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Too. Much. Stupid.

Derek Hunter
Townhall
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
Hillary slipping on steps india
What a stupid time to be alive.

Maybe there was always this much dumb in the world and we just didn't notice it because the Internet didn't exist, or maybe it's new. Whatever the case, the amount of "public stupid" has never been higher.

Since this is a column and not a book, I'm limited in just how much I can cover here, but suffice to say, if stupid were a marinade and society a steak, we'd be penetrated all the way through this week.

So here, in no particular order, is just some of the stupid that happened this week (so far, considering we're only half way through it).

Comment: It was quite a week for stupid. Here's some more:

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No Entry

UK PM May confirms ban of ministers and Royal family from World Cup in Russia


RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:50 UTC
Prince William
© Sang Tan
UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed Wednesday that no ministers or members of the Royal family will travel to the FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia this summer, including President of the English FA Prince William.

May also said 23 Russian diplomats will be expelled in retaliation for the country's suspected involvement in the nerve-agent attack on former British spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, UK.

All who been identified as undeclared intelligence officers. They have just one week to leave," she said. "This will be the single biggest expulsion for over 30 years, and it will reflect the fact that this is not the first time the Russian state has acted against our country."

Comment: Russian Football Union VP Nikita Simonyan likely mirrors Russian sentiment regarding the ban - he considers it of little import:
Soviet football icon Simonyan, who won an Olympic gold medal and reached the quarter-finals of the 1958 World Cup, called for sport to not become mixed up in politics.

"It's not that important, that the officials aren't coming, that's their problem. What's important, is whether the [England] team wants to come. The World Cup is held once every four years," the 91-year-old said on Wednesday.


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Extinguisher

YouTube to crack down on 'conspiracy videos'

Barbara Ortutay
Yahoo! News
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:30 UTC
YouTube
© AP/Danny Moloshok/file
YouTube says it's cracking down on conspiracy videos, though it's scant on the details.

Conspiracy videos abound on YouTube, whether it's about the Earth being flat or school shootings being staged. YouTube, its parent Google, Facebook and Twitter are all facing challenges with the spread of misinformation, propaganda and fake news.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said at a conference Tuesday that the company will include links to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia to try to debunk videos espousing conspiracy theories.

But Wikipedia itself has had its share of credibility issues, as the service lets anyone edit its content, whether that person is a pedigreed expert or an online troll. Though Wikipedia has tried to address that - in part by restricting edits on high-profile or controversial pages - it isn't immune from hoaxes and its own conspiracy theories.

Comment: See also:

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Eiffel Tower

French judge issues arrest warrant for Saudi princess who told her bodyguard to kill her interior designer for taking pictures - reports


RT
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 14:22 UTC
Paris
© Philippe Wojazer / Reuters
The decorator was held hostage in a Paris apartment
A French judge has reportedly issued an international arrest warrant for a Saudi princess. It relates to an alleged attack by her bodyguard on a workman at her flat in Paris, Reuters reported, citing sources close to the case.

The royal, reportedly named in legal documents as Hassa bint Salman, is accused of ordering the death of her interior decorator after the man took pictures of her home on Avenue Foch in the French capital in September 2016. She is said to have accused the man of wanting to sell the images to the press, Le Point newspaper reported at the time.

After insisting that the pictures were merely part of his job, the princess allegedly told her bodyguard: "We must kill him, this dog, he does not deserve to live."
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Attention

US military aircraft crashes in Iraq near Syrian border, casualties reported


RT
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 14:17 UTC
US Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters
© Ints Kalnins / Reuters
FILE PHOTO: US Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters during an exercise
A US military aircraft has crashed in western Iraq, the military has confirmed, according to Reuters. Other reports indicate that up to seven people may have perished in the crash.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed the fact of the crash and the presence of US military personnel on board the aircraft. "Rescue teams are responding to the scene of the downed aircraft at this time," it said in a statement, adding that no more details were available at the time.

Local sources, cited by Lebanese-based TV network Al Mayadeen, report the aircraft was a Chinook transport helicopter carrying ammunition. It crashed in western Iraq near the border of Syria. Seven crew members were reportedly killed in the crash. The helicopter is believed to have caught fire after it hit the ground, due to the volatile nature of its cargo.
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Bad Guys

'Pedophile's paradise': Swedish court softens punishment for serial child molesters


Sputnik
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 14:10 UTC
children abuse
© CC0
Two brothers from a township in the Sollefteå municipality, who were sentenced to 12 and 14 years in prison respectively for over a thousand cases of child rape in which the youngest victim was only three years old, have had their sentences seriously shortened after an appeal, stirring up strong reactions in the Nordic nation.

The two brothers, now aged 35 and 38, have always denied most of the crimes of which they were found guilty and appealed the verdict. The Court of Appeals found their claims reasonable enough to reduce their sentences to 7 and 9 years respectively, the national broadcaster SVT reported.

The Court of Appeals took into account the fact that many of the crimes were committed when the penalty scale was milder than today. As a mitigating circumstance, no violence was claimed to have occurred in connection with the abuse. Furthermore, the fact that the victims were not "very young" at the time when the assault occurred was also found as sufficient reason to lower their sentences.
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Bad Guys

Dorset goes into 'lockdown' over Skripal poisoning


RT
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 12:42 UTC
UK soldiers army
© AFP
Army vehicles have entered a North Dorset town reportedly to remove a truck linked to the poisoning of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal. Locals described the sight as "astonishing."

A section of Hyde Road in Gillingham has been cordoned off by Dorset Police as a special army unit moves in to investigate the truck, believed to have been involved in the removal of Skripal's red BMW. The town is reportedly on lockdown, with residents being told "not to leave their homes," according to the Mirror.

Images on social media show the truck being covered with a protective sheet before being removed. The vehicle in question is thought to have been involved in the removal of the former spy's car following his poisoning. The vehicle was left at Sainsbury's car park in Salisbury at around 1.40pm on Sunday, March 4, the day he was allegedly poisoned.

Comment: Sources have linked this investigation, named 'Operation Lime,' to five potential crime scenes - Skripal's home, where he fell ill, the two places he and his daughter ate, as well as Skripal's BMW. Agents have also been whipping up a climate of hysteria by doing door to door interviews and demanding access to people's internet routers. The Guardian reports:
Neighbours of Skripal, who lives on the outskirts of Salisbury, revealed that police have been examining their computer equipment.

Resident Chelsie Croes, 21, said: "They came to our house asking to check the wi-fi. The police wanted to check our internet routers. They didn't say why they were doing it. I don't know if they wanted to find out if we had been hacked into."

As part of the inquiry - codenamed Operation Lime - officers have been going door to door asking people if they knew the Skripals and when they last saw them.


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Display

Reality Check: Ben Swann on the social media purge of dissenting voices

Ben Swann
Truth in Media
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
Ben Swann
Is there an Internet purge of conservative voices or voices of dissension online? Some say yes, and that the purge is being pushed by YouTube (owned by Google) and Facebook and Twitter. We've heard about censorship before, but is what is happening now an all-out purge? Let's give it a Reality Check you won't get anywhere else.

You might be a fan, you might be disgusted by him. But there is no doubt that InfoWars founder and radio host Alex Jones is a lightning rod. His YouTube channel has over 2.2 million subscribers and more than 33,000 videos.

Just days ago, Jones claimed that YouTube had begun a process of taking his channel down.

On March 3, CBS reported, "Jones tweeted that he had 'set up a new channel' that the 'SPLC,' or the Southern Poverty Law Center, wanted censored. In one of the videos on the channel called 'InfoWars Censored,' Jones said, 'We're live on Facebook, on Twitter, on Periscope, but we cannot go live on the Alex Jones channel - it's been frozen for the third time in one week.'"

Comment: Another great segment from Ben Swann.

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Megaphone

Trans people labelled "parasites" & obstacle to feminism during Parliament event


RT
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 18:34 UTC
gay pride
© Omer Messinger/ Global Look Press
Transgender women in the UK "invade" women's spaces and threaten gender equality, it was claimed. An event in Parliament heard heavy criticism of the trans community.

Speakers at the 'Transgenderism and the War on Women' event in Parliament hit out at transgender people, attacking them for "parasitically" invading women's spaces and threatening their liberation. The meeting was held by the group 'We Need to Talk UK' and sponsored by Conservative MP David Davies.

Author Sheila Jeffreys, who opened the event in the House of Commons on Thursday, didn't hold back. A Pink News journalist reported her opening line was: "Men can't become women, what's so difficult about that?"

Comment: See Also:

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Bullseye

Dissent in the Western alliance: Irish Times - "Unlikely that Putin behind Skripals' poisoning"

Séamus Martin
The Irish Times
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 21:41 UTC
hazmat suits Sergey Skripal
© Ben Stansall / Agence France-Presse
All a big show? Salisbury, southern England, March 8, 2018
Attack would have been counterproductive for Russia and jeopardise future spy swaps

British prime minister Theresa May put two scenarios to parliament on Monday. The attack on former British-Russian spy Sergei Skripal may have been planned directly by the Kremlin or that through lax scrutiny Russia allowed the nerve agent to fall into the wrong hands. The situation is more complicated than that.

The nerve agent called Novichok is a very deadly substance, eight times more powerful than its western equivalent known as VX. There are also indications that it could have been smuggled out of the former Soviet Union as far back as 1993.

In September of 1993 as The Irish Times Moscow correspondent I obtained a list of chemical and biological weapons, including Novichok, that were being produced by Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union. I brought these documents to the recognised expert at the time Dr Thomas Stock of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
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