This Is a Real Headline on Britain's EU Referendum, You Ignorant Unwashed Racist Rubes

Remember, if you had to boil down Britain's vote to leave, it's actually quite simple: "#Brexit: A Referendum on Elites and Immigration."

Of course, that elite class includes all the leftist media's foreign policy intelligentsia, that part of the revolutionary cadre that does its agitation for the proletarian liberation from behind a desk.

I mean, seriously. I thought was was a joke when I first saw the headline, but it's not, which makes it even more hilarious.

From James Traub, at the über establishment Foreign Policy, "It's Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses":

The Brexit has laid bare the political schism of our time. It’s not about the left vs. the right; it’s about the sane vs. the mindlessly angry.

It’s time for the elites to rise up against the ignorant masses, argues @JamesTraub1 https://t.co/filBVmdF2N pic.twitter.com/YkAlzC5pPW

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) June 28, 2016

The issue, at bottom, is globalization. Brexit, Trump, the National Front, and so on show that political elites have misjudged the depth of the anger at global forces and thus the demand that someone, somehow, restore the status quo ante. It may seem strange that the reaction has come today rather than immediately after the economic crisis of 2008, but the ebbing of the crisis has led to a new sense of stagnation. With prospects of flat growth in Europe and minimal income growth in the United States, voters are rebelling against their dismal long-term prospects. And globalization means culture as well as economics: Older people whose familiar world is vanishing beneath a welter of foreign tongues and multicultural celebrations are waving their fists at cosmopolitan elites. I was recently in Poland, where a far-right party appealing to nationalism and tradition has gained power despite years of undeniable prosperity under a centrist regime. Supporters use the same words again and again to explain their vote: “values and tradition.” They voted for Polishness against the modernity of Western Europe.

Perhaps politics will realign itself around the axis of globalization, with the fist-shakers on one side and the pragmatists on the other. The nationalists would win the loyalty of working-class and middle-class whites who see themselves as the defenders of sovereignty. The reformed center would include the beneficiaries of globalization and the poor and non-white and marginal citizens who recognize that the celebration of national identity excludes them.

The schism we see opening before us is not just about policies, but about reality. The Brexit forces won because cynical leaders were prepared to cater to voters’ paranoia, lying to them about the dangers of immigration and the costs of membership in the EU. Some of those leaders have already begun to admit that they were lying. Donald Trump has, of course, set a new standard for disingenuousness and catering to voters’ fears, whether over immigration or foreign trade or anything else he can think of. The Republican Party, already rife with science-deniers and economic reality-deniers, has thrown itself into the embrace of a man who fabricates realities that ignorant people like to inhabit.

Did I say “ignorant”? Yes, I did. It is necessary to say that people are deluded and that the task of leadership is to un-delude them. Is that “elitist”? Maybe it is; maybe we have become so inclined to celebrate the authenticity of all personal conviction that it is now elitist to believe in reason, expertise, and the lessons of history. If so, the party of accepting reality must be prepared to take on the party of denying reality, and its enablers among those who know better. If that is the coming realignment, we should embrace it.

Funny, but notice how Traub has reversed the "party of accepting reality" and the "party of denying reality." Clearly, the reality now is that everyday people --- you know, the actually citizens in popular democracies --- have woken up to the lies of the corrupt elites. It's not "pragmatic" to keep telling yourself that all is well when half the EU countries are drowning economically and the other half is hellbent of importing the developing world's wretched of the earth. Regular voters know cultural suicide when they see it, and they're having none of it.

Thank goodness.

Here's the relevant entry to further explain things, "#Brexit: Life-Orienting Belief System of Progressivism Shattered on the Rocks."

UKIP's Nigel Farage to the EU: 'You're Not Laughing Now, Are You?' (VIDEO)

At the Federalist, "Watch Brexit Architect Nigel Farage Curb-Stomp the Entire EU Parliament."

And at NPR, "WATCH: Brexiteer Nigel Farage to EU: 'You're Not Laughing Now, Are You?'":

Nigel Farage, a member of the European Parliament and the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, spoke on the floor of the European Parliament on Tuesday morning.

It was a special session of the Parliament, called in the wake of the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union. Farage — whose eurosceptic right-wing party was firmly in favor of the Brexit, and who personally campaigned quite passionately for it — was grinning.

And on a day marked with fiery speeches, his stood out...

Keep reading.

The leftist press highlight's drunkard Junker's rude rebuke to Farage, at the Guardian, for example, "'Why are you still here?' asks EU's Juncker amid barrage of Nigel Farage."

Remember, the left's entire utopian consciousness has been flushed down the drain.

Not Everything Should Be Decided by the People

Here's the post at Althouse, "Some things just shouldn't be decided by the people?"

She links Instapundit, "THEY LOVE DEMOCRACY UNTIL IT TURNS OUT THE WRONG WAY: WaPo: Brexit is a reminder that some things just shouldn’t be decided by the people."

We used to hear this argument all the time in California once Prop. 8 passed. Remember, "human rights shouldn't be up for a vote by the people."

Now, though, with Black Lives Matter, and all that, it's, "This is what democracy looks like!" You know, shutting down people and opinions with whom you disagree.

Interesting change WaPo made to this hed: "Some thing just shouldn't be decided by [the people => referendum]" pic.twitter.com/zSP6YkJmBI

— David Auerbach (@AuerbachKeller) June 27, 2016

Corbyn Supporters Blame Labour Coup on Zionist Plot

Well, what else these days?

Following-up, "Jeremy Corbyn Refuses to Resign After Losing Nob-Confidence Vote (VIDEO)," and "Angela Eagle to Challenge Jeremy Corbyn (VIDEO)."

At Heat Street:

Jeremy Corbyn is fighting for his political life today as more than 20 of his top team have lined up to knife him.

Disgruntled frontbench MPs cited his lack of leadership and inability to stop Brexit as reasons for their revolt – but die-hard Corbyn fans say they know better.

Hundreds of supporters who have the leader’s back claim the real reason for the revolt is a fruition of a Zionist conspiracy.

Truthers posted their thoughts publicly on social media, while MPs including rising star Jess Phillips say they are receiving far more accusations in private.

Please safeguard jeremy corbyn. He done nothing wrong. He is a righteous socialist. Zionists are targeting him. #KeepCorbyn

— rasingher rayden (@joeyhuddlestone) June 24, 2016

Angela Eagle to Challenge Jeremy Corbyn (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Jeremy Corbyn Refuses to Resign After Losing Nob-Confidence Vote (VIDEO)."

 Check the Guardian U.K., "Brexit live: Angela Eagle touted as unity candidate in Labour leadership crisis."

Jeremy Corbyn Refuses to Resign After Losing Nob-Confidence Vote (VIDEO)

At Telegraph UK, "Labour crisis: Jeremy Corbyn refuses to resign after losing confidence of 172 MPs as Angela Eagle eyes up leadership challenge":

Jeremy Corbyn has lost a vote of no confidence in his leadership (172 votes to 40) but is expected to battle on to force a contest in which Angela Eagle or Tom Watson is likely to be the rival candidate.

David Cameron is in Brussels for discussions with European leaders about Britain's exit from the EU. He has told journalists that "we must not turn our backs on Europe".

An earlier session of the European Parliament saw Ukip leader Nigel Farage booed and jeered by fellow MEPs...

More.

#Brexit: Life-Orienting Belief System of Progressivism Shattered on the Rocks

Heh.

From Damon Linker, at the Week, "How Brexit shattered progressives' dearest illusions" (via Instapundit):

It's perfectly reasonable to worry about what will happen after Britain's historic vote to break up with the European Union. Will Brexit provoke Scotland and Northern Ireland to secede from the United Kingdom, leading to its dissolution? Will it embolden other members of the EU to bolt? And will those secessionist movements empower unsavory characters who end up being seduced by Vladimir Putin and modeling themselves on his form of authoritarian populism? Will the dire short-term economic consequences of Brexit create chaos and recession in the long term, too?

As I said, lots of reasons to worry.

But what we've seen from a wide range of writers and analysts in the days since the Brexit vote is not necessarily worry. It is shock. Fury. Disgust. Despair. A faith has been shaken, illusions shattered, pieties punctured. This is what happens when a life-orienting system of belief gets smashed on the rocks of history.

The name of that shattered system of belief? Progressivism...

Still more.

And ICYMI, "U.K.'s Guardian After #Brexit — A Roundup."

Currency Woes Rack Central Banks

At WSJ, "Strengthening Currencies Bedevil Central Banks":

Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has set off a fresh round of currency pressures in the world’s largest economies, further complicating efforts by central banks to spur growth.

The pound hit a three-decade low on Monday, and both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings cut their ratings on the U.K., saying that last week’s vote raises risks to the country’s economy.

Meanwhile, the Japanese yen, Swiss franc and U.S. dollar posted further gains, as market turmoil resumed after the weekend and sent investors in search of havens. Government bonds also benefited from the flight from risk, with the yield on the 10-year British bond falling below 1% for the first time, as the rout in U.S. and European stocks deepened.

The currency moves, in particular, pose risks for businesses and in turn for economies that have posted lackluster performance.

The resurgent yen and franc are putting renewed pressure on companies in Japan and Switzerland. Meanwhile, U.S. companies that had benefited from a weakening dollar this year face a bout of currency-related stress as the second-quarter earnings season looms.

Stronger currencies tend to make a country’s exporters less competitive as the effective price of their goods goes up. They also tamp down inflation as import prices fall, frustrating outcomes for central banks in Japan, Europe and the U.S. that are trying to calibrate policies to boost growth and inflation. The moves could tempt central banks to intervene or modify policies to limit the upward pressure.

“Policy makers are unlikely to sit idly by while their strengthening currency derails any economic progress that they’ve made,” said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at international-payments firm Commonwealth Foreign Exchange. “Central banks would be justified in stepping in.”

The problem is currencies can’t all weaken at once. The Swiss have been trying to push the franc down against the euro. The European Central Bank has nodded to the benefits of a weaker currency as it lowers interest rates into negative territory and expands its bond-buying programs. Japan has tried to weaken the yen against the dollar. And Federal Reserve officials have cited the stronger dollar as an impediment to growth.

All are showing little success, and investors have raised concerns that central-bank tools for influencing currency values are losing their effectiveness...

Still more.

The #Brexit Moment of Truth (VIDEO)

This is a phenomenal commentary, from Pat Condell.

It came out a couple of weeks ago, and thank goodness Britons chose to leave that poxed Euro-dictatorship for good.

Watch, "The Moment of Truth: "Do we want to live in a sovereign democracy or a federal dictatorship?"

Labour to Hold Vote of No-Confidence on Leader Jeremy Corbyn (VIDEO)

The best part of the Brexit vote is watching the left's global nuclear meltdown.

At Telegraph UK, "Labour crisis: Jeremy Corbyn sees 33 shadow ministers quit as new MP is told 'keep your phone on, you might be in the shadow cabinet by end of day'":

Jeremy Corbyn has lost more than half his Cabinet and seen more than 30 of his MPs revolt against his leadership over the last 48 hours.

Mr Corbyn has lost 20 of his 31 strong shadow cabinet and seen a further 13 shadow ministers resign this morning.

The rebels have criticised his performance in the EU referendum and he faces further resignations from the junior frontbench ranks amid fresh calls for him to stand down as leader.

Jeremy Corbyn's grip on the Labour leadership looked increasingly weak as Angela Eagle became the most senior member of his shadow cabinet to quit.

Shadow housing minister John Healey, shadow energy secretary Lisa Nandy and shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith have all resigned - adding to the 12 shadow cabinet members Mr Corbyn lost on Sunday.

Sources said that Mr Corbyn will refuse to step down and will instead try and make public a planned secret vote on his future so that voters can see which MPs are trying to unseat him.

Mr Corbyn has been forced to promote a number of key allies as the revolt against his leadership intesnifies.

A number of the 2015 intake have joined the new shadow cabinet with just a year's experience on the job.

Late on Sunday evening Mr Corbyn issued a bullish statement and vowed to continue as leader despite the resignations. He said: "I am not going to betray the trust of those who voted for me – or the millions of supporters across the country who need Labour to represent them.

“Those who want to change Labour’s leadership will have to stand in a democratic election, in which I will be a candidate.

“Over the next 24 hours I will reshape my shadow cabinet and announce a new leadership team to take forward Labour’s campaign for a fairer Britain - and to get the best deal with Europe for our people.”

More.

And David Cameron's got a good sense of humor about things, considering.

Britain's Forgotten Voters - and Ours

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today:

America, too, is experiencing a populist upheaval, of which Donald Trump’s candidacy is more of a symptom than a cause.

So the post-Brexit number-crunching is over and it turns out that the decisive support for Britain’s leaving the EU came not from right-wing nationalists but from working-class Labour voters. This offers some lessons for British and European politicians — and for us in America, too.

Much of Britain’s prosperity in recent years has centered on London, which has done very well and become very pleased with itself. As Peter Mandler writes in Dissent, this turned out to be a problem. London occupies a huge place in British society — as if Washington, D.C., New York, Hollywood, and perhaps Silicon Valley were all in the same place. But that leaves the rest of the country feeling somewhat left out, and deeply suspicious of the people running things, especially as the people running things seem to hold the rest of the country in contempt, openly mocking the traditional, the middle-class, the non-Metropolitan.

Mandler writes, “London, a young, thriving, creative, cosmopolitan city, seems the model multicultural community, a great European capital. But it is also the home of all of Britain’s elites—the economic elites of “the City” (London’s Wall Street, international rather than European), a nearly hereditary professional caste of lawyers, journalists, publicists, and intellectuals, an increasingly hereditary caste of politicians, tight coteries of cultural movers-and-shakers richly sponsored by multinational corporations.”

The result, Mandler writes, is that “For the rest of the country has felt more and more excluded, not only from participation in the creativity and prosperity of London, but more crucially from power. . . . A majority of people around the United Kingdom are feeling like non-people, un-citizens, their lives jerked about like marionettes by wire-pullers far away. In those circumstances, very bad things indeed can be expected.”

Given a chance, these people seized an opportunity to give the wires a yank of their own. A lot of people felt powerless, and the political system not only didn’t address that, but seemed to glory in it.

But will leaders learn the lesson? It seems doubtful. As Bloomberg’s Megan McArdle observed about the post-Brexit reaction, they mostly seemed to double down. “The inability of those elites to grapple with the rich world’s populist moment has been on full display on social media. Journalists and academics seemed to feel that they had not made it sufficiently clear that people who oppose open borders are a bunch of racist rubes who couldn’t count to 20 with their shoes on, and hence will believe any daft thing they’re told. Given how badly this strategy had just failed, this seemed a strange time to be doubling down. . . . Or perhaps they were just unable to grasp what I noted in a column last week: that nationalism and place still matter, and that elites forget this at their peril. A lot people do not view their country the way some elites do: as though the nation were something like a rental apartment — a nice place to live, but if there are problems, or you just fancy a change, you’ll happily swap it for a new one. In many ways, members of the global professional class have started to identify more with each other than they have with the fellow residents of their own countries. Witness the emotional meltdown many American journalists have been having over Brexit.”

Keep reading.

And not surprisingly, Glenn gives a shout-out to Dana Loesch's new book at the piece.

Boris Johnson and Michael Gove Set to Head New 'Brexit Government' After David Cameron (VIDEO)

At the Telegraph UK, a live blog, "Boris Johnson and Michael Gove prepare to head new 'Brexit Government' after Cameron departure":

Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are preparing a “dream team” bid to take control of the leadership of the Conservative Party in the wake of the most dramatic week in modern British political history.

David Cameron resigned as Prime Minister yesterday morning after Britain voted to leave the European Union sparking a major political, economic and constitutional crisis.

Within hours of the surprise vote, Mr Cameron had resigned, the Bank of England intervened in the financial markets to prevent a crash and the Scottish government threatened to hold another referendum on splitting from the rest of the United Kingdom.

In a statesmanlike address from the Vote Leave headquarters, Mr Johnson positioned himself as a Prime Minister in waiting by urging unity in the nation and speaking of the bright future that now awaits an outward-looking Britain.

“I want to speak to the millions of people who did not vote for this outcome especially young people who may feel that this decision in some way involves pulling up the drawbridge or any kind of isolationism. I think the very opposite is true.

“To those who may be anxious at home or abroad this does not mean that that he UK will be in anyway less united nor indeed does it mean that it will be any less European.”

He added: “We cannot turn our backs on Europe. We are part of Europe. Our children and grandchildren will continue to have a wonderful future as Europeans travelling to the continent, understanding the languages and cultures that make up of common European civilisation.”

It is now expected that Mr Johnson will stand as leader, with Mr Gove, the Justice Secretary, becoming the Chancellor in a “Brexit Government”, sources claimed...

Keep reading.

#Brexit: A Referendum on Elites and Immigration

At the headline and on Twitter, that pithy little snippet comes closest to nailing what happened.

At Politico, "British voters unleash a trans-Atlantic tsunami: And it's headed for American shores":

"The Brexit vote became largely a referendum on elites and immigration ..." https://t.co/Ygc4QBUUhb

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) June 24, 2016

British voters unleash a trans-Atlantic tsunami https://t.co/AbbJP2IhOp #brexit pic.twitter.com/0aiAPOjocz

— (((Mark Krikorian))) (@MarkSKrikorian) June 24, 2016

LONDON — British voters didn’t just shock the world and the financial markets by voting to leave the European Union hours ago: They also ignored President Barack Obama, handed Hillary Clinton a potential economic burden and injected new energy into the populist currents roiling politics on both sides of the Atlantic.

The surprise 52 percent - 48 percent result in favor of leaving the European Union — which British networks projected just before 5 a.m. local time — came after a tense night of vote-counting throughout the United Kingdom. British Prime Minister David Cameron later announced he's resigning, citing a need for "fresh leadership." The British pound rose and fell rapidly as the anti-EU “Leave” movement piled up big margins in the northeast, swamping wins by the “Remain” camp in London, Birmingham and Scotland.

In addition to driving down the pound by nearly 10 percent, the vote slammed global markets, with shares in Asia down well over 3 percent in early trading. Futures markets also indicated a big swoon coming on Wall Street early Friday morning with shares expected to drop more than 3 percent. That would amount to a Dow drop of close to 600 points, a plunge frighteningly reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis.

Market analysts struggled overnight to reckon with the potential global impact of the Brexit vote. "Massive institutional uncertainty is now being superimposed on economic fragility and financial fluidity," said Mohamed A. El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz.

Central bankers and heads of state around the world sought to calm the financial markets and limit the damage from the vote on Friday morning.

But make no mistake: A Brexit represents nothing less than the partial splintering of the world’s largest political union and trading bloc — an $18 trillion economy. Many fear that other European countries will now hold their own exit referendums, leading to a chain reaction that will reverberate across the Atlantic. The Brexit vote could also break apart the UK, scramble transatlantic political unity amid growing tensions with Russia, and complicate U.S. trade ties.

It will almost certainly hit the U.S. economy, warned Harvard professor and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.
"The economy is more fragile to a negative shock than at anytime since the second World War," Summers told POLITICO. "Always before when had a downturn there was room for monetary policy action to counteract that. Today there is essentially no such room."

In addition to volatility hitting U.S. markets, the surprise win for the Leave side is likely to ripple through the 2016 presidential campaign....

In addition to volatility hitting U.S. markets, the surprise win for the Leave side is likely to ripple through the 2016 presidential campaign. The Brexit vote became largely a referendum on elites and immigration, the same themes likely Republican nominee Donald Trump has put at the center of his bid for the White House.

Trump, who spoke favorably of Brexit, applauded the U.K.'s decision to leave the EU Friday.

The result could also suggest that polls showing a lead for Clinton are underestimating the extent to which voters across Western democracies are fed up with career politicians and concerned about Islamic terrorism and immigration. UK polls and online betting markets heading into the Brexit vote appeared to show a small but solid leave for Remain, similar to the leads Clinton holds in most U.S. surveys.

"Polls consistently underestimating right-wing support," Weekly Standard editor BIll Kristol tweeted. "Cameron & Bibi, now Brexit. So if polls show Clinton up 5, could Trump be even?"

The larger issue for the Clinton campaign will be potential economic fallout from the UK's decision to leave the EU. Indeed, if the apocalytpic economic predictions leading up to Thursday’s vote turn out to be accurate, get ready for a Brexit-fueled economic slowdown that could bleed into the presidential race...

Still more.

U.K's Guardian After #Brexit — A Roundup

I was wondering (out loud, on Twitter last night) how the Guardian (the repository of correct-thinking U.K. progressivism) was going to take Brexit?

Well, now we know.

See, "The Guardian view on the EU referendum: the vote is in, now we must face the consequences":

.@guardian How y'all holding up? #Brexit

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 24, 2016

.@Guardian's no doubt working up some really profound editorial calling all the #VoteLeave forces a bunch of reactionary racists. #Brexit

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 24, 2016

That crinkling sound, to the background of soft weeping, is that of a thousand pre-written columns simultaneously hitting the circular file.

— (((Megan McArdle))) (@asymmetricinfo) June 24, 2016

The Guardian hardest hit lol. #Brexit https://t.co/tiuONMoVN5

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 24, 2016

A prime minister is gone, but that is of nothing compared to the fallout for the economy, our union and Europe. It will all have to be grappled with, and so too will the economic neglect and the social alienation which have driven Britain to the exit door.

The British people have spoken. The prime minister has resigned. Already, the consequences of what the voters said and why they said it have begun to reshape Britain’s future in profound and potentially dangerous ways. The country has embarked on a perilous journey in which our politics and our economy must be transformed. The vote to leave the EU will challenge not only the government and politicians but all of us whose opinions have been rejected.

Britain’s place in the world must now be rethought. That will demand the kind of debate about our alliances that we have not had since the Suez crisis forced a post-imperial reality on Britain. Once again, the country’s very idea of itself will have to be reimagined too. The deep strains on the nation’s fabric that are partly expressed as a pro-European Scotland, Northern Ireland – and London – and an anti-European England and Wales must be urgently addressed. And a new relationship with a Europe that is in no mood to be generous must be negotiated. As a gleeful Nigel Farage pointed out early on Friday, there are also already voices from the populist right in Denmark, France and the Netherlands arguing for their own definitive vote. And while the Bank of England successfully steadied the City after dramatic early falls in the value of shares and a tumbling pound, these things will take careful management if they are not to translate into a new crunch on the banks, a recession or even – as George Soros warned earlier in the week – a sudden inability to finance the balance of payments.

David Cameron – instantly, utterly and forever broken by his defeat on Thursday – grasped that he could not lead the country through the coming turmoil. In a graceful little speech in Downing Street he accepted failure and announced that his successor would be in place by the time of the party conference in October. No speech, however, could have salvaged his standing in the history books. Mr Cameron will go down as the man who gambled the country’s future as a way out of a party difficulty. His original folly was compounded by his refusal to stand firm against his internal enemies on the detailed plans for the plebiscite, despite the authority of last year’s newly won mandate. And then the campaign itself, on which he kept tight control, failed. Project Fear’s fundamental mistake was that it did not understand that far too many Britons, already living insecure and uncertain lives, felt they had little to lose. By focusing on the City and big business, the campaign had nothing to say about the victims of the myriad failures of so many local economies. Mr Cameron won the party leadership by outflanking his rival on Euroscepticism, and in his decade at the top he did nothing to promote a positive vision of the EU. He followed rather than led; and in this sour atmosphere he bet his shirt on the notoriously fickle vehicle of a referendum, and lost.

Now the vote is in, the overriding sense is of surprise and uncertainty. Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, the two generals of the leave campaign, tried to instil some authority. There was “no haste” to start exit negotiations, they declared. But within the hour, the Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon declared that in these “materially different” circumstances she would set in process the machinery for a second independence referendum. She and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, are demanding that they be treated as parties to any negotiations. Moves for a Scottish independence vote will add to the demand for a border poll in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin has already called for such a vote. As campaigners, the leave politicians were sometimes shambolic and often contradictory; now they have been handed victory, they have unleashed forces well beyond their control.

The immediate outlook for progressive and even humanitarian values in the UK is not encouraging...

Oh brother.

The "outlook for progressive and even humanitarian values"?

It's like the world is coming to an end.

And well, frankly, it is for the global left, for which the E.U. is the Promised Land of the Marxist collectivist ideological project. The absolute shock among the Guardianistas that their vision of Utopia was decisively repudiated at the polls recalls nothing short of the horror at the realization of one's imminent if not immediate mortality. It's hard to take, so cognitive coping seeks to blame and ridicule the reactionary, racist, and so-called xenophobic people who're allegedly taking Britain back to the Stone Age.

It's so freakin' glorious to watch I'm beside myself with glee.

Trolling through the Guardian's Twitter feed is like a crystal ball Rorschach test into the global left's psychological torment. There's so much contempt and hatred, combined with lingering disbelief at the audacity of the rubes, that it's too much to link up here at the post. But here's a taste of this deep, dark leftist hate and recimination:

* "Michael Morpurgo: the EU was the most positive political project in my lifetime - Few talked about the huge achievement it was to create such a union once this awful tissue of propaganda, falsehoods and hate began. But at the time of its creation, memories of war made its importance very real."

*  "Arts hit back at Brexit: 'I feel nothing but rage' - Leading figures from the arts – including Lucy Prebble, Anish Kapoor, Ivo van Hove and Barrie Rutter – reveal their shock, anger and revulsion at the vote to leave the EU."

* "The Britain I knew is gone: what Brexit feels like from abroad: David Shariatmadari - I turn my back for what seems like a minute and the country I grew up in no longer exists. And worst of all, it need never have happened."

* "Martin Rowson on the Brexit vote – cartoon: During the campaign the very worst impulses were given free rein and voice - Britain is now not greater but smaller, weaker and more vulnerable."

* "As a lifelong English European, this is the biggest defeat of my political life - Timothy Garton Ash: Britain voting to leave the EU feels as bad as the fall of the Berlin Wall felt good. It will likely spell the end of the United Kingdom, and the impact on Europe itself could be even worse."

* "I’m an Austrian in the UK – I don’t want to live in this increasingly racist country: An Austrian living in the UK and a Briton living in the Netherlands are united in their dismay at the attitudes that the EU referendum result reveals."

There's lots more like this, but you get the picture.

Somehow, considering the country's history, I think Britain will survive.

Global Markets Tumble After #Brexit Vote

I expect that markets will stabilize as the political and economic ramifications of the vote become clearer. Of course, good leadership couldn't hurt. Prime Minister Cameron's resignation is obviously a stark move, but meetings between U.K. and E.U. representatives are supposed to start right away. From reading around on Twitter, a good scenario would be for Britain to negotiate membership without voting rights in the European Free Trade Association (and perhaps the European Economic Area as well, which is problematic, since that would entail the "free movement of persons" among member states, and that's probably the main reason the British voted to leave).

But more on that later.

Here's the Wall Street Journal, "Markets Roiled as U.K. Votes to Leave EU: Global stocks plummet after win by ‘Brexit’ supporters":

Breaking: Dow plunges more than 600 points after U.K. vote to exit EU, turning index negative for the year https://t.co/XBsZMm0gJS

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 24, 2016

Britain’s surprise vote to leave the European Union battered the British pound by more than 11%, sent global stocks tumbling and broke records in government-bond yields as the world’s financial markets braced for an uncertain future for the politics and economies of Europe.

It was a historic drubbing for investors who had stacked up bets that the U.K. would choose to stay. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU, said Friday he would step down.

Stocks in Asia, Europe and the U.S. fell sharply, along with oil prices, as investors sought safety in gold and government bonds.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 611.21 points, or 3.4%, to 17399.86, wiping out its year-to-date gains. The S&P 500 index fell 3.6%, dragged lower by bank stocks, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 4.1%.

“We haven’t had what I would say is a crash, but we’ve given back gains we’d taken months to make,” said Chris Semenuk, manager of the TIAA-CREF International Equity Fund.

European stocks closed with steep losses. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 7%, its steepest drop since 2008. Goldman Sachs sent out a note Friday predicting the index’s losses related to a British exit from the EU, or “Brexit,” could total 19%.

The drop in sterling helped keep London’s export-heavy FTSE 100 somewhat insulated from the turmoil in the U.K. The index fell 3.15%. The FTSE 250 index, which tends to be more geared toward the U.K. economy, fell 7.2%, its steepest drop since 1988.

European bank shares posted especially sharp losses, with British bank Barclays PLC down 18% and Spanish lender Banco Santander SA down 20%.

Keep reading.

Stop Underestimating Donald Trump

Who's underestimating him?

I'm certainly not.

Trump had a bad couple of weeks surrounding Judge Curiel and a bit from the political correctness following Orlando. But that "bad" couple of weeks is from the point of view of establishment analysts. Yeah, I thought myself he was hitting too hard on the judge, but terrorism's a winning issue for the GOP this year, and Trump's going to bring over disaffecteds and low-turnout constituencies. And it's not just going to be the "white working class." He's going to bring people out to the polls, and those could be minorities and former Democrats in leftist cosmopolitan enclaves. It's really new territory this year in terms of demographics, and a lot will depend on this issue of mobilization. Who comes out to vote? Apparently, younger people in Britain whined more than participated, and if we get an inkling of that kind of thing in November, I guarantee you it's going to hurt the left.

But see the establishment take from WaPo's, James Hohmann (via Althouse), "Stop underestimating Donald Trump. 'Brexit' vote shows why he can win":

The Daily 202 from @PowerPost https://t.co/fOTifEOhQF Stop Underestimating Trump

— Morgan Fairchild (@morgfair) June 24, 2016

Britain's stunning vote to leave the European Union suggests that we've been seriously underestimating Donald Trump's ability to win the presidential election.

When you consider all his controversies and self-inflicted wounds over the past month, combined with how much he's getting outspent on the airwaves in the battleground states, it is actually quite surprising that Trump and Hillary Clinton are so close in the polls. He's holding his own, especially in the Rust Belt.

The British campaign to exit the European Union (known as "Brexit"), like Trump's, was fueled by grievance. Those agitating to cut off formal ties to the continent were less organized and less funded than those who wanted to stay connected, but that deficit didn't matter in the end, because the energy was against the status quo.

"Basically, they took back their country. That's a great thing," Trump told reporters in Scotland, where he is visiting one of his golf courses.

"They have declared their independence from the European Union and have voted to reassert control over their own politics, borders and economy," he elaborated in a statement. "Come November, the American people will have the chance to re-declare their independence. Americans will have a chance to vote for trade, immigration and foreign policies that put our citizens first. They will have the chance to reject today's rule by the global elite, and to embrace real change that delivers a government of, by and for the people. I hope America is watching, it will soon be time to believe in America again."

In the short term, the impending fallout from Brexit will make the presumptive Democratic nominee look good. She advocated for Britain remaining in the union; Trump advocated for leaving. The markets were tanking Friday, and this vote will set off a tsunami of repercussions that could meaningfully damage the global economy. People's 401(k)'s might take a shellacking, and interest rates may spike. Any long-term benefits from breaking away will not be apparent until after the general election.

British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned overnight, triggering political chaos and a succession battle. Scottish leaders are already saying they will push for a new referendum to secede from the U.K.

Looking ahead to the fall, though, loud alarm bells should be going off inside Clinton's Brooklyn headquarters. Globally, there are strong tides of anti-establishment anger, nationalism and populism that bode poorly for the Secretary of State.

"Trump's slogan, 'Make America Great Again,' could easily have been adapted to the messaging of those in the 'leave' campaign," the Washington Post's Dan Balz writes from London. "That desire for a return to an earlier time - to make Britain great again - is expressed through the issue of control. Those who have pushed for Britain to leave the EU want to reclaim a measure of sovereignty by wresting power from the bureaucrats in Brussels. . . . They feel about the EU bureaucracy as tea party Republicans do about the federal government."

Trump still seems far more likely to lose than win, especially when you think about the Electoral College map. But the results across the pond spotlight five forces that could allow him to score an upset:

1. RESENTMENT OF ELITES

... Polls show a long-term trend of voters losing faith in experts and institutions. Surveys suggested that the British resented Barack Obama and other foreign leaders who strongly urged them to remain in a union that they did not feel was serving them.

Forced to choose between their heads and their hearts, the Brits went with their hearts.

2. XENOPHOBIA

... There was a lot of media coverage in the past few days about how the nativist appeals might have gone too far and turned off some moderates in Britain. There were some over-the-top posters and claims about Turks and Syrians flooding the country. But they clearly proved more effective than detrimental...

3. ISOLATIONISM

... Trump wants to scale back U.S. support for NATO and has suggested that he sees Eastern Europe as some kind of Russian sphere of influence. This scares the Baltic States, such as Estonia, which are constantly at risk of being annexed by Vladimir Putin. The NATO alliance, like the EU, has been a bulwark of the post-World War II international system. This now threatens to unravel.

The EU is plunging into an existential crisis. The 28-member union will splinter and significantly weaken, The Post's Anthony Faiola reported from Berlin and Michael Birnbaum filed from Brussels...

4. FLAWED POLLING

The polls showed a neck-and-neck race, and surveys in the past few days showed movement in the direction of "Remain" after Cox's murder. In the end, though, "Leave" prevailed by 4 points...

5. COMPLACENCY

The Remain campaign was burdened by complacency.

Millennials, who overwhelmingly wanted to remain in the EU, did not turn out at the same rate as older voters, who wanted to leave...

As Tim Naftali, an esteemed political historian at NYU noted in two posts:

"Low turnout in Remain areas suggests unwarranted complacency. U.S. Dems beware."

See the whole post at the click-through.

How #Brexit Will Change America and the World

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "Britain is free of global government. America can be next":

How Brexit Will Change America and the World https://t.co/StFbinrG4S

— Daniel Greenfield (@Sultanknish) June 24, 2016

Yesterday the British people stood up for their freedom. Today the world is a different place.

Celebrities and politicians swarmed television studios to plead with voters to stay in the EU. Anyone who wanted to leave was a fascist. Economists warned of total collapse if Britain left the European Union. Alarmist broadcasts threatened that every family would lose thousands of pounds a year if Brexit won.

Even Obama came out to warn Brits of the economic consequences of leaving behind the EU.

Every propaganda gimmick was rolled out. Brexit was dismissed, mocked and ridiculed. It was for lunatics and madmen. Anyone who voted to leave the benevolent bosom of the European Union was an ignorant xenophobe who had no place in the modern world. And that turned out to be most of Britain.

While Londonistan, that post-British city of high financial stakes and low Muslim mobs, voted by a landslide to remain, a decisive majority of the English voted to wave goodbye to the EU. 67% of Tower Hamlets, the Islamic stronghold, voted to stay in the EU. But to no avail. The will of the people prevailed.

And the people did not want migrant rape mobs in their streets and Muslim massacres in their pubs. They were tired of Afghani migrants living in posh homes with their four wives while they worked hard and sick of seeing their daughters passed around by “Asian” cabbies from Pakistan in ways utterly indistinguishable from the ISIS slave trade while the police looked the other way so as not to appear racist. And, most of all, they were sick of the entire Eurocratic establishment that let it all happen.

British voters chose freedom. They decided to reclaim their destiny and their nation from the likes of Count Herman Von Rompuy, the former President of the European Council, selected at an “informal” meeting who has opposed direct elections for his job and insisted that, “the word of the future is union.”

When Nigel Farage of UKIP told Count Von Rompuy that “I can speak on behalf of the majority of British people in saying that we don't know you, we don't want you and the sooner you are put out to grass, the better,” he was fined for it by the Bureau of the European Parliament after refusing to apologize. But now it’s Farage and the Independence Party who have had the last laugh.

The majority of British people didn’t want Count Von Rompuy and his million-dollar pension, or Donald Tusk, Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande and the rest of the monkeys squatting on Britain’s back.

Count Von Rompuy has lost his British provinces. And the British people have their nation back.

The word of the future isn’t “union.” It’s “freedom.” A process has begun that will not end in Britain. It will spread around the world liberating nations from multinational institutions.

During Obama’s first year in office, Count Von Rompuy grandly declared that “2009 is also the first year of global governance.” Like many such predictions, it proved to be dangerously wrong. And now it may just well be that 2016 will be the first year of the decline and fall of global governance.

An anti-establishment wind is blowing through the creaky house of global government. The peoples of the free world have seen how the choking mass of multilateral institutions failed them economically and politically. Global government is an expensive and totalitarian proposition that silences free speech and funnels rapists from Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan to the streets of European cities and American towns. It’s a boon for professional consultants, certain financial insiders and politicians who can hop around unelected offices and retire with vast unearned pensions while their constituents are told to work another decade. But global government is misery and malaise for everyone else.

The campaign to stay in the EU relied on fear and alarmism, on claims of bigotry and disdain for the working class voters who fought and won the right to decide their own destiny. But the campaign for independence asked Britons to believe in their own potential when unchained from the Eurocratic bureaucracy. And now Brexit will become a model for liberation campaigns across Europe.

Prime Minister David Cameron Resigns After Britain Votes to Leave European Union (VIDEO)

At London's Daily Mail, "David Cameron stands down as British Prime Minister after voters trigger a political earthquake - and global market panic - by backing vote to leave the European Union in historic referendum."



I'll have lots more on this throughout the day.

The vote was a massive political statement with international structural ramifications that are truly epochal. As I noted last night on Twitter, "It's like end of the Cold War."

Markets Soar After Poll Suggests Britain Will Stay in European Union

Hmm. It's just one poll?

Maybe traders are really jonesin' for the U.K. to stay?

At WSJ, "Global Stocks Soar After Poll Suggests U.K. Will Remain in EU":

Stocks, sterling and oil soared at the start of the week after polls suggested the U.K. was more likely to vote to remain in the European Union in Thursday’s referendum than previously expected.

The Stoxx Europe 600 jumped 3.7%, on track for its best day since August, while the British pound surged more than 2% against the dollar to as high as $1.4674.

Futures pointed to a 1.3% opening gain for the S&P 500. Changes in futures markets don't necessarily reflect market moves after the opening bell

“We’re in this sort of frenzied period where Brexit is front and center,” said Bob Doll, senior portfolio manager at Nuveen Asset Management.

A survey published in the Mail on Sunday showed that 45% of respondents backed the U.K. staying in the trade bloc, compared with 42% in favor of leaving. The poll-of-polls, averaging the last six polls in the U.K. vote, returned to 50/50, suggesting growing momentum for the “remain camp” in the referendum...

Keep reading.

There's no mention of the Jo Cox murder, but no doubt ghoulish British leftists will continue to exploit the poor woman's death.

FLASHBACK: From 2004, "Postcard from Britain: Immigration Is Hot Issue as Elections Approach."

One U.S. Service Member Killed in Afghanistan: Ralph Peters, Back on Fox News, Responds (VIDEO)

It's a fiction that U.S. forces aren't engaged in combat, but Obama insists on perpetuating it.

At the Los Angeles Times, "1 U.S. service member killed, 2 wounded in Afghanistan."

And Ralph Peters, back at Fox News after his suspension for (rightly) calling Obama a pussy, held his fire against the president on focused mostly on broad policy objectives in Afghanistan. To win, you've got to want to win, and that doesn't appear to be the case with the American deployment.

Watch, "Critics Slam President Obama for Claim of No Combat Troops in Afghanistan - America's Newsroom."