Pack Up and Leave, GOP Loses Its Will

The Brexit Door: The European Union wants Britain to pack its bags, settle its affairs and get out as quickly as possible. But it seems the Brits want to stop for a spot of tea. British negotiators told EU ministers they need several months to pull themselves together.

The winners of the campaign to leave the EU appear to be in no rush to trigger the two-year process of renegotiating trade, finance, and political arrangements between the UK and the soon-to-be reduced EU. But the EU is saying “move to a motel.” Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, told German television. “I do not understand why the British government needs until October to decide whether to send the divorce letter to Brussels”

The trouble is that the Brits can’t say what they want because the leaders of the Brexit movement don’t run the government. Prime Minister David Cameron, who says he won’t engineer the exit, isn’t leaving office until October, and that’s when the “leave” faction can try to take over and start negotiating with the EU.

Permawar: Muslim extremists with the group al-Shabab attacked a hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia yesterday, killing 14 people. The attackers moved in first with a suicide car bomb followed by gunmen who mowed down security guards and civilians. Government security forces later re-took the hotel.

Al-Shabab is the group that carried at massacres at Garissa University in Kenya this past April, and in 2013 at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall.

Nation: At least 24 people are reported dead in flash floods that swept West Virginia. The state received a quarter of its average annual rainfall in a single day. Hundreds of homes and buildings have been destroyed. Searchers are still looking for missing people.

In Lake Isabella, Calif., authorities have counted 80 homes that burned to the ground in a wildfire. Two people are confirmed dead.

GOP OMG: Conservative political columnist George Will, a stalwart advocate and defender of the Republican Party, said he’s quitting the party over Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy and encourages others to do the same. In a speech to the Federalist Society luncheon Friday, Will said, “This is not my party.”

Will has re-registered in Maryland with no party affiliation. Conservative news website PJ Media asked Will what he thinks conservatives should do and he replied, “Make sure he loses. Grit their teeth for four years and win the White House.”

Rum and Coca Cola: The widened and improved Panama Canal opens today for passage by the world’s mega-ships. The project took 10 years and $5 billion to complete just as there’s a slowdown in global shipping.

The Obit Page: Bill Cunningham, the photographer who rode a bicycle all over the streets of New York snapping shots of fashion in the street for The NY Times, has died at age 87. Cunningham’s photos captured the latest trends in boots, plaids, skirts, neon colors, hats and stripes. In 40 years with the Times he lost, wrecked and wore out 30 bicycles. He once wrote in an essay about himself, “The problem is I’m not a good photographer. To be perfectly honest, I’m too shy. Not aggressive enough. Well, I’m not aggressive at all. I just loved to see wonderfully dressed women, and I still do. That’s all there is to it.”

Chowda: Ann LePage, the wife of Maine governor Paul LePage, is working this summer at a seafood restaurant to put away a little extra money to buy a car. Her husband, a small-government Republican, gets a small government salary of $70,000 a year. You can Mrs. LePage at McSeagull’s on the water in Boothbay Harbor where she’ll be serving to one percenters. Order the Lobster & Chicken Bomb. $30.

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Friday, April 26, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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