Hey, what's going on with Brexit?

Well, there sure has been a lot of political squabbling here at ground level.

Let's float away from all that for a look at the big picture.

Up here, it's easier to see the one, two, three of the Impossible Trinity.

But first, quick British Isles primer.

The United Kingdom contains England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

This last part of the United Kingdom shares the island of Ireland with the country of Ireland.

This Ireland is in the European Union and the United Kingdom is, well, that's the whole thing, isn't it?

Before UK voted to Brexit, the European Union Wall encircled them all.

The wall isn't literal. It's a metaphor for the overlapping circles of EU institutions and border complications impossible to draw, so... It's a metaphor wall.

Maximum Brexit is the exit where UK leaves to build her own wall separate from the EU and be like any other country.

This maximum Brexit is the top of the Trinity, with a wall around the UK, which, following the border would go straight across the Irish island.

Oh, oh no.

The books on Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK's long and

complicated and sometimes frightening relationship are not tomes to be opened here.

The much shorter and safer version is there used to be a wall between the Ireland's,

but there was a lot of the violence and a lot of the troubles until on a very good Friday,

Ireland and the UK agreed there would never be a wall between them again. Full stop. This, while it didn't uncomplicate the relationship,

at least made it non-violent. A new wall plowing between them would break this vital political promise.

Thus, UK and Ireland and even EU all agree. A wall here is super no-boino. No wall across Ireland

is the second vertex of the impossible

Trinity. Wait, why do we need a wall anyway? Oh right, the maximum Brexit creates a land border

...