Brexit, Australian Election, Gaming Updates

[tcpip]

As everyone knows, the United Kingdom has voted to leave the EU, albeit by a margin of 1.9%. The key demographic groups voting for 'Leave' came from of lower income, lower education, old age, and anti-immigration, with the latter providing probabily the strongest determinant. The result has serious repercussions; already the Scots, who overwhelmingly supported Remain, have called for a second independence vote, and in Northern Ireland which also voted to Remain there are calls for a reunification referendum. Nationalists on the continent, such as the Front national in France and astoundingly misnamed Partij voor de Vrijheid in the Netherlands have argued for Leave referenda in their own country, further wishing to promote the closing of the European mind. The economy, of course, has taken a battering with two trillion wiped off the global markets, leaving the UK staring down a recession.

In the distant British colony of Australia, we have an Federal election next week. Opinion polls (for what they're worth) suggest a close election, although it is the marginals that matter and Labor is still struggling with the Herculean task of gaining twenty one seats. The loathed Tony Abbott is making a tilt on a comeback based on Turnbull's woeful and dithering performance as Prime Minister. Labor has raised the spectre of a possible privitisation of Medicare first raised in February this year. The critical issue, as I've mentioned in previous posts, is if Labor can hammer home its economic credentials and point out that the Coalition has introduced the worst fall in living standards since records began. I honestly don't understand why Labor isn't hammering this point home.

Three main gaming sessions in the past week, as normal. Last Sunday was GURPS Middle Earth with our GM promising to provide a summary of what lose ends there are in the narrative. Wednesday night was a session of Laundry Files which involved a haunted house scenario in an inner urban environment. Friday night was Eclipse Phase Mars wrapping up a few lose ends from the "Chain Reaction" series. On the latter point I've written some rules modifications which I've circulated in the appropriate forum. Apropos the next issue of RPG Review is almost ready, just in the final editing phase now. Also the Cooperative has purchased a block of ten ISBNs, so publications will commence in the very near future. We have items such as Verge from Nic Moll, Gulliver's Trading Company from Karl Brown, and I have a secret project to be announced in the next issue of RPG Review.

Comments

Re:

[zazoosr.livejournal.com]

You are right "dinosaur brain" defeated "human brain". However I see another systematic problem here. We had a big hope in political correctness, fair and multicultural approach to many issues starting from Vietnam war. It kinda works but needs a serious facelift. People tired from the fact "savages immigration" destroying our way of living, our culture and civilization. We should be strong to resist and strike back when necessarily to protect future of our kids. When USSR was defeated at the end of 80-s it was a euphoria regarding a "pink future for all of us". Well, unfortunately but very expectedly, this monster (together with islamic invasion and many others) came back. It was just a matter on cycle change in our non-linear world. Let us learn from our mistakes...

Well educated people usually occupy"progressive"(aka "left") side of political spectrum. By growing up in USSR I got very strong immunization shot against that. In a recent time I see many countries switched to more liberal governments which are highly non-efficient in solving serious problem but very good of talking about "green economy", "global warning" and others easy topics. At the same time a real issues like muslim interventions, global terrorism, international drug trade etc are largely ignored. And this is horrible mistake!

Many people now questioning success of Donald Trump. The answer is easy - it is a systematic response for having Barak Obama during 2 previous terms. The same way national-socialism in Germany was a response for Weimar Republic supported by Russia. We should be very careful in managing such a counter-strikes and minimize them in a future by optimal control methods. If possible ...

Re:

[(Anonymous)]

1. Islamic fascism and the global terrorism it causes are only a problem for the west because we want the oil belonging to the predominantly-muslim countries, and we've been fighting proxy wars with the russians and (more recently) the chinese for control over that oil, with all sides propping up reprehensible dictators and funding & arming various lunatics along the way, with obviously inevitable blowback. Switching to renewable energy would not only solve the climate change issue but would also go a long way towards solving the current terrorism problem. And the sooner we do that, the better.

2. There is no drug-related problem that isn't made infinitely worse with prohibition. The problems associated with the international drug trade would be completely solved by legalising and regulating all drugs. take the money out of the black market, away from the criminals, and away from the corrupt police and politicians. BTW, all of the more dangerous "designer" drugs only exist because they are an attempt to get around the prohibition of relatively safe drugs like MDMA and LSD and the restrictions on essential precursor chemicals. Legalisation and regulation would not only elimate those dangerous alternatives (nobody would use unknown black-market crap when legal, safe drugs were readily available to adults), but also allow legal, regulated, peer-reviewed research into even safer forms. Legalisation would also allow (require!) regulated quality control (purity and dosage) during manufacture of drugs.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I think I disagree with every sentence of your post :)

[delphipsmith]

The answer is easy - it is a systematic response for having Barak Obama during 2 previous terms.

No, it's a systematic response to the GOP being the Party of Fear for the last forty years.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Sorry I was a bit flippant to your response yesterday - was busy with a class, so I'll give a proper response now.

> People tired from the fact "savages immigration" destroying our way of living, our culture and civilization.

I'm not sure which immigrants you are referring to here, and what destruction you are referring to. Surely the destruction that has been imposed by the great powers (US, EU, Russia) in developing countries far exceeds the occasional lunatic from those countries.

> In a recent time I see many countries switched to more liberal governments which are highly non-efficient in solving serious problem but very good of talking about "green economy", "global warning" and others easy topics.

I wish those were so easy... What do you think the serious problems are, if not climate change?

> At the same time a real issues like muslim interventions, global terrorism, international drug trade etc are largely ignored.

Global terrorism? Who is engaging in the terrorism, the use of violence against non-combatants for political purposes? Global drug trade? Fine legalise and regulate. That seems to work where it has been implemented, doesn't it?

> Many people now questioning success of Donald Trump.

I'm pretty sure that Trump will not only lose but may actually suffer the biggest loss seen in a hundred years.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I've talked so much Brexit over the last couple of days that I'm almost feeling exhausted by the whole idea -- but things are only going to get uglier and more convoluted whenever it is that the exit negotiations actually begin. Article 50 hasn't been triggered yet, but it will soon be. Until then we'll be stuck in a sort of curious holding pattern, and uncertainty will be rife.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this comment making the rounds, it's quite insightful.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/25/brexit-live-emergency-meetings-eu-uk-leave-vote#comment-77205935

Also Scotland is talking about blocking the Brexit.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Given the possibility of a second independence referendum, Scotland certainly needs to factor heavily into calculations in London, but Scotland is in no position to block Brexit by its own action. Holyrood may refuse to give its consent, but it then gets to watch Brexit happen, and must draw its own conclusions about how to proceed with that reality in mind.

It's a bit tragic that the British parliament will be undertaking so much of the practical work of leaving when a majority of British MPs are basically in favour of continued membership. No wonder both the Tories and Labour are in shambles. I know that Lord Heseltine and some others are trying to muster together the necessary political muscle in London to outright prevent Brexit, but right at this time I don't see either a parliamentary intervention or a whole second referendum being feasible. Britain has voted. What we got is what we got.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are trying to hammer together a consensus on how to deal with Brexit, and right now it looks a bit glum for everyone concerned. The major EU powers want a quick and unsentimental resolution to this, and they cannot be generous with Britain at the negotiation table. Otherwise there'll be no end to these referendum things.

(Having said that, I read a piece on The Independent where someone listed countries in danger of leaving, and Finland was listed along with the others. That is basically a rubbish analysis. There's been a bit of talk about it, but the possibility of a Finnish referendum would be fairly remote as it is. What more, Finland's most vociferous eurosceptic party is in government, and its leader is the Finnish foreign minister. That makes the possibility of a referendum in the short to medium term even more remote.)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I thought the devolution powers wouldn't have extended that far, but was unaware of the details. In any case, it would seem a little churlish if such an attempt was made. A second independence referendum is certainly a more likely outcome.

The biggest challenge is the implementation by the British parliament. I can't see much enthusiasm for a rapid exit, even though that's what the EU wants to push (and who can blame them).

Like yourself I don't see Finland leaving in a hurry.

[delphipsmith]

Three main gaming sessions in the past week, as normal...I've written some rules modifications...

Too bad we can't restart 2016 with modified rules. Or, y'know, just unplug it, wait 20 seconds, and then plug it back in.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

As they say, if this was a game of Civ you'd go back to your last save point.

where's my F9 key when i need it?

[(Anonymous)]

unfortunately this simulation has no F5 quickave and save-points occur only once every 100 billion years (and nobody knows how to get to the menu, anyway)