May Hope and History Rhyme (Trump#116)

[lionheart]

With thanks to Seamus Heaney for inspiring the President Elect.

"History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme."

I know I am being a pessimist, but at least that way I am not going to be getting nasty surprises, only nice ones. I had my absolute fill of the nasty sort in 2016.

Yes, isn't it great about Warnock's link to MLK?

@Jaichangecentfoisdenom

What a relief, I'm finally beginning to feel as if this political nightmare might soon all be over, and sanity might start to prevail again, at least on Trump's side of the Pond. I'm afraid I don't see any sort of swift satisfactory resolution to Johnson and his Trumpy-Tory-Old-Schoolboy mates in the UK, though

Keeping in mind that I don't know the ins and outs of UK politics, is Biden likely to have any influence on Johnson/Tory policies in light of Brexit and the need for trade policies? Or is that moot now that UK and EU have come to some sort of trade agreement?

We are probably not going to be happy, as individuals, when we realise that the trade agreement with the EU means we'll have to pay import tax at 20% on anything from the EU that we buy via Amazon.

Biden has come too late to save us. I hope he can save the USA.

Keeping in mind that I don't know the ins and outs of UK politics, is Biden likely to have any influence on Johnson/Tory policies in light of Brexit and the need for trade policies? Or is that moot now that UK and EU have come to some sort of trade agreement?

One of the pillars of Brexit, albeit utter bollocks, but used to shush the masses, was that all the UK trade with the EU would be replicated a million times over by a trade deal with the US. It was one of the thorns in the side of the UK-EU negotiations, as Brexiteers used it as a reason to refuse to accept anything. It was why they felt they could rip up the WA and GFA with impunity - after all their mate Big Bad Donald would see them alright.

You can sense the shift in policy the moment Biden won.

Come January 21st, you won't find a single Tory who wasn't full square behind Biden.

But in this case I do hope Biden does bear a grudge - after all he's allowed to. Not against the UK. Just against Boris, personally. And I hope that makes for some very very uncomfortable photo opportunities as well as some plain speaking.

The UK press obviously won't dwell on British history. But I hope Boris gets caught in a pincer movement where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris reminisce over their experiences of the British Empire.

To return to your question, a trade deal with the US would have been useful to push the rhetoric of Brexit, but as an actual thing it would have been shit and not really worth that much to the UK as it's nowhere near the size of the EU market.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

We are probably not going to be happy, as individuals, when we realise that the trade agreement with the EU means we'll have to pay import tax at 20% on anything from the EU that we buy via Amazon.

Biden has come too late to save us. I hope he can save the USA.

Holy cow! Why does the EU get to decide Amazon's import tax status? Amazon is a US based company, not an EU one. You'd think that any tax agreement would be between the UK and the US.

To me that's like the EU deciding that the US has to pay 20% tax on imports from M&S. It should be between the importing/exporting countries.

The margin between Warnock and Loeffler is 1,2% at the moment.
Ossoff to Perdue is still at 0,4%.
(Fox data)

Why does the EU get to decide Amazon's import tax status?

Er, because Amazon is importing into the EU ?

Ossoff has declared himself the winner and Schumer has declared himself Majority Leader.

www.foxnews.com/politics/live-updates-georgia-runoffs-1-5-2021

I suspect (given the figure of 20%) that someone forgot about VAT during the negotiations, or decided that it didn't matter. The EU will be wanting to charge that, now that the UK is no longer part of their system.

I somehow doubt that VAT on UK goods within the UK will vanish, though....

I somehow doubt that VAT on UK goods within the UK will vanish, though...

Well Leavers have a justification to have expected it to go ...

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/937720/brexit-news-vat-uk-european-tax-regime-commons-treasury-committee-nicky-morgan

Hillary Clinton
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Am I right to guess from your username that musicals are an area of expertise for you?

More an age thing really I don't think I've ever watched the one I poached my name from...

Interesting suggestion that some polling shows Republicans were on course to win until Hawley decided to object to the Presidential election, at which point Republican voting intentions fell ... ?

Oh DGR, they will have been a bit disappointed then:

A] that's the Express (other Brexit-supporting papers are available) and B] it says "could", not "will".

I am not surprised if decent Republicans, disgusted by Hawley, decided either not to vote or to vote the way they were sure he wouldn't want. I am entirely sure that there are decent Republicans, and that they have been watching what's been done to their party in horror until something was the last straw -- and it may have been that ratweasel that finally stuck in their craws, to mangle a metaphor a bit.

CNN will start live reporting on Congress elections from 6pm UK time

Holy cow! Why does the EU get to decide Amazon's import tax status? Amazon is a US based company, not an EU one. You'd think that any tax agreement would be between the UK and the US.

the mother company might be american, but amazon has sub-companies everywhere plus serves as 'market place' for small retailers.

I am entirely sure that there are decent Republicans

Well inverting the position, anyone - Republic, Democrat or whatever - who currently supports Trump is not decent.

It's dangerous to try to compare UK and US politics, but it used to be a trope that unhappy Tory voters were much more likely to actively vote non-Tory than unhappy Labour voters who were simply less likely to vote. So as a government, it always made sense to keep Tories happy no matter what party you were.

Ultimately anyone who votes for a rosette rather than a person and their policies deserves all they get. And writ large that's given you your system and us ours. And neither works if there's more than 2 views.

Gabriel Sterling has just done long Q&A on CNN. That man is a walking information mine. He has every fact and figure at his fingertips. There would be no catching him out, he knows his job.

Dave Wasserman on twitter
Look guys, I've seen enough. Both Raphael Warnock (D) and Jon Ossoff (D) will win by margins comfortably exceeding GA's 0.5% recount threshold. #GASEN

Of course Trump can now blame Hawley (who was only doing what Trump wanted).

When thieves fall out, eh ?

I hadn't read this before, from the bbc

Did Loeffler's basketball team give Warnock a slam dunk?
There's an intriguing side to the Warnock v Loeffler race in Georgia that you might not have heard about.

Republican Kelly Loeffler - currently the richest member of the US Senate - is also co-owner of her state's women's pro-basketball team, the WNBA's Atlanta Dream.

The problem: they don't like her very much.

Over the summer, when Loeffler called for the WNBA to reject "divisive political movements" like Black Lives Matter, Dream players (and others in the league) called for her removal as team owner and began to sport "VOTE WARNOCK" jerseys at their games, making pretty clear their support for her Democratic opponent.

Their activism raised over $200K (£150,000) in just three days for Raphael Warnock - according to his campaign - and boosted his visibility in the early days of his candidacy.

Oh and Donny has started his speech, something about crowd size

Breaking: Biden to nominate Merrick Garland as Attorney General