British PM playing weak hand in wild Brexit bluff

Brexit-backers can cast themselves as the guardians of a populist revolt that’s taken hold in Europe and claim credit for the fall of two Prime Ministers, they can hold Parliament’s feet to the fire and bask in the glow cast by pundits who believe the referendum foreshadowed candidate Trump’s victory, but Brexiteers never could claim to hold the most valuable chip of all. They did not have a mandate. It was easy to overlook the margins when the vote for their referendum shocked the world and David Cameron told Britons he “deeply regret(s) the outcome” before he left office. The subject probably hasn’t come up since. In that time the 27 remaining members of their rival super-state adopted a set of demands that in 2017 included a 60 billion Euro divorce settlement and maintenance of the Irish border. French President Francois Hollande reflected the group’s confidence when he said “there will inevitably be a price (but) it’s the choice they made.”

Anti-Uber bill profits from popular misrepresentation

If the tangled web of authority that defines America’s federalist system has an equivalent it is an extended family, a comparison that puts California’s Supreme Court and legislature on the same level as aunt Susan and uncle George. Both rely on a respect associated with the title that is more powerful when the two join forces, but can be hurt by division without being overruled by grandma Marion when she visits from Washington DC. Lorena Gonzalez must have feared such a fate when the San Diego Assemblywoman set out to reinforce the state court’s Dyanamex ruling by writing its “ABC Test” into law. Her effort is supported by gig workers like “Samantha,” an Uber driver earning $12-$13 an hour Gonzalez believes is ‘misclassified’ as an independent contractor. Given that rich ride-hailing companies are easy targets in true-blue California, a sweeping measure like Assembly Bill 5 was an easy ‘get’ in a capitol dominated by Democrats, but Gonzalez’ victory did not silence critics who were all too aware of her bill’s flaws.

Helping hand for college money-men missing mojo

Are you an overworked, underpaid fundraiser for a major university in need of a little help after a few bad months? If you have some contacts in the admissions office and you’re still speaking to each other we may have a suggestion you could use. Who are we? “On the Down-Low Associates” is a small group of experienced professionals with some hard-earned wisdom to share: That you can trade on your employer’s prestige to save your job and won’t have to make promises you cannot keep. If you’re shaking your head while reading this letter and wondering why our consultants aren’t strung out on Ambien or locked in a ‘rubber room’ consider this example.

Ugliness abounds in clash over Israel and loyalty

Bernie Sanders took questions at a town hall during his 2016 campaign for President and responded to one from an audience member disappointed by politicians who “represent a Jewish voice that is completely uncritical of Israel.” He must have been stunned by the blunt nature of the woman’s query and her assertion that resistance is a “moral imperative,” but responded by declaring himself “proudly Jewish” and distinguishing criticism of its current administration from anti-Semitism. Sanders continued to walk a fine line in the Senate by opposing the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and voting for ongoing military aid while rhetorically punishing Hamas’ continuing dependence on “violent struggle” and Israel’s occasionally ham-handed response. This kind of level-headed approach would serve as a welcome contrast to an escalating spat between the White House, a pair of freshman Democrat Representatives and a largely silent Israeli government.

Please, don’t bring a “War on Terror” into the US

New York Times reporter Campbell Robertson elicited one of many reactions to a trio of mass shootings when the journalist talked to a friend of one suspect and the 25-year old described the news as “just another one of those things, just a kick in the teeth.” In the days since a 21-year-old entered a Walmart in El Paso, Texas and killed 22 civilians the spectrum has covered every angle, from exasperation to anger, and inspired renewed calls for “common sense” gun control laws, the range of which deserve a post all their own. When federal authorities announced they are treating attacks on California’s Gilroy Garlic Festival, back-to-school shoppers in Texas and visitors to a Dayton, Ohio entertainment district as acts of terror or investigating the ‘violent ideologies’ of a perpetrator they validated a rising demand to treat white nationalism as domestic terrorism. The El Paso shooter paved the way with a manifesto that described a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” that would “take control of the local and state government” and lead to policy better suited to their presumably unique needs.

Is there room between belligerence and guilt on race?

At the time President Trump launched his tweetstorm aimed at “The Squad” of freshman Democrats it seemed about as significant as a barking dog would be to someone living at the other end of the block. The noise was an unwelcome intrusion, but didn’t seem worth responding to after so many similar outbursts. Then House Democrats passed a resolution condemning the onetime real estate developer’s crude rant. It wasn’t enough that Speaker Nancy Pelosi showed a familiar disregard for protocol when she ignored House rules and launched a personal attack from the floor or that her team overruled a parliamentarian’s decision to keep Pelosi’s remarks on the record after GOP Rep. Doug Collins objected. The California Representative wanted a resolution that would denounce Trump as a racist and force Republicans to sign on or trigger a floor fight. Passing one effectively mapped out half of our bipolar relationship with race in the US and all but guaranteed what followed.

‘Election Security’ losing to indifferent & zealous

There’s something about math as a means of communication that starts eyes spinning into a glassy state of incomprehension faster than language or symbols ever could. This disconnect between statistics and personalities that separated the Trump/Russia scandal from other elements of ‘election interference’ for over two years is most likely what prevented news that thousands of emails were stolen from Democrat apparatchiks and as many as 39 state agencies were probed by hackers from breaking through. A recently released report from the Senate Intelligence Committee could change that. The document is one of five volumes expected in the next 30 days and contains two important revelations — that hackers waged a three-year campaign aimed at election infrastructure in all 50 states — while containing no true bombshells. The panel delivered a minor victory to skeptics when it found no evidence hackers were able to change votes or alter data, though it did not suggest that the worst has passed. After reviewing the report Michael Daniel agreed.

Untold risks await as Democrats drive to impeach

Like much of the US Constitution the grounds for impeachment described in Article II, Section 4 — specifically “high crimes and misdemeanors” — are written in quasi-legal language that belies any future political risk associated with such a vote. It’s doubtful that California Rep. Maxine Waters was the first to lay bare a battle between law and politics when she said her colleagues in the House of Representatives would decide when a violation had occurred and how to proceed. This conflict broke out again when the Special Counsel’s testimony concluded without producing any defining moments, which led a bloc of Democrats supporting impeachment to decide the legal process Robert Mueller represented had run its course and somehow failed. Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler confirmed as much when the New York Representative announced his committee is already conducting an impeachment inquiry inspired by Mueller’s report with support from nearly 100 of his comrades. It’s the wrong move at the wrong time in the wrong place.

Words fail when they lead to one-sided action

There aren’t many stranger birds in the sky than one resulting from the contact between politics and language that created a creature named “collateral damage.” President Trump has inspired a few of his own, including regular use of a clinical term like ‘narcissist’ and repeating “fake news” to the point that the phrase has lost all meaning. It’s no surprise then that continuing troubles at our southern border once described as an ’emergency’ via executive action by this President are brushed off when the flood of migrants doesn’t make the case for a wall. That doesn’t change what the Inspector General found at several detention centers in Texas, something uglier than simple “catch-and-release” migration. The facilities are home to more than 2,500 adolescents and are not providing showers, clean clothes or a hot meal. Adults are not faring any better and neither group is being transferred to the agencies responsible for long-term care. It would be easy to pin this one on a President who was ‘proud’ to shut down the government for ‘border security,’ but is at best an incomplete picture.

Walking a winding road on Notre Dame rebuild

It wasn’t clear on that night when Notre Dame burned how much the fire would effect witnesses, even when a group of them gathered outside the burning cathedral to sing hymns. News that a rooster resting atop the signature spire had been spared in “an absolute miracle” and the Crown of Thorns and tunic of Saint Louis were saved helped bring the story into some focus. Even as an amateur historian, there are some things I cannot relate to as a resident of a ‘New World’ whose identity is built around our separation from Europe. America’s oldest landmarks do not approach Notre Dame’s vintage and its western states treasures are younger than touchstones like the Statue of Liberty. Orange County Register columnist Doug McIntyre touched on this distance when he looked ahead at a “painstaking restoration” and referred to critics questioning whether money already pledged to restoring the cathedral would be better spent elsewhere. One line stands out now, McIntyre’s assertion that “the past can be the future with intelligent preservation.”