BrexTWIT = ill-informed voters choose poorly

The problem with democracy = emotional, ill-informed, credulous voters with zero prescience ...

European Parliament approves BrexTWIT agreement > . 

Some males are SICK wankers

.... and some females are daft enough to trust them ....

A man who impersonated a doctor in order to persuade women and girls to electrocute themselves has been jailed for 11 years in Germany, officials say. The 30-year-old, named only as David G, offered victims money to take part in fake pain therapy experiments for his sexual gratification, prosecutors said.

He watched and recorded the victims on Skype as they used homemade devices connected to mains electricity. David G was found guilty of 13 cases of attempted murder at a court in Munich.

Prosecutors told the court that the IT worker from the Bavarian city of Würzburg posed as a doctor while searching for young women online to take part in a fake scientific study. They said he then contacted his victims, offering up to €3,000 ($3,325; £2,560) to participate.

He convinced them to attach devices to mains electricity before shocking themselves while he observed via Skype, prosecutors added. The youngest girl was just 13 years old, prosecutors said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51174783 .

Susan Collins = RepuGNican Hypocrisy for Dummies

Impeachment Trial Puts Susan Collins, Stung by Kavanaugh Backlash, Under Scrutiny: The four-term Maine senator, who crossed party lines to vote against President Clinton’s impeachment, must now decide whether to break with UNpresident Criminal-in-Chief.

"She was among three Republicans who sank Mr. Trump’s DUHnocchio's attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and she helped lead an unsuccessful effort to prevent him from taking unallocated money for his border wall. But she also voted for a tax bill that was the centerpiece of the Republican RepuGNican agenda. And the move that overshadowed all that was her deciding vote to confirm "beer-loving" Justice Brett Brat M. Kavanaugh, who was [credibly] accused of sexual assault [of a then-minor]."

...

"That confirmation vote — and her impassioned [but feeble and illogical] speech defending it on the Senate floor — generated millions of dollars in donations to be used against her, and a lengthy period of harassment and intimidation by critics, including numerous death threats. There were so many hostile calls targeting her that a 25-year-old employee in one of her Maine offices quit. One day, her husband texted Ms. Collins a photo of himself in a hazmat suit; someone had sent a threatening letter to their Maine home — where protesters gathered eight Sundays in a row — that claimed to contain ricin.

In Washington, a man waited for Collins in the dark as she parked her car one evening in the pouring rain, then followed her several blocks to her townhouse. A neighbor lamented to her that he hated living next to “a rape apologist.”

...

"The Kavanaugh confirmation, among the most bitter Senate fights of the Trump Pervert-in-Chief Badministration, may have shored up support among a Republican RepuGNican base smarting from some of Collins’s other moderate votes, but it enraged many of the independent and Democratic voters who have helped keep Collins comfortably in office for years. It also set the stage and tone for the impeachment fight."

My objection? Collins has a low fIQ*. She is inconsistent, illogical, displays very poor judgement (she ignored Christine Blasey-Ford's convincing case against demands-what-he-wants drunken-teen-with-a-sneer temper-tantrum-prone Kavanagh), and she is far too CONservative to portray herself as a moderate. 

* fIQ = functional IQ = capacity for rationality

Boringly Mouthy Spoiled Brat

‘The View’ Has a Meghan McCain Problem: The daytime co-hosts’ heated bipartisan debates are played down as disagreement among friends. But the strain for “civility” is tiring.

Some can still bear "to watch McCain, the [mouthy, spoiled brat] daughter of Senator John McCain, square off against her co-hosts in a barrage of vehement exchanges — leveraging her political parentage, accusing her co-hosts of supporting infanticide, using her platform to push back against assault weapons bans and progressive immigration policy. The increasingly aggressive rejoinders by her co-hosts have escalated to the daytime TV equivalent of a cage fight for the viewing public, reflecting the frustrations of discourse in our current political climate under the magnifying glass of harsh studio lighting."

Others, like me, avoid this puerile trash. Still others, like some of my friends, have stopped watching because there is nothing more nauseating than arrogant, self-important, dim-witted RepuGNicanism on display.

She's credible, he's not

Warren Says Sanders Told Her a Woman Could Not Win the Presidency: Earlier on Monday, Bernie Sanders had denied making the remark in a private 2018 meeting with Elizabeth Warren, accusing her campaign staff of “lying about what happened.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/us/politics/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-woman-president.html .

What is Truth?

"In the 1950s, the social psychologist Solomon Asch conducted his famous conformity experiments. Subjects had to solve fairly obvious perceptual tasks, but many gave wrong answers in order to align with the group: they disregarded the evidence right in front of them in order not to stray from the status quo. Since then, the experiments were repeated under various conditions, showing the detrimental effects of social pressure."

The social-conformity phenomenon is most frequently exhibited by religious apologists, who don't have an incontrovertible fact to stand on.

"Instead, what is emphasised are quick tools for evaluating arguments by putting ‘fallacy labels’ onto them."

Religious apologists—who don't have an incontrovertible fact to stand on—can be relied upon to ignore incontrovertible evidence. Depending on the forum, pointing out the inevitable fallacies, on which their counter-evidential fantasies are necessarily built, saves time and frustration.

"But even if adversarial criticism often incentivises conformity, this doesn’t make it wrong to look out for mistakes. After all, if we know that something is false, we do know more than before. Or so one might argue. However, spotting a mistake doesn’t automatically render an opposing claim true. If you convince me that p is false, I just know that: p is false. But it does not mean that q is true. As I see it, the idea that criticism is truth-conducive thrives on the idea that the number of possible claims about a given topic is finite."

Cherry-picking reliance on "I claim that's wrong, therefore my inculcated-invention exists" is mostly practiced by religious apologists, who don't have an incontrovertible fact to stand on.

"In philosophy at least, one is more likely to run into error than to hit the nail on the head. While this might seem frustrating, it can tell us something about the nature of philosophical claims: perhaps the point of philosophical arguments is not truth after all, but rather wisdom, or something like it."

In the case of philosophy: usually something like it. In the case of religious apologetics: repeatedly refuted, stubbornly-resistant failure to face mountains of incontrovertible evidence.

https://aeon.co/ideas/the-adversarial-culture-in-philosophy-does-not-serve-the-truth .

Greedy Oligarchic Partisans will FAIL

Fine sentiments, but the RepuGNican system is rigged against truth and honor:

Senator Harris Delivers [unrealistically optimist] Remarks Ahead of UNpresident Traitor-in-Chief's Impeachment Trial > .

Hacker mischief?

Canada nuclear plant: Alert about incident sent in error .

An emergency alert about an incident at a nuclear power plant in southern Canada was sent to mobile phones by mistake, officials say. The first message was sent out at around 07:30 local time (12:30 GMT) on Sunday, and alerted people who were within 10km (six miles) of the facility. The warning was generated by the Ontario government's Provincial Emergency Operations Centre. The warning said staff were responding to an incident at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station east of Toronto. 

A second alert was sent out almost two hours later saying the initial message had been a mistake. It was not clear what caused the error.

Why the Iranians refused to release the evidence

Iran admits 'unintentionally' shooting down plane > .  

Iran's admission it "unintentionally" shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet has sparked demands for justice for the 176 people on board who were killed.

"Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, en route to Kyiv, came down near Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran shortly after take-off. Victims included dozens of Iranians and Canadians, as well as nationals from Ukraine, the UK, Afghanistan and Germany.

The calls [for justice] were led by Ukraine's president and the prime minister of Canada, which lost 57 nationals. Social media footage has shown protests in Iran, some of them calling for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to resign.

The plane was shot down on 20-1-8, hours after Iran had struck two air bases housing US forces in Iraq. Those missile strikes were Iran's response to the US killing [on DUHnocchio's orders] of senior Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. He died in a drone strike in Baghdad on 3 January. 

[Predictably] Iran had initially denied reports its missiles had brought down the plane, with [predictably] one spokesman accusing Western nations of "lying and engaging in psychological warfare"."
..
Brig-Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace commander, said a missile operator had acted independently and alone, mistaking the plane for a "cruise missile" as there had been reports that such missiles had been fired at Iran.

...

"He was obliged to make contact and get verification. But apparently, his communications system had some disruptions." [Yeah, right.]

[Most likely? 10 seconds? The Iranian who mistakenly fired the missile was probably trigger-'happy' in anticipation of US retaliation, and did not even attempt to "make contact and get verification". What next? After political grandstanding by the West, the issue will be allowed to fade from public memory. After all, there is no point in risking more lives over a debacle for which the ultimate culprit [the US's Ignorant-Bully-in-Chief] will not even pay a political price from his rabid, logic-challenged, dim, duped, desperate, deplorable supporters.]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51077788 .

More blood on DUHnocchio's grasping little hands:

Iran mistakenly shot down Ukraine jet - US media: [NB - I trust neither the Iranian government nor the DUHnocchio Badministration, but this tragic consequence of bullying, prideful old men seems likely.]

Iran mistakenly shot down the Ukrainian plane that crashed on Wednesday near Tehran with 176 people on board, US media report. US officials say they believe the Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800 was hit by a missile, according to CBS News, which quoted US intelligence sources as saying a satellite detected infrared "blips" of two missile launches, followed by another blip of an explosion. Meanwhile, Newsweek quoted a Pentagon and senior US intelligence officials, as well as an Iraqi intelligence official, as saying they believed the Ukrainian plane was hit by a Russian-made Tor M-1 surface-to-air missile system.

Ukraine earlier said it was examining whether a missile strike brought down the aircraft - but Iran ruled this out.

The crash came just hours after Iran carried out missile strikes on two airbases housing US forces in Iraq.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51055219

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-51043657/iran-plane-crash-vigil-held-for-victims-in-toronto .


U.S. Believes Iranian Missile Accidentally Shot Down Ukrainian Jet, Officials Say: The airliner had turned back toward the airport before it crashed, minutes after takeoff, Iranian officials reported. The flight data recorders were recovered but said [conveniently claimed] to be damaged.

"United States intelligence agencies believe that at least one Iranian missile accidentally brought down a Ukrainian jetliner over Iran this week, American officials said 20-1-9, a tragic coda to the escalated military conflict between Washington and Tehran.

Officials had a “high level of confidence” that the Iranians brought down the airliner by mistake, one American official said. The official said that two missiles fired from an Iranian air defense system, the SA-15, shot down the airliner.

The Ukrainian airliner, a Boeing 737-800, went down on morning of 20-1-8, killing at least 176 people. It had turned back toward the Tehran airport before it crashed in a huge explosion minutes after takeoff, according to an initial Iranian report released on Thursday. The report said that the plane, bound for Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, was in flames before it hit the ground but did not send a distress signal."

[This is tragic, but I doubt that the Iranians planned to kill innocent Iranian citizens and those of Iranian origin. Since odious DUHnocchio chose to start this conflict, more blood is on his grasping little hands.]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/world/middleeast/iran-plane-crash-ukraine.html .


20-1-8 The Ukraine Plane Crash in Iran: Black Boxes and Other Questions: Initial statements from Iran and Ukraine were contradictory, and the cause of the crash remains unclear. The plane’s so-called black boxes could help, but Iranian officials may not turn them over to Boeing.

Expected, no doubt

Nancy Pelosi is far too savvy to have expected the Mutant Turtle to put country ahead of profiteering and powermongering:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51042196

Cognitively challenged, megalomaniacal bully

Trump Idiot-in-Chief the Intimidator Fails Again: Because he’s just a [dimwitted] bully with delusions of grandeur.

"From his first days in [rigged] office, Trump DUHnocchio has acted on the apparent belief that he could easily intimidate foreign governments — that they would quickly fold and allow themselves to be humiliated. That is, he imagined that he faced a world of Lindsey Grahams, willing to abandon all dignity at the first hint of a challenge."

...

"Remember, for example, when Trump Bully-in-Chief promised “fire and fury” unless North Korea halted its nuclear weapons program? He claimed triumph after a 2018 summit meeting with Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader. But Kim made no real concessions, and North Korea recently announced that it might resume tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

Or consider the trade war with China, which was supposed to bring the Chinese to their knees. A deal has supposedly been reached, although details remain scarce; what’s clear is that it falls far short of U.S. aims, and that Chinese officials are jubilant about their success in facing Trump Coward-in-Chief down."

...

"One answer, I suspect, is that like all too many Americans, Trump Megalomaniac-in-Chief has a hard time grasping the fact that other countries are real — that is, that we’re not the only country whose citizens would rather pay a heavy price, in money and even in blood, than make what they see as humiliating concessions."

...

"But here’s where Trump’s Peabrain-in-Chief's second error comes in: He has never shown any sign of understanding why America used to be special. [He has never shown any sign of understanding anything other than criminal manipulation, actually.]

Part of the explanation, of course, was raw economic and military power: America used to be just much bigger than everyone else. That is, however, no longer true. For example, by some key measures China’s economy is significantly bigger than that of the United States."

...

"Trump, Ignoramus-in-Chief, however, has turned his back on everything that used to make America great. Under his leadership dicktatorship, we’ve become nothing more than a big, self-interested bully — a bully with delusions of grandeur, who isn’t nearly as tough as he thinks. We abruptly abandon allies like the Kurds; we honor war criminals; we slap punitive tariffs on friendly nations like Canada for no good reason. And, of course, after more than 15,000 lies, nothing our leader demented-manipulator and his minions say can be trusted.

Trump Toadying officials seem taken aback by the uniformly negative consequences of the Suleimani killing: The Iranian regime is empowered, Iraq has turned hostile and nobody has stepped up in our support. But that’s what happens when you betray all your friends and squander all your credibility."

Tick Tock?

Approaching oust-by-revolution date?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-05/chinas-communist-party-is-at-a-fatal-age-for-one-party-regimes/11807138 .

Stupidity run amok

The Dire Consequences of Trump’s DUHnocchio's Suleimani Decision: One thing is clear after the killing of Iran’s second most important official: Americans are not safer.

"""How did we get here?"""

""The escalatory cycle began in May 2018, when [UNpresident DUHnocchio] recklessly ignored the advice of his national security team and the opposition of our allies in unilaterally withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal — despite Iran’s full adherence to its terms and its efficacy in rolling back Iran’s nuclear program. Since then, the Idiot-in-Chief Badministration has had no coherent strategy to constrain Iran’s program or to counter other aspects of its nefarious behavior.""

That—combined with Crook-in-Chief's need to distract from his plethora of perfidies—is the proximate cause. The ultimate cause is a combination of arrogant nationalistic expectations, endemic hate-mongering and partisanship, patchy (euphemistically speaking) educational standards, and undeserved reverence for a broken political system.