court decisions) making corruption 'legal', folks have found a way to voice their fury that middle & working classes are taking a beating while a small group at the top has been rapidly increasing their proportionate holdings of US assets since 1979. The 'recovery': Stiglitz figures 93% of add'l income created in 2010 was gained by the richest 1%; Saez/ Piketty shows top 10% took more than half 2012 nat'l income (highest level in 100-yr recorded history).

You make a good point, though perhaps I say that because I agree with your political position here.

I think what I am the very sickest of is the divisiveness in the U.S. If one party is for it, the other party is automatically against it. Period, end of story. I think part of it is racism against President Obama, but not all of it. It seems to be a phase we are in and compromise is just not possible. That is annoying me no end. Heck, in Illinois we are going into our second year with no budget.

As Arnie pointed out Brexit wasn't split along party lines at all. With the obvious exception of UKIP each party was divided about whether to leave or not.

One thing confuses me about Brexit - Wasn't it just an advisory vote and not mandatory? Why are they going ahead with it then?

Yes, well there is advisory and there is advisory.
When they commissioned a report on whether marijuana should be classified as a harder or softer drug they expected a different result so they treated it as advisory and didn't act on it.
In the case of Brexit however the people of the country paid as much attention to that "advisory" as to the actual facts about what it would mean. In principle they COULD refuse to act on it and stay in Europe but in practice it would be political suicide. I wouldn't want to be the next Prime Minister. "Poisoned Chalice" doesn't come close to the situation.