Russia isn’t messing around with the disinformation campaign.

Our report, announced by the committee on Monday, concludes that Russia was able to masquerade successfully as a collection of American media entities, managing fake personas and developing communities of hundreds of thousands, building influence over a period of years and using it to manipulate and exploit existing political and societal divisions.

…

In official statements to Congress, tech executives have said that they found it beyond their capabilities to assess whether Russia created content intended to discourage anyone from voting. We have determined that Russia did create such content. It propagated lies about voting rules and processes, attempted to steer voters toward third-party candidates[,] and created stories that advocated not

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on There must be reprisals.

Questioning their claims is not questioning their existence.

But refuting their claims to womanhood, allowing questions to even be asked, is tantamount to saying the Emperor is naked. The charade ends, the parade is over and those who praised the elegance and refinement of His Majesty’s raiment are shown to be a frauds and liars The little boy in the story who did not get the memo to bow and scrape and oooh and aaah is not to blame for the monarch’s nudity or embarassment. He only pointed out the truth as he saw it, the facts on the ground. Trans extremists’ claim to womanhood disappears … Read the rest

https://youtu.be/GaB5AVNg14c

H/t Sackbut… Read the rest

Another Elinor Lipman gem:

It rained all weekend—very SAD!
When I can’t golf, I’m boiling mad.
No Caesar salad; no parade.
Plus ICE removed my favorite maid.
Hate-tweeting while I watched TV,
…And wondered “Can I pardon me?”

— Elinor Lipman (@ElinorLipman) December 17, 2018

… Read the rest

People; honestly.

A guy asked this question on Facebook (public post):

I usually run at night so don’t encounter many people. However, when I run during the day (as I did early this morning) I always find walkers to be inconsiderate. Runners coming in the opposite direction will usually move to the left. Walkers rarely do. Pairs of runners change position to free up the pavement. Pairs of walkers don’t – they expect me to get off the pavement.

Why would that be? I don’t think it’s a personality problem. I’m pretty sure that the normal variety of human kindness is present among the individuals I encounter. I am guessing it’s something about the activity, but can’t think what it

UKIP guy is upset.

STOP THIS MADNESS! The Scottish Parliament has banned gingerbread men in case they cause offence, declaring they must be called 'gingerbread people' instead. https://t.co/qiaclO5uPN

— David Kurten (@davidkurten) December 16, 2018

Oh no! Without gingerbread men, who will impregnate the strawberry shortcake?… Read the rest

Still not getting it. Aaron Hughes says life is tough for trans and gender nonconforming students at Oxford, then moves on to the more entertaining part about blaming feminist women for the tough life problem.

In spite of its public commitments, Oxford has failed to protect trans people from harassment and discrimination. Its refusal to act when transphobic speakers are invited to talk in its colleges and faculties is damning. Indeed, its willingness to condone the invitation of people who deny the existence of trans people entirely undermines its commitment to trans inclusivity.

Notice the instant and unargued jump from “harassment and discrimination” to “transphobic speakers invited to talk in its colleges and faculties.” That’s a massive jump. We … Read the rest

The state of academic “gender” studies these days.

Very much looking forward to a lovely lazy Xmas break and then to cracking on with my article about why ‘sex’ (as in ‘biological’ not desire) is no longer applicable to contemporary feminist theory and activism.

— Sally Hines (@sally_hines) December 15, 2018

… Read the rest

How about a little nostalgia trip back to 2002 courtesy of the NY Times:

Within weeks of the death of John J. Gotti and the indictment of his eldest brother, Peter, the new reputed chief of the Gambino crime family, federal prosecutors in Manhattan yesterday announced charges against 14 more people who they said were Gambino family members or associates.

The crimes listed in the indictments seemed familiar — murder, loan-sharking, extortion, robbery and bookmaking — and they served as a reminder, federal officials said, that the mob is not dead in the city, only trying to reshape itself in the face of constant pressure from law enforcement.

”Folks who think that organized crime is a thing of the past

Bumpy day up in there.

Never in the history of our Country has the “press” been more dishonest than it is today. Stories that should be good, are bad. Stories that should be bad, are horrible. Many stories, like with the REAL story on Russia, Clinton & the DNC, seldom get reported. Too bad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2018

Erm…what? I think I get the “should be good: are bad” polarity; I think he means stories that should be about how awesome Donald Trump is fail to say that and instead say that he is disappointing. But the “should be bad: are horrible” one? Mystifying. They should say Democrats are bad but instead say they’re horrible? That … Read the rest

What happened:

A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who crossed the southern border into the United States illegally earlier this month died of dehydration and shock after being apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in New Mexico.

The girl and her father were part of a group of 163 people who surrendered to Border Patrol officers on the night of Dec. 6, south of Lordsburg, N.M., according to The Washington Post, which first reported the story.

It seems slightly stupid to say a girl of 7 crossed the border illegally. Children of 7 don’t have that kind of autonomy, and she was with her father.

Anyway. She died. She died of dehydration.

Eight hours after the girl and her father were

Susan Glasser notes that the Mueller investigation owns Trump’s attention.

Given the constant, repetitive nature of Trump’s “witch hunt” tweets, it might be tempting to ignore them. That would be a mistake. The chief executive’s attention is the most valuable resource of any Administration—what a President spends his time on reflects, more than anything else, an Administration’s true priorities. By those standards, the “witch hunt” is the overriding priority of the Trump White House, and it will be even more so in the new year, when the special counsel, Robert Mueller, moves toward a conclusion and a new, Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, with the power and the votes to subpoena and impeach Trump, takes

Adam Schiff and Jeffrey Toobin talked over burgers in downtown Burbank the other day. Schiff says it’s about The Monayyy.

Schiff went on, “At the end of the day, what should concern us most is anything that can have a continuing impact on the foreign policy and national-security policy of the United States, and, if the Russians were laundering money for the Trump Organization, that would be totally compromising.” Schiff hypothesizes that Trump went beyond using his campaign and the Presidency as a vehicle for advancing his business interests, speculating that he may have shaped policy with an eye to expanding his fortune. “There’s a whole constellation of issues where that is essentially the center of gravity,” Schiff said.

The Republican coup in Wisconsin is complete.

Scott Walker, the outgoing Republican governor of Wisconsin, on Friday signed into law measures that diminish the power of his Democratic successor and expand the authority of Republican lawmakers who teamed up with him over the last eight years to move the state firmly to the right.

Those Republican lawmakers? They’re still in the majority only because Wisconsin is so gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. The vote for Dems was much larger.

Mr. Walker signed the measures over the objections of the incoming governor and despite vehement protest in the State Capitol as Republican lawmakers rushed the bills through in a hastily-called session last week. Tony Evers, the Democrat who beat Mr.

The LA Review of Books has An Open Letter from Queer Studies Scholars. It is not an intelligent or persuasive letter.

To Whom It May Concern,

We write to respond to Christopher Reed and Christopher Castiglia’s unfortunate letter regarding Grace Lavery’s essay on using appropriate pronouns in the classroom context. While we debated taking up the many points of Professor Castiglia and Professor Reed’s very long essay, we feel that the best response is a simple reiteration of the final lines of Professor Lavery’s essay:

Deadnaming and misgendering are not acceptable scholarly practices, and they are not covered by the principle of academic freedom.

They “feel” (not think) that is the best response? And they call themselves scholars?

“Deadnaming” … Read the rest