No big deal then?

Women discussed as rape targets by a group of male students at the University of Warwick say they are terrified of seeing the men return to campus after the university reduced the length of their suspension.

Last year five men were barred or suspended by the university over their membership of a long-running group chat that discussed rape and sexual assault of women, including individual students, as well as racism, antisemitism and homophobia.

After a decision from the university’s disciplinary proceedings in June, two of the men were banned from the Warwick campus for 10 years. But it has emerged that, after an appeal, the two will be able to return to the campus from September.

Hmmmm.

If she’s right, “God” has very weird tastes.… Read the rest

Masha Gessen says no, it’s not that Putin is a mastermind of fiendish cunning, it’s that he’s a crook just as Trump is a crook. That’s all. It’s not fancy.

(I kind of knew that, maybe via Masha Gessen. I read or heard someone who would know say that we wildly exaggerate the talents of Putin, that he’s just a very typical and mediocre hack who got lucky.)

We [people who write about Russia] cringed at the characterization of the Russian online influence campaign as “sophisticated” and “vast”: Russian reporting on the matter—the best available—convincingly portrayed the troll operation as small-time and ridiculous. It was, it seems, fraudulent in every way imaginable: it perpetrated fraud on American social networks, creating

Is Trump right that the polar vortex means we need more of that fine fine global warming? Of course not.

The important thing is to look at long-term average temperatures.

The current bone-cracking cold in Chicago is “weather” not “climate”.

The rule of thumb is that weather is what is happening outside your house now; climate is what happens over many years.

So, it can be very cold where you live but the world as a whole could still be getting warmer.

And be in no doubt, says Tim Woolings, the world is continuing to warm.

As Chicago freezes, wildfires are raging in Australia which is in the grip of yet another blistering summer.

And last summer wildfires raged … Read the rest

Sunset yesterday afternoon was a stunner.

The #Seattle sunset tonight is truly amazing!! #WAwx @KSeattleWeather pic.twitter.com/czdarJ9Pq4

— Thomas (@TRButcher) January 31, 2019

https://twitter.com/AckermannArt/status/1090791662287151104

Note Puget Sound mirroring the sky. I have an even better view of that here, because all those tall buildings aren’t in the way.

Wow! Unfiltered, no effects! This is the #sunset happening right now over Elliott Bay in Seattle! #SoNorthwest #wawx #KOMONews pic.twitter.com/Evkpt911U8

— Preston Phillips (@PrestonTVNews) January 31, 2019

Washington State Ferry Kitsap sails into the Fauntleroy ferry terminal in West Seattle with an UNBELIEVABLE sunset overcasting Elliott Bay on 1/30/19.

Photo © 2019 David Rosen / SlickPix Photography pic.twitter.com/SvZLd0nveC

— West Seattle Herald (@westseattleher) January 31, 2019

Tonight's sunset over the Sound and the

Speaking of Mister Coffee and the price of Cheerios, I missed one of Trump’s explosions of stupid a few days ago, before he had to call off the shutdown.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross caused a bit of a stir yesterday during a CNBC interview when he said, in reference to federal workers affected by the government shutdown who’ve turned to food banks. “I don’t really quite understand why.” A few hours later, a reporter asked Donald Trump about Ross’ comments, and the president replied:

“No, I haven’t heard the statement, but I – I do understand perhaps he should set it differently. Local people know who they are when they go for groceries and everything else. And I think

It’s pretty much the story of the day, that Trump issued a statement tweeted that the intelligence people are stupid and wrong the day after they told the Senate the truth as they understand it via evidence collected by professionals, as opposed to telling the Senate what Trump thinks is the truth via the fuzzy moldy rattling slum that is his brain. He’s mad at them for not saying what he says and instead saying what they consider true via chains of evidence. He’s mad at them so he trashes them on Twitter.

Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said it was dangerous for the president to dismiss the findings of his

I guess this is why Trump is saying he knows better than the intelligence people: they were telling senators he’s got everything wrong yesterday.

In open testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday morning, leaders of the intelligence community knocked down the president’s talking points about ISIS, the nuclear capabilities of Iran and North Korea, and the value of NATO.

CIA Director Gina Haspel confirmed to Sen. Angus King (I-ME) that Iran is not currently violating the terms of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Last May, President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that Iran had violated its terms and withdrew the United States from the agreement.

We see reporters saying “President Donald Trump claimed without … Read the rest

Via Screechy Monkey at Miscellany Room, the Root fills us in on what really happened with Donnie Two-scoops and his invitation to gorge on french fries.

When Filet-O-Fish aficionado Donald Trump invited the Clemson Tigers to enjoy the White House’s first Presidential Value Meal, most of Clemson’s national championship football team members jumped at the opportunity to meet the original cheeseburger-swallowing clown. But The Root has learned that Clemson’s black players, some specifically citing racism and their disdain for Trump’s divisive politics, passed on the opportunity to hang out with the real-life Mayor McCheese.

“Filet-O-Fish aficionado” heeheeheehee

The Root spoke with three black Clemson players who each separately confirmed that many players, both black and white, had no interest

In South Dakota news:

South Dakota lawmakers killed a bill that would [have] required trans student athletes to compete according to their sex assigned at birth.

That is, their physical sex as opposed to their “gender identity.”

“We’re thrilled with the committee’s decision,” said Libby Skarin, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, in a statement. “No one is harmed by allowing transgender people to compete consistent with who they are. The committee’s motion to kill this bill sends a clear message of inclusion and acceptance for our transgender friends and neighbors and that there is no place for discrimination like this in South Dakota.”

Hmm. Is it true that no one is harmed by … Read the rest

First this.

There are countless photos of Stacey Abrams and her glorious smile.

Axios must have had to search to find an image to fit the “angry black woman” trope. pic.twitter.com/NvH5HrVOlV

— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) January 29, 2019

Textbook: https://t.co/FSi0PmF4pZ

— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) January 29, 2019

And then an update.

https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/1090353193731661828

I’m not sure what I think about it. There is more than one trope, and another trope is “women must not ever look angry or determined or authoritative or anything other than sweet.” To be honest in the first picture she doesn’t really look angry, to me, so much as…well, serious. Serious while talking. Do we want to flinch away from that?

I don’t think I do.… Read the rest

Ah those pesky breasts. What shall we do about them?

An African practice of “ironing” a girl’s chest with a hot stone to delay breast formation is spreading in the UK, with anecdotal evidence of dozens of recent cases, a Guardian investigation has established.

Community workers in London, Yorkshire, Essex and the West Midlands have told the Guardian of cases in which pre-teen girls from the diaspora of several African countries are subjected to the painful, abusive and ultimately futile practice.

…

“It’s usually done in the UK, not abroad like female genital mutilation (FGM),” [an anonymous activist] said, describing a practice whereby mothers, aunties or grandmothers use a hot stone to massage across the breast repeatedly in order to

Interesting. Public service media report on how Facebook helps advertisers target users of Facebook, and Facebook creates code to stop them. ProPublica is one:

A number of organizations, including ProPublica, have developed tools to let the public see exactly how Facebook users are being targeted by advertisers.

Now, Facebook has quietly made changes to its site that stop those efforts.

ProPublica, Mozilla and Who Targets Me have all noticed their tools stopped working this month after Facebook inserted code in its website that blocks them.

No transparency for you-oo, sorrreee.

“This is very concerning,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who has co-sponsored the Honest Ads Act, which would require transparency on Facebook ads. “Investigative groups like ProPublica need

Time to refresh our memories, again, on why Trump can’t enforce NDAs against people who work in his administration:

But such NDAs for government workers, when they go beyond prohibiting the disclosure of classified information, are unconstitutional on their face. I know, because I have litigated more pre-publication-review classification challenges against the government during the past 25 years than any other attorney. For decades, courts have made it clear that the government may not censor unclassified material, “contractually or otherwise.” Legal challenges during the 1970s and 1980s against the CIA settled the question that the government has no legitimate interest under the First Amendment in censoring unclassified information.

Oddly enough, Trump’s engorged ego doesn’t overrule that.

No