2016 June 25^th

Voter’s remorse has overcome some of the English Brexit voters. Over two million of them have signed a petition for a revote. Can they do that? I have no idea, but this is only 48 hours after the original vote so the petition will probably soon grow more signatures. One rational for this change of heart, if this is a change of heart, are the lies told by those who pushed for Brexit. A standout here is Boris Johnson, the ex-Mayor of London, who trumpeted that 350 million pounds would come into the strapped National Health System if Brexit passed; now Johnson says that was a “mistake.” He seems to have discovered this mistake only after Brexit passed.

It is obvious that many who voted for Brexit had no idea of the mess their country would be in if it passed. All is not lost because Russia and Iran have both decided that, as far as they are concerned, this was a very good move. Other EU countries now are pushing for their own Exit vote, France and The Netherlands among them.

In this country there is renewed enthusiasm in Texas for Texas to vote itself out of the Union. The last time they did that the Union fought to keep them in, this time they will not be that lucky. If a collection were taken to help them succeed in removing themselves I would bet that more money would be collected from states above the Mason Dixon line than from Texas. If they left would Trump decide to wall off Texas?

Then we have Trump, our Bluster Boy, doing a promo for his luxury Scottish golf courses in Scotland. He is shown landing in his private helicopter and leading an entourage of hangers on and reporters on a flying golf cart tour of the links, stopping periodically to make a fool of himself. He congratulated Britain for voting to “take their country back.” He made his congratulatory speech in Scotland however, and Scotland voted by two to one to stay in the European Union. Will the egg come off his face? It probably won’t, because he doesn’t have any idea that the egg is there and no one will tell him.

That a candidate for the Presidency of the United States from a major party would go abroad in a time of major political and financial upheaval and not meet with any foreign leaders but instead flog his personal commercial interests is bizarre. I wonder what Speaker Ryan thinks of Trump’s gaffe. Is it any wonder that the country’s approval rating of the Republican controlled Congress is about 11 percent?

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll has Clinton ahead of Trump 47 to 33. This probably reflect some of his recent stumbles and surely encourages the Democrats. His poll numbers could well get worse because he just isn’t acting as if he is really interested in the Presidency. The worse Trump’s poll numbers get and the more Democrats are encouraged, the more likely Trump will just quit, or that the Republicans will replace him with a more formidable candidate. Be careful what you wish for; you might not be happy with the result—think the Brexit vote.