The Gist: Election Endgame, Brexit Panto, Irish Data circus

Edgy Election
Democrats hope to take control of Congress in an US. The local commentary casually acknowledges that the constituancies are gerrymandered, there is widespread vote suppression of minorities and that the voting machines are suseptible to tampering. Basically, it takes an overwhelming Democrat vote turnout to hit even representation. This appears to be passively accepted as just how things have to be.
However, this time, their opponants may just have managed to motivate that sort of strong response by running an openly racist campaign. If not, we can expect Republicans to conclude racism is a winning proposition and to order a larger supply for use over the next two years.

Brexit *sigh*
Concerns this week that the UK's negotations with itself appear on the verge of collapse. Random members of the UK government have advanced mutually incompatile propositions this week to each other, none of which have any possibility of being accepted by the EU- who they seem to continually forget are their negotiating partners. The latest trip around this ever-narrowing gyre culminated in David Davis' successor, Minister for Brexit Dominc Raab, asserting that the Irish backstop the UK promised would stand forever, no-matter what, was only good for 12 weeks. This notion then conflagrated on contact with reality.

Irish Gov Wants to Overshare
This week the Irish Gov bill to share private and personal data around between public bodies without prior notice, contrary to EU law, was back in front of the Oireachtas. I mean, I know it's not headline news but I feel I should tell you. You could tell your TDs its bad and they should stop it. They won't care, one way or the other, but the consequences of this passing will unfold over expensive, litigation filled decades.