F**king Mondays: Broken Britain, Gay Catholics, And A Deal With The Devil

Modern Britain. Not so jolly. Getty Images.

Welcome to another addition of “F**king Mondays!”. In the round up this week:

Brexit is going great!

Britain's exit from the EU and Trump's election win in 2016 drew comparisons due to the "reality vs fantasy" aspect of the rival parties. MAGA supporters believed Trump could magically fix immigration, create universal health care, and bring peace to the Middle East because he was a "businessman.” Similarly, Brexit ideologues claimed leaving the second largest economic union in the world would fix the NHS, solve poverty, and restore Britain to its imperial greatness because other countries would be lining up to do business with them.

The reality based crowd saw, well, what the reality of electing a raving lunatic to the White House and pulling the UK out of a trade deal with its largest trading partner would be. Trump killed hundreds of thousands of people due to his mismanagement of Covid (while almost killing himself and his entire administration), and Britain’s economy has basically ground to a halt after Brexit was made official in 2020.

I’m in the UK at the moment and it is striking just how bad things have gotten. Quite literally nothing works — from the health care to the airports, the country’s infrastructure is falling apart. My aunt has waited well over a year for a crucial hip surgery, there are more homeless people on the street than I’ve seen in 30 years, and knife crime across the nation is at its highest in almost a century. There is a huge housing crisis in London, and there are areas I’ve driven through that make the worst neighborhoods in DC look clean and safe.

So what about the magical trade deals Boris Johnson and the pro-Brexit Tories promised would revive the nation’s fortunes? Sadly — and predictably — they are nowhere to be seen:

Joe Biden has shelved plans for a pact with Britain that could have paved the way for a full post-Brexit trade deal.

The US president has decided not to move forward with a “foundational” agreement prepared by the US Trade Representative’s Office, that would have included negotiations over 11 areas of trade and regulation, following opposition from his own party in the Senate.

Senate Democrats argued that it would not have provided sufficient protection for American workers, Politico reported.

The UK’s hopes for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US date from before the Brexit referendum, and faced an early setback when Barack Obama told voters that Britain would be “at the back of the queue” for a deal if it left the EU.

But despite US support for an FTA in the early days of Donald Trump’s presidency in 2016, the chance of a deal has now fallen to “zero” under Mr Biden, the Government believes.

I’m not sure why so many people fall for the obvious lies of charlatans, but my guess is that it is because reality is too difficult to face. It isn’t comfortable coming to terms with the fact that immigrants are not to blame for you failures, or that your nation is no longer an imperial super power. So you vote for a bullshit artist who tells you what you want to hear, then spend the next decade cleaning up the atrocious mess they leave.

Progress in the Catholic Church

Most Catholics in the US support gay marriage, and have done for over a decade. The Vatican is clearly aware of the shifting attitudes within the church and society at large, and is now mercifully changing policy to become more inclusive. Via the Guardian:

Pope Francis has approved a ruling allowing priests to bless unmarried and same-sex couples in a significant change ofposition for the Catholic church.

A report from the Vatican’s doctrinal office, details of which were published on Vatican News on Monday, said such blessings would be permitted, albeit with caveats.

“It will be possible to bless same-sex couples but without any type of ritualisation or offering the impression of a marriage,” the report said. Furthermore, “the doctrine regarding marriage does not change, and the blessing does not signify approval of the union”.

Despite the limitations, however, the announcement marks a significant step forward by the Vatican, which in 2021 said the Catholic church could not bless same-sex couples as God “does not bless sin”.

This doesn’t go nearly far enough of course, but it is a very good start from an institution that nearly destroyed itself over countless sex abuse scandals. Repressing human sexuality has had disastrous effects on young Catholics and has almost certainly contributed to the church’s sex abuse scandals. So if young gay Catholics feel seen by their church, they might want to stay active in it. This would at least in part reverse a serious decline in church attendance over the years and pave the way for more reform in years to come.

Neutering Republicans on immigration

Thom Hartmann has a fascinating piece on why Democrats should do a deal with Republicans on Ukraine and the border. Hartmann argues that Democrats can “neuter” Republicans on the issue by acceding to their demands in return for extracting concessions over funding for Ukraine:

If the GOP’s price for aid for Ukraine is to stop the flow of immigrants into this country for year or so, I say pay the ransom.

It’ll politically neuter Republicans, get aid to our democratic allies who are under attack (although the Israel aid should be conditional on ending the bombing and embracing a two-state solution), and give a much-needed break to the Blue cities Abbott and DeSantis are trying to break.

Hold your nose and go for it, Democrats, if you can get even an objectionable deal; one that’s not completely insane. In the final analysis it’ll be best for America and for future refugees and immigrants who deserve a system that actually works and can deal with their asylum or citizenship applications in a reasonable and timely manner.

Personally I think this is a price worth paying. Sadly Republicans have been extremely successful smearing Democrats over immigration on the southern border, despite it not being their fault. There has been a huge influx of migrants largely due to people fleeing violence and poverty. Transnational criminal organizations engaging in human smuggling, then profit from their misery turning the crisis into a catastrophe. As Hartmann points out, MAGA Republicans want a crisis on the border because it allows them to scapegoat people with brown skin and frighten their racist voters. So if they get what they want in time for 2024, they can’t spend the next 11 months fanning racial hatred in the name of “preserving the border.” This increases the chances of a Biden second term where a more sensible approach can be crafted, hopefully with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

Getting aid to Ukraine is absolutely vital given Russia’s recent victories, as we are in real danger of allowing a brutal dictator to define international politics for the foreseeable future. Because if Putin wins in Ukraine there is little chance he will stop there.

Reader feedback

There were some thoughtful and challenging comments on my piece on How To Lose Friends And Alienate People:

I think I have a very unpopular position on the conflict, and don't wish to lose family members over it. But I've long held great disdain for various Israeli governments for their use of settlements and both political and physical violence to subjugate the Palestinians. Similarly, I despise the extremism of organizations like Hamas who subjugate their own people by using them as human shields, and who are barbarous butchers. There are no good actors here. Israel has to elect a government who is actively seeking an equitable solution, and we need an honest Palestinian organization that is dedicated to finding a way forward. Butchery on both sides solves nothing.

Until there are honest brokers on both sides, a pox on both their political houses.

And:

It seems like you talk a lot about how hard it is to be Jewish at this point in time. You also mention quite often how horrible the Hamas attack on Sept. 7th was. And you also acknowledge the decades of injustices that the Palestinians have endured as a result of Zionist policies. But I don’t hear/read you saying much about the real time slaughtering of thousands of innocent civilians. For example, the closest you came to addressing the real time slaughtering of innocent civilians was “the latest explosion in violence has caused extreme tension in friendship circles...” I think there are many good folks out there that simply want this slaughtering to stop and that’s all they/we can think about. Of course a rise in antisemitism is terrible. But at this point in time, stopping this slaughtering of civilians is a priority.

Every Jew I know wants the killing of civilians in Gaza to stop. They also understand that if Hamas continues to exist, they will slaughter as many Jews as possible. So they don’t know what to do, or say. The situation is horrible and seems to be getting worse by the day. Anyone who wants more death on either side is a sadist and probably a racist, so I hope readers haven’t got the impression I think what Israel is doing is good.

See you next week!

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