Tories to Refuse to Ask EU for Brexit Extension + NFL Week 1

The Brexit news this morning is that parliament will be suspended this evening after the "no crash out" bill becomes law and Johnson's second attempt at snap elections is defeated. Parliament will not return until October 14. The press is now floating the idea that Johnson will refuse to ask the European Union for an extension as the new law mandates, or that he will formally make the request but attach a side letter outlining the government's rejection of that request.

Yves Smith, without any acknowledgement that she underestimated the potency of the opposition and the canniness of Jeremy Corbyn, still thinks, that Boris Johnson is in the driver's seat: "So while the Brexiteers have made lots of own goals, and Johnson is entirely capable of scoring more, it is too soon to write them off for dead." This despite continuing defections from his cabinet and internal polling that shows the Tories headed for another poor election performance.

At this point I think Johnson's only hope is an assist from Emmanuel Macron and a French refusal to allow for another Brexit extension. It's a possibility but a remote one.

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The first week of the National Foot League's centennial season began on Thursday with a horrible game in Chicago between the Bears and the Packers. Green Bay upset Chicago. I watched maybe a quarter of the game, switching back and forth between it and Amazon Prime's "The Boys." Mitch Trubisky did not look good.

Having an injured a calf muscle that made walking to and from the kitchen difficult, a Sunday of immobility in front of the television was about all I was capable of. That's what the NFL is really all about -- pacification, consumption. At least in the first game, Rams vs. Carolina, another lackluster match-up, I learned that Cam Newton has gone vegan; too bad it didn't improve his play, which, like Trubisky's, was flat. Los Angeles won more easily than the score would reflect.

The afternoon game was another spiritless affair, with the hometown Seahawks receiving a gift from the gods in the form of a one-point win over the improved Cincinnati Bengals. Seattle looked terrible.

I didn't waste much time with the Sunday night game, a blowout of the Pittsburgh Steelers by the defending Super Bowl champ New England Patriots. I saw one Patriots offensive series -- Brady making short passes which gashed the Steelers defense -- and that's all I needed.

Last year NFL ratings rebounded after a two-year precipitous decline. My prediction for the 2019 season? Television viewership will resume its descent.

NFL Week 1 + Votes in Germany, Kurdistan and Catalonia

The first week of the National Football League regular season wrapped up last night. I didn't see the Monday night games, but I watched all Sunday. My big takeaway is this -- In terms of a unifying story all we have in the United States is the promotion of consumption.

Who knows how long it has been that way? An argument can be made that once a majoritarian belief in "American Exceptionalism" (the Reagan version, the one concocted out of the ashes of the '60s cultural revolution) started to significantly erode with the invasion of Iraq, all we were left with were the myriad car, smartphone, bank, fast food, insurance company, et cetera commercials.

That's why the National Football League is so important. It is the only reliable conveyor belt left for corporate-managed consumption, for the mythology of consumption. The media environment is splintering, while surveillance increases, in the age of the smartphone, but broadcast television maintains a form of regency thanks to the popularity of the National Football League.

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Some tricky votes are headed our way in the next few weeks. Not Germany's election on Sunday, September 24. Merkel is coasting to reelection. As noted in Millie Tran's "Need to Catch Up on the German Election? Here’s a Guide":

Jochen Bittner, political editor for the German weekly Die Zeit and a contributing Op-Ed writer for The Times, offered his take on why this election is not making as big a splash as its predecessors this year in Europe. He describes “mass resignation” among an electorate that has “accepted the fact that the country’s national politics are locked in place by a centrist consensus that gives them little choice at the ballot box.”

This of course is the goal of neoliberalism -- "mass resignation" -- the idea being that public policy and government should be left to corporate technocrats who will work tirelessly to redistribute wealth forever upward and automate the masses into obsolescence.

A day after the election in Germany comes the vote for Kurdish independence from Iraq. Tim Arango's "For Iraq’s Long-Suffering Kurds, Independence Beckons" is a sympathetic account of the referendum without any basic information on what is broadly accepted as a power play by president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, and longtime autocrat of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Masoud Barzani. None of the neighboring countries support the independence vote, nor does, at least publicly, the Iraqi Kurds' main patron, the United States. But dismemberment of Iraq has been the U.S. goal, and the goal of Saudi Arabia, since the U.S. lost the war there under George W. Bush. The caliphate might be gone, but its raison d'être lives on with an independent Kurdistan.

Raphael Minder's "Catalonia Independence Bid Pushes Spain Toward Crisis" had not one sympathetic thing to say about the pro-independence movement centered in Barcelona, though there is every indication that it has as much popular support as anything happening in Erbil. The vote is scheduled for October 1, assuming Madrid doesn't somehow sabotage it.

American Exceptionalism Coming to an End

UPDATE: This past Sunday, September 18, one week after the post below, on the identical Sunday morning run, I spied one lone Hillary sign. It was on the beauty strip near an intersection. It had been up before, in August, but someone had knocked it down, and it had not been replaced when I was on my 9/11 Sunday morning run.

Hillary is in real trouble. Maybe not in terms of losing the general election to Trump, though there is that (the fact that Florida is still up for grabs is proof that Clinton, running behind Obama's numbers with whites, is in rough shape), but the idea that she will have any legitimacy with which to lead a discredited empire is far-fetched.

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Pneumonia is serious and not easily dealt with if one has to continue to go to work. The video of Hillary being trundled by Secret Service into a waiting van like a life-sized rag doll or a duffle bag of dirty laundry points ahead to a front-porch type of campaign from yesteryear for the Democratic nominee.

Hillary has two weeks to heal up before her first debate against Trump. She should be able to clear her schedule and get some bed rest in Chappaqua. The weakness of Trump gives Hillary a lot of wiggle room.

What I noticed when I was out running yesterday morning in my neighborhood is that there were no Hillary bumper stickers or yard signs. My neighborhood is in one of the most liberal districts in the nation. For there not to be one visible marker of the Democratic nominee when in the recent past one couldn't go a block without seeing evidence of support for the current president (though no more) is an ill omen for Clinton.

In this environment, one would expect to see some proof of life for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. I did not. It might be too early yet. But overall, like the absolutely soporific and hollow 9/11 invocations that festooned the opening Sunday NFL games, the mood is weary and cynical. The U.S. is plowing ahead into an era of Mubarakism. Elections are only for show and everyone knows it. The state is knit together by brutal police force. A lot of people care, and a lot don't. Still, American exceptionalism is coming to an end.

NFL Week 1: Some Fleeting Thoughts

The Super Bowl Champs looked appropriately primetime last Thursday night. A healthy Harvin spread the Packers defense, providing running lanes for the powerful and agile Marshawn Lynch. The Seahawks defense looked stout. Kevin Williams, formerly of the Minnesota Vikings, should approximate the presence of the dearly-departed (to Jacksonville) Red Bryant.

We'll see. It's early, of course. But there is great optimism in the Emerald City. If the marquee players remain in good health, another trip to the playoffs seems in the cards.

Sam Bradford's injury is good news for the other teams in the NFC West. Without a stable QB, the Rams will struggle. Arizona and San Francisco appear to be as formidable as last season. The Cardinals edged the Chargers, while the 49ers trounced the self-immolating Cowboys. (Why is Tony Romo still starting?)

I was able to see the Saints-Falcons game. Atlanta appears to be rejuvenated. Matt Ryan, once again assuming his marquee receivers and running backs can stay healthy, should have his team in contention this year.

Lastly, I watched the Colts-Broncos game on Sunday night. Denver is a formidable team who added impact players on defense. The Broncos manhandled Indianapolis who could not get a rush on Manning with Robert Mathis absent.

So every Sunday I will be back in the true bachelor's position: reclining on a mattress on the floor, the day speeding by as the action unfolds on my small color television set. Sometime at the beginning of February the ritual will draw to a close and the naked bear will crawl reborn from his cave.