BRITEX!!!

[Strange]

UK should be a part of USA.

 

I just spotted the irony of this being suggested the day after Independence Day.

[imatfaal]

 

I don't think so. After all, they speak a different language.

 

And we really don't want their gun laws.

 

If they were gonna try to impose Donald Trump on me I might become a sudden fan of the 2nd Amendment and find a well-regulated militia to become part of

[John Cuthber]

 

If they were gonna try to impose Donald Trump on me I might become a sudden fan of the 2nd Amendment and find a well-regulated militia to become part of

We tried a badly regulated militia.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/21/michael-sandford-trump-rally-assassination-las-vegas

[michel123456]

UK should be a part of USA.

Reminds me of Peter Sellers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_That_Roared_(film)

[CharonY]

They're like the dog that caught the car. You can't script this. First Boris declares he won't run for PM, now Nigel resigns as UKIP leader.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/farage-resigns-as-ukip-leader-2016-7?r=UK&IR=T

 

Isn't it great for single-issue parties? Just burn and run. And come back when there is another crisis. Being part of the problem is so much easier than being part of the solution. Ironically, isn't he to remain in the EU parliament for a while?

[iNow]

Isn't it great for single-issue parties? Just burn and run. And come back when there is another crisis. Being part of the problem is so much easier than being part of the solution.

.

Ironically, isn't he to remain in the EU parliament for a while?

I'm not sure. I do know that he quit last year, too, but came back a few days later.

[John Cuthber]

.

I'm not sure. I do know that he quit last year, too, but came back a few days later.

He quit as leader of the (joke) party UKIP.

However he is still a Member of the European parliament and will continue to be paid very well to do nothing much.

It rather suggests he's treating this as a scam or a game.

Here's some footage of him making a twit of himself.

[Strange]

I think I have heard him say something along the lines of: look what a terrible institution it is; they pay me loads of money for doing nothing.

 

And it is so undemocratic that there were several UKIP MEPs years before they managed to get one in the UK Parliament (by and that was by defection, rather than election)

[Delta1212]

He quit as leader of the (joke) party UKIP.

However he is still a Member of the European parliament and will continue to be paid very well to do nothing much.

It rather suggests he's treating this as a scam or a game.

Here's some footage of him making a twit of himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ule97jkRA

The guy facepalming over Farage's shoulder on the right at the end of the video is hilarious.

[John Cuthber]

The guy facepalming over Farage's shoulder on the right at the end of the video is hilarious.

Slightly more so than you may think.

 

"The man in the European parliament who was seen grimacing and covering his face with his palm as Nigel Farage launched into a tirade against MEPs whom he accused of never having done “a proper job” in their lives has been revealed to be the Lithuanian EU commissioner for health and food safety, a trained cardiac surgeon.

Vytenis Andriukaitis, who was born in a Soviet gulag on the edge of the Arctic Ocean and started his political career with the underground Social Democrat movement, has written a blogpost in which he reveals his thoughts during Farage’s speech."

From

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/29/eu-health-commissioner-explains-farage-facepalm-vytenis-andriukaitis

[MigL]

Never mind him...

What about the good-looking, female ( just thought I'd make that clear ) MEP just behind his right shoulder.

Or am I being too shallow.

( again )

[CharonY]

My guess is Adinolfi, Italian MEP, member of the 5 Stars movement (populist, eurosceptic, but not really right-wing), and EFDD, to which UKIP in the EU parliament also belongs. And probably a yes on the shallow part .

[iNow]

Here's some footage of him making a twit twat of himself.

There. FTFY

[imatfaal]

There. FTFY

 

There is a new meme on Twitter and Facebook with people making up definitions for 'a farage' and 'to farage' - I did like the suggestion that within 20 years we would be using farage as a word meaning a political fustercluck with dire and longterm consequences which could have been easily avoided. Although my favourite was 'farage' - the foul smelling liquid that is generated by a rubbish bin full of waste on a hot day

[iNow]

Lol. Love it! A similar campaign happened a few years ago in the US with former senator and republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum.

 

He is an evangelical who spoke out forcefully against gay marriage and the danger of homosexuality so (spearheaded by columnist and LGBT rights activist, Dan Savage) Santorum was refined by the denizens of the Internet to mean, "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex".

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_%22santorum%22_neologism

[imatfaal]

Over the last few months a poison has been seeping through our national life. My faith in my fellow English, in our democracy, and in those who serve it in high places led me wholly to underestimate its potency or its capacity to spread.

‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ Brexiteers have crowed to me: ‘You’re out of touch.’ They are right. I was. I did not know my own country. I do now. And I like it a little bit less.

Matthew Parris in the Spectator

[Strange]

The opening line on a comedy show the other day was:

 

"The British have got their country back! Unfortunately, it turned out to be Germany in 1936."

[Phi for All]

Cooler heads are being ignored all over the world lately. Many people who identify normally as conservatives are trying to justify a red-faced, frustration-fueled, screaming seizure over issues of intolerance that obviously embarrasses as it empowers. I hope it can be shown quickly that this is a horribly costly approach, these kneejerk reactions that are like going to the emergency room for headaches.

[iNow]

Wow! This is remarkable and disturbing (though unsurprising) if true.

 

 

Brexit voter registration website crash could have been a DDoS, says report

 

https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/12/brexit-voter-registration-website-crash-could-have-been-a-ddos-says-report/

A government voter registration website in the UK that crashed in the hours before the deadline for registering to vote ahead of last year’s Brexit referendum could have been targeted by a denial of service attack.

(...)

The report says the crash has “indications of being a DDOS” — based on what the committee dubs as “key indicants” for such an attack: “timing and relative volume rate”.

[imatfaal]

Wow! This is remarkable and disturbing (though unsurprising) if true.

 

 

Brexit voter registration website crash could have been a DDoS, says report

 

https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/12/brexit-voter-registration-website-crash-could-have-been-a-ddos-says-report/

 

Damn that's scary. Statistically I guess it is unlikely to have changed the result unless we could show that a disproportionate number of late registerers were pro-Remain; however, whether the result was likely to be changed or not, electoral manipulation of any sort is anathema to democracy and successful pluralism.

[Ten oz]

 

Damn that's scary. Statistically I guess it is unlikely to have changed the result unless we could show that a disproportionate number of late registerers were pro-Remain; however, whether the result was likely to be changed or not, electoral manipulation of any sort is anathema to democracy and successful pluralism.

While I agree it is unlikely to have changed the result I wonder if that isn't a naive position. Both England and the USA were target by hackers during elections and both saw stunning upsets that went against the margin of error of polling. Almost reflexively I reject conspiracy theories. We have no hard proof that the vote was manipulated via hacking directly. That said I imagine the hackers celebrated on election night. I am sure they feel as they they suceeded. Things falling there way in unprecendented fashion isn't proof though. Unfortunately the governments and positions the hacks sought to help won so there is little interest amongst the winners to investigate their own victories too vigorously.

[imatfaal]

While I agree it is unlikely to have changed the result I wonder if that isn't a naive position. Both England and the USA were target by hackers during elections and both saw stunning upsets that went against the margin of error of polling. Almost reflexively I reject conspiracy theories. We have no hard proof that the vote was manipulated via hacking directly. That said I imagine the hackers celebrated on election night. I am sure they feel as they they suceeded. Things falling there way in unprecendented fashion isn't proof though. Unfortunately the governments and positions the hacks sought to help won so there is little interest amongst the winners to investigate their own victories too vigorously.

 

Not naive - but merely accepting that adopting the opposite position is unwarranted without more data. Everything else said above I agree with entirely. I think the overt manipulation by the right-wing press is more dangerous - and even less likely to be scrutinized by the victors / powers-that-be.

 

Two things worry me over and above the fact that hacking took place; that there was collusion between hackers and mainstream US/UK politicians and that large portions of the populace seem sanguine to the fact that their opinions, civil rights, and government are being manipulated.

[Delta1212]

While I agree it is unlikely to have changed the result I wonder if that isn't a naive position. Both England and the USA were target by hackers during elections and both saw stunning upsets that went against the margin of error of polling. Almost reflexively I reject conspiracy theories. We have no hard proof that the vote was manipulated via hacking directly. That said I imagine the hackers celebrated on election night. I am sure they feel as they they suceeded. Things falling there way in unprecendented fashion isn't proof though. Unfortunately the governments and positions the hacks sought to help won so there is little interest amongst the winners to investigate their own victories too vigorously.

The US vote wasn't really outside the margin of error. Most of the polls conducted in the run up to the US election, especially the consistent and high quality polls, are national polls rather than state polls. Hillary's national total was pretty close to where the polls pegged her: the votes were just not distributed in a way that would have allowed her to win. That's not something that is adequately captured by the way polling has generally been conducted for US Presidential elections.

[iNow]

Two things worry me over and above the fact that hacking took place; that there was collusion between hackers and mainstream US/UK politicians and that large portions of the populace seem sanguine to the fact that their opinions, civil rights, and government are being manipulated.

Precisely

[Ten oz]

The US vote wasn't really outside the margin of error. Most of the polls conducted in the run up to the US election, especially the consistent and high quality polls, are national polls rather than state polls. Hillary's national total was pretty close to where the polls pegged her: the votes were just not distributed in a way that would have allowed her to win. That's not something that is adequately captured by the way polling has generally been conducted for US Presidential elections.

He was outside not the margin of error nationally. However in the key swing states that gave him the election he was. Trump out performed the average of all polls in WI by 7 points. All 4 individual polls in the average had Clinton above the margin of error. In MI Trump out performed Polls by 4 points. Amongst individual polls 4 of the 5 had Clinton above the margin of error. In IA, which leaned Trump, polls were within half a percent accurate for Clinton and Trump exceeded them by ove 6 points going above the margins for 2 of the 3 polls. In OH Trump also exceed by 5.5 points beat the margins in 2 of the 4 polls. Collectively across all 50 states polls were good and most were with their margins of error. However 7 points in WI was certianly not and every individual state has there own individual process so averaging out how good polls were in other states to explain WI doesn't work.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/wi/wisconsin_trump_vs_clinton_vs_johnson_vs_stein-5976.html

 

There is NO proof election machines were hacked. I am not claiming there is clear evidence. That said there wasn't a hand recount to confirm paper ballots againt the machines. Jill Stein attempt to get a hand recount is WI, MI, and PA (WI & MI performed outside the margin of error) but was shot down in court and hand recounts did not happen. One of the steps require to get possibly obtain proof of tampering, if their was any proof to obtain, never happened. And yes, I understand that the absence of a recount is not evidence of anything.

 

I amnot saying we should believe something happened. I am saying we all (U.S. population) should be more skeptical than we seem to be. We are erroring on the side that the checks and balances work. The man who Ran Trump's campaign during the primary is wanted in Ukraine and has known Russia lobbying links. Campaign advisor Cart Page has connections to Russia and is under fedewral investigation. Trump was briefed by U.S. Intelligence that Russia was being the hacking attacks of Clinton and still used that material and went around implying it might be the Chinese. Trump had to fire his National Security Director Gen. Flynn for lying about his contact with Russia. The Attorney General had to recuse himself from investigation into the Russia cyber attack on the election because he lied to the Senate about his contact with Russia. The House Intelligence Committee Chairman investigating The Russian cyber attack of the election had to stepdown bcause he was caught lying about the intelligence. And Trump's Son in Law and top advisor failed to reveal foriegn connections including those with Russia for his Security Clearance. All of that is merely the stuff which has been proved. I am not even listing the other charges and rumors regarding Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, the Dossier, and etc

 

If we had known in realtime that Trump had been briefed by Intellegence that is was Russia and still continued to use the material as part of his campaign and still continued to claim it was not Russia and imply it was the Chinese that would have be a massive scandal. Instead there has been a slow protracted discovery that grows and grows seemingly every week. As such I believe we have entered new territory where healthy skepticism is in order. That doesn't mean we just accept every wild unsubstaintiated claim as true. I don't feel we should be dismissive though either just because something is highly unlikely. Trump as POTUS was highly unlikely but still happened. Gen. Flynn who had been removed and forced to retire then acted of a foriegn lobbyist becoming the National Security Director was highly iunlikely but still happened. If the systems worked the way they should would Betsy Devos be in charge of Education, would Ivanka have an office in the White House (both her and her father promised during the campaign that wouldn't happen)?

 

....but yes, there is no proof election machines were successfully hack. Just proof that attempts were made and the candidate they sought to help won in unprecedented fashion and has since proceeded to bold face lie everytime he opens his mouth at will about anything and everything with seemingly zero ramifications.