It's almost like the Swiss assume a referendum will have consequences and thus it should be designed in a way those consequences are well defined and understood.

One's instinctive reaction is "ah the Swiss are not as dumb as Brits"

but that's fundamentally wrong. Actually, the Swiss know how to do referenda (pose a precise question which can implemented in law). And they do it all the time.

I wonder would the Brexit vote have gone the same way if voters had been told that Brexit would mean an end to any special trading relationship with the EU. If I recall, they were told that securing trading terms similar to the status quo would be "the easiest trade deal in history" and that they could "have their cake and eat it" because "the EU needs us more than the UK needs them".

At least the Swiss know how to run referenda and are not averse to holding them again if the voters decide to change their minds as more information comes to light. It seems the "UK Constitution" such as it is, does not accord voters that right. The latest opinion polls show a 10% margin of support for Remain and that leaving the EU was the wrong choice.

Outraged women run for office

"[M]any GOP women felt that those women in those movements do not speak for them," said Deckman, citing both the Women's March and the #MeToo movement as events that may have sparked more GOP women to run, telling me that some Republicans may be running to "put out a counternarrative of what women's interests actually entail."

Thank you Cat for bringing us this valuable insight from the Wild Card President...

This destructive ideology is grounded in misrepresentations of our country's history and its role in the world. Although presented as new and revolutionary, they resurrect the discredited notions of the nineteenth century's apologists for slavery who, like President Lincoln's rival Stephen A. Douglas, maintained that our government "was made on the white basis" "by white men, for the benefit of white men." Our Founding documents rejected these racialized views of America, which were soundly defeated on the blood-stained battlefields of the Civil War.

Insightful syllogism which shows us that the BLM movement is pro-slavery, unlike the Founding Daddies.

It's all about turnout and Dems are afraid to vote because of COVID. Reps aren't.  Mail-in ballots? Two days ago I mailed a package to Alabama from Illinois. Due South. Today it's in Chicago marked "undeliverable" and being forwarded to another location in Chicago.  How many ballots will be misdirected?

That can be taken as anti-Catholic and might draw even more Catholics to support her. Like Hillary's "deplorables" clinging to "guns and religion".

Meh! It's not even tradition, much less law.

62% of Americans probably believe space aliens caused COVID. Ninety percent are sheep parroting what they heard on the soi-disant "news".

It will be fascinating to see what happens when those "presumably outraged female voters" find out that not only is abortion illegal in their red states, but so is contraception.

According to the Marquette Law School poll couple of weeks ago, about half of Republican and Democrats though next Supreme Court appointment as important and only third of independents.

And this is with the high-pitched screaming on the issues in MSM. If the media was more reflecting on the interests of the population and not creating issues, I'd guess even bigger majority of USians would reply "who cares"...

It's almost like the general population instinctively knows that the kind of retroactive constitutionality checks used in common law countries are slow, cumbersome and leave much leeway for legislators and courts to misbehave. Or that the SCOTUS hasn't been that good in upholding the constitution in the last decades, anyway.

Amy Coney Barrett, a proven conservative with a compelling personal story

Barrett, the mother of seven children and a former law clerk to the late right-wing beacon Justice Antonin Scalia, Barrett, now 48, was a finalist for the Supreme Court spot that went to Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 [...]

Advocates on the far right have backed her possible nomination because of her writings on faith and the law. Religious conservatives were especially energized for Barrett when, during the 2017 confirmation hearing for her current judgeship, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California suggested to her that the "dogma lives loudly within you."

May become the judicial Margy Thatcher.

Trump is not triangulating, but going for the jugular as Republicans tend to do. That might be faintly attractive for presumably outraged female voters.

'An easy selection': Trump settled quickly on Barrett

Following Trump's announcement, the confirmation process will move to the Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a confirmation hearing the week of Oct. 12. A Supreme Court confirmation hearing typically lasts three to four days. Then, Senate Republicans are aiming to confirm the nominee before the election, although Democrats are doing everything they can to delay the process with procedural moves.

no more LBJ logs to roll over their "colleagues", eh

An ABC/Washington Post poll released Friday showed the majority of Americans believe the Senate should not confirm a new justice until after the election, when the winner of the presidential race is clear. Only 38 percent of Americans surveyed said the confirmation should happen before Nov. 3.

#FIFTHWAVE #WomensMarch #MeToo #TimesUp suicide note developing ...

As many people have noted in various forms over the years, the US and UK have been in a race since the 1970s to see who can devolve back into a feudal society the fastest.

George Floyd was killed 3 miles from my house in Minneapolis, and I was out in the bay area for work for most of this August and September, so I got to go through a period of about a month of not seeing the sun or sky. I'm surprised I'm not doing worse than I am, actually. While living through it sucks, I'm helped by a) knowing how good things still are, and b) literally nothing happening today politically or environmentally is surprising (in broad strokes) going back to my initial interest in politics / current events in the late 90s. And smart folks have been predicting the current day since the dust settled after WW2.

As for COVID, I'm glad they've at least figured out decent treatments since March, as the flu season tends to load up the hospitals real good on its own.

His appointment of an Illinois Catholic woman might draw blue collar Catholic women. While not necessarily anti-abortion, these women don't like seeing an all or mostly Protestant Male court.
If she is fanatically Catholic, i.e. a female Catholic Pence, then yes, they will be repelled unless they too are fanatics in which case Trump had them anyway.

American Catholics, even Irish Catholics, are not the same as Ireland's Catholics. And more often than not have intermarried with Italian and Polish Catholics who do not have the same anti-sex indoctrination. I remember my Polish-Italian buddy and I in High School would filch our condoms from his father's ample supply. And they were staunch Catholics, just didn't want a dozen kids. IIRC a poll said 80% of American Catholics practiced non-rhythm birth control.

Conversely, what if the French--as a nation overall, or at the agency level, or at the individual personal level--decide to take out their frustrations on England and actively baulk? I'm pretty sure any immigration agent can think up dozens of ways to slow the processes.

Case of Herd Immunity 2.0

It's the economy stupid ... virologists and epidemiologist are out!

Rutte in sync with Johnson, Belgium following suit

Belgian coronavirus experts go on `silent strike' against relaxed rules

Recently the virologists were thrown out of the "expert" panel advising the government.

Maybe a how to wear a mask for idiots campaign would have helped.

Maybe something like this:

The Four COVID Personality Types pic.twitter.com/LywXKIOlOe

— Lionel Page (@page_eco) September 17, 2020

No President for at least four years, maybe eight, maybe necer agin. They have all gone downhill after Eisenhower. Johnson, at least, pushed through Civil Rights legislation, and Medicare. OTOH, hotted up VietNam. Nixon tried to get out while saving face, but was a paranoid jerk. In the end, it was a rout anyway. Jimmy Carter sat and did nothing while Iran held hostages and the economy tanked. I could go on and on. Now we will either have the corrupt Orange Baboon or the senile corrupt founder of the Catfood Commission. Or will Harris really rule? Or is she just an Idpol cardboard cutout? Who really will call the shots? Look to see if Hillary Clinton gets a high cabinet post or replaces Harris as Harris replaces Biden, assuming the Senate goes (D).  My late Uncle (the son of Italian immigrants and WW II veteran) told me about ten years ago, "Maybe it's time for the family to move back to Europe."

To busy chashing his tail?

Mexico, in the '70s:
Day trip, san diego to Tiajuana. carefully stepped over Mexican border guard as we walked over the border. Took a cab to downtown Tiajuana, ate at a hotel (much better Mexican food at a little place in San Diego a colleague referred us to) and returned. At the US border, my partner dclared a leather jacket and stated he had not bought anything else for six months. Passed, no duty. I had nothig to declare. "You didn't buy anything in Mexico?" "No, just a restaurant meal." Passed. Then after avbout ten steps: "You! Back here! Empty out your pockets!" I had them half emptied when "Okay, you can go." BTW, both of us were  US Civil servants (Navy Department). Jim was 70, I was late 20's. So border guards do not pick on Latinos. They are just surly a__holes.

JPMorgan to Move $230 Billion Assets to Germany Under Brexit

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is moving about 200 billion euros ($230 billion) from the U.K. to Frankfurt as a result of Britain's exit from the European Union, a shift that will make it one of the largest banks in Germany.

guts adversarial premises of Civil Rights Acts--most recently Title VII EEOC mandate--and Voting Rights Act while assuring majority of US Americans that "no one living" is responsible for curing crimes past or present with "workplace diversity trainings".

Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping

Cummings the libertarian rewrites the data laws

The government's newly published national data strategy, promising a "transformation" long sought by Boris Johnson's chief adviser and the former Vote Leave director, has sparked concern at a sensitive time with the continued flow of data between the UK and EU member states in question.
The European commission is currently examining whether the UK's data laws will be in line with the EU's general data protection regulation (GDPR) and law enforcement directive after 1 January 2021, allowing the movement of data vital to the law enforcement agencies but also the banking, health, entertainment, insurance and tech sectors.

The EU will not be railroaded into declaring "adequacy", i.e. equivalence between EU data protection standards and what the nutjob is proposing.

Another train wreck coming. They will patch together something on police and security data (UK leaving Europol leaves a huge hole in the UK's security which they have to cover with bilateral agreements) but for the rest... Armageddon for the UK's dematerialised service sector.

I think we do catch infections a bit earlier than the last time around? That would explain the bigger lag between infections at least.

Here in Austria we seem to have achieved a full second wave before the summer is even over. The state broadcaster has a neat summery page. There is no positive rate, but you can estimate from the other curves and it is not much lower than the first time around. So the real number of cases should be comparable. Indoor dining is still open unless that changed in the last few days. Seems the anti-viral properties of a cash register were overstated. The schools also just opened a few weeks ago, so that's going to be fun. Communication has also been less than optimal. When the first wave ended and we declared victory on Covid the government went into confidence building mode, so they got rid of the masks and introduced one of those terror color code systems for each district. Supposedly to signal that there won't be a national lockdown again. Now we are back to masks in most settings again, but compliance doesn't seem to be all that great. When I lived in Japan I was always annoyed at the constant how to do things right announcements in public transportation, but I'm slowly coming around on that. Maybe a how to wear a mask for idiots campaign would have helped. It is also slowly dawning on our great leaders that face shields do literally nothing, but the rules don't reflect that. The school my mother teaches in for her, I think, last year before retirement has everyone wear one. I guess it's more comfortable and still feels like you're doing something. Absolutely thrilled about the whole situation.

At the moment quite many employers here allow five days of sick leave without seeing a doctor to. Both keep people coming to work if having any symptoms and also for less burden on the health care system. So there's really no pressure here by employers for people to get tested.

We had 7 days until seeing a doctor until the pandemic, now it is 14 days. And we used to have a "karensdag" without pay, at the start of a sick leave, that "karensdag" is now gone. And we used to have a sharing of sick leave costs between employer and government, which the government has now taken over. So 80% pay, from the first day, without a doctors note for two weeks, government picking up the tab.

But we also have a general recomendation to stay home at first sign of a cold, until either 48 hours has passed since last symtoms or symtoms are gone and you have tested negativ for COVID. And that is where employers (and now schools and/or parents to kids from ten years and up) pushes for testing so they can get people back to work without the extra 48 hours quarantine.

Since testing was expanded so much at the end of the outbreak during the spring, testing is now not much of a strain on the system. During March, April and May testing was reserved for patients where it was medically relevant, and employees in health care and nursing homes.

Apparently Gove has complained that the EU is refusing to negotiate with the UK as equals... well doh...

UK minister: Avoiding post-Brexit border chaos is in France's hands

LONDON -- Britain's worst-case scenario predictions of two-day delays at Dover would happen only if the French authorities "decline to be pragmatic," U.K. Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said Wednesday.

In a letter to trade bodies seen by POLITICO, Gove warned that the government's "reasonable worst-case scenario" forecasts two-day delays due to border controls, with up to 7,000 trucks stuck at the Port of Dover -- regardless of the outcome of ongoing trade talks.

But speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Gove pointed to the role that the French authorities would play, noting they would have the power to send back trucks without the necessary paperwork, "clogging the Dover to Calais crossing."

"I should stress that [the worst-case scenario] is not a prediction nor a forecast, it is just a prudent exercise of what could occur if we don't improve preparedness, and of course if our neighbors decline to be pragmatic," he said.

Shorter Gove: "We created that mess, but it's the French's responsibility to clean it up"

Also: "How dare you not give us everything we want"

That's for sure. Coronavirus, a respiratory infection, has not been demonstrated through a winter season--at least not in the northern hemisphere. Plenty of people are already primed with stressed lungs due to wildfires. There will be the usual influenza season. Plus COVID-19. Plus influenza and COVID-19 at the same time. Plus influenza and "recovered" COVID-19. Plus schools struggling to keep their financial heads above water by continuing to press for in-person teaching. Plus companies facing bankruptcy and pressing their employees to take chances. Plus the "revoke and replace" approach to health care. Plus side effects from hurricanes.

One supposes that Brexit won't have a huge impact on the US, at least. Maybe.

I have a feeling that the Republican push to confirm Trump''s choice of a replacement for RGB on SCOTUS will end up driving a wedge right up Trump's fat ass. It will drive a lot* of women who are on the fence solidly into voting for Biden for President. Add that to Biden's already much stronger position among rural voters as compared to Clinton in '16 and that is the wining margin. The next two to three weeks should tell whether it is a squeaker or a landslide.

* 'a lot' = > 3% more of likely women voters.

In truth it is hard for Neo-Liberal 'centrists' NOT to be incompetent. They can't make the traditional Democratic appeal to the bottom 2/3 of the income distribution, as that might offend their precious rich donors. "Where your treasure lies there also  is your heart."