SS deposit today so I was able to make a donation!

I'm lousy at making predictions. I was so sure that Scotland would vote for its independence. It's been 13 years since I lived in England. Who knows what those crazy Brits are thinking.

It's going to be close by all accounts.

And checked monthly donation.

Thanks for the reminder. Don't have an opinion on this, and don't like to bet anyway.

I'm not certain anybody wants to hear this but... I really wish you wouldn't do this.

I understand that this all looks very arcane to you, and far away. And I understand that there are plenty of opinions on both sides, there are always are.

Unfortunately, a lot of the things that led us to this position are similarly hard to understand. When people are flip and uncaring about them, and commit to one side or another, even as a joke, it usually means they've stopped trying to understand what is happening.

A lot of people want to exit for the wrong reason. They bring up far right nonsense similar to Trump, blaming the EU for immigration. It's the idiot's reason but there is a better one.

The better one is that reasons once made by democratically elected representatives are now made by bureacrats who frequently originally works for banks. Austerity policies are in place that have become effectively unstoppable, because the EU has effectively replaced laws put in place to let people have some say in these things.

Consider this. Germany, the dominant country in the EU, chose how to handle Greece when they couldn't handle their debts. Their decisions have closed schools, hospitals, and driven the country back nearly to the stone age. Starvation is now happening, and education is so devastated that they will have a hard time finding people for many modern professions in the next twenty years.

Now, that being the case, do you suppose that will lead to more poverty? Is shuttering schools and institutionalizing poverty for decades going to lead to something good for anybody in the EU at any point? Seriously, when does closing down all those institutions lead to things getting better?

It was a horrible decision for the EU as a whole. But the bankers who have done well by all this are making out great.

Please don't make bets on things like this. Just don't. I understand you don't feel there is harm in it, but it sets a bad precedent.

And that's fine. The world feels pretty far beyond us all now. I'd just rather do fundraisers about something else.

can't do monthly because we never know when we're going to have enough to get by, so when we see we've got a little bit of a "surplus" (because really it's only temporary) we send what we can.

As for brexit, I agree with those who say the British government won't allow it. If Hills and the DNC can rig elections here you can bet that the Brits will hire those professional election riggers

I think gulfgal put up a request for monthly contributions, and I belatedly signed up. I'm usually a single donation guy, but figured this place (and JtC) could use a little bit of steady income stream.

Thanks to all for donating, for whatever reason you do so. And thanks, mimi, for putting up a novel fundraising diary.

Just made a donation. So glad you all are here.

What drives austerity? The banks. Why? Money. What else? More money. When countries make financial mistakes, in the modern era they do so propped up by "loans" from international banking at rates they never should have agreed to. Just like the housing bubble, governments over-invest in things without strong internal supports--just like buying bundled bad loans. You think you're getting a good deal--but you (or your country) have just made a deal with the devil. Apparently these loans are structured so that payback becomes impossible, the worse your country's financial debacle has become. It's like private consumers going to payday lenders. End result: the general populace suffers in order to enrich the bankers who make such loans. I do not mean to excuse bad financial mistakes writ large (countrywide)--but malfeasance and misfeasance by national governments in making these disastrous financial decisions should take their fair share of blame. Just like the Wall Street Banksters almost obliterated this country on an enormous scale, so too do international financiers in collusion with senior governmental persons orchestrate their own greed-driven tragedy. Look at Greece. Look at Spain. If the TPP passes, then look at us.