Secession, some of it mad and entirely too plausible, some of it maybe not so mad and entirely too implausible

benfell

Brexit

It would be difficult at best. Success is far from assured. There are paths the British Parliament could take to stop a hard Brexit.[1] But Brexit remains the legal default[2] and Boris Johnson continues pedaling his bicycle at a brick wall.[3] I don’t know enough about the British system to say how plausible the possibilities Oliver Wright lays out are. But if I draw a correct sense from his writing, he doesn’t seem all that optimistic himself.

Oliver Wright, “Could Brexit rebels scupper conference season?” Times, August 8, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/could-brexit-rebels-scupper-conference-season-q7hqdh9w0

Secession

It is very often the case that people backing secession feel disenfranchised. In this case, it’s the rest of Illinois by Chicago.[4]

But other parts of the story also sound familiar, at least to somebody who lived in California almost all his life. The parts that want to secede, or as they put it, push Chicago into its own state, feel they aren’t getting a fair slice of the fiscal pie. They are conservative and don’t like the ‘liberal’ (as in whatever I’m against) politics and policies that dominate the entire state. They think they’d be better off without Chicago,[5] just as secessionists in the Jefferson movement feel they’d be better off without the rest of California.

Cindy Dampier, “Meet the people working to kick Chicago out of Illinois,” Chicago Tribune, August 1, 2019, https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-illinois-state-secession-movement-0801-20190801-iesnu74ogvfjxfk35sn72lq7ya-story.html

Ridesharing

Both Uber and Lyft are still bleeding money like there’s no tomorrow. The difference looks to me to be in the spin: Uber, a much larger company, negative;[6] Lyft, a much smaller company, positive.[7] (So don’t just compare the aggregate numbers.)

I guess it’s all in whose bullshit you believe.

Eliot Brown, “Lyft Raises 2019 Revenue Outlook and Sees Smaller Annual Loss,” Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lyfts-raises-2019-revenue-outlook-and-sees-smaller-annual-loss-11565208387

Eliot Brown, “Uber Posts Its Largest Quarterly Loss,” Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-posts-its-largest-ever-quarterly-loss-11565295373

  1. [1]Oliver Wright, “Could Brexit rebels scupper conference season?” Times, August 8, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/could-brexit-rebels-scupper-conference-season-q7hqdh9w0↩
  2. [2]Jack Maidment, “Brexit latest news: Theresa May’s deal defeated again by 58 votes – PM hints at general election to break deadlock,” Telegraph, March 29, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/29/brexit-latest-news-theresa-may-final-push-mps-prepare-vote-withdrawal/; Peter Walker, “Could parliament’s latest amendment stop no-deal Brexit?” Guardian, July 18, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/18/could-parliaments-latest-amendment-stop-no-deal-brexit; Josh Wilson, “No-deal Brexit odds: Latest predictions on leaving the EU without a deal,” Telegraph, August 2, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/no-deal-brexit-odds-latest-predictions-leaving-eu-without-deal/↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Boris Johnson might think he’s playing poker with the European Union, but he’s actually playing ‘chicken’—with a brick wall,” Not Housebroken, August 2, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/08/02/boris-johnson-might-think-hes-playing-poker-with-the-european-union-but-hes-actually-playing-chicken-with-a-brick-wall/; Edward Malnick, “Dominic Cummings tells MPs: you’ve missed your chance to stop no-deal Brexit,” Telegraph, August 3, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/03/dominic-cummings-tells-mps-missed-chance-stop-no-deal-brexit/; Oliver Wright, “Could Brexit rebels scupper conference season?” Times, August 8, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/could-brexit-rebels-scupper-conference-season-q7hqdh9w0↩
  4. [4]Cindy Dampier, “Meet the people working to kick Chicago out of Illinois,” Chicago Tribune, August 1, 2019, https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-illinois-state-secession-movement-0801-20190801-iesnu74ogvfjxfk35sn72lq7ya-story.html↩
  5. [5]Cindy Dampier, “Meet the people working to kick Chicago out of Illinois,” Chicago Tribune, August 1, 2019, https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-illinois-state-secession-movement-0801-20190801-iesnu74ogvfjxfk35sn72lq7ya-story.html↩
  6. [6]Eliot Brown, “Uber Posts Its Largest Quarterly Loss,” Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-posts-its-largest-ever-quarterly-loss-11565295373↩
  7. [7]Eliot Brown, “Lyft Raises 2019 Revenue Outlook and Sees Smaller Annual Loss,” Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lyfts-raises-2019-revenue-outlook-and-sees-smaller-annual-loss-11565208387↩

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