Zero tolerance policy on misogyny

Many times when I write it is to go through my browser tabs, tell you what I’ve been saving, and clean them out. And by the next time I write I’ve saved more articles in the tabs. And sometimes I don’t get previous tabs cleaned out.

Rep. Maxine Waters has been a highly vocal critic of the nasty guy. She reports that she is the target of pro-Russian operatives:

I have often notices that every time I tweeted about Trump and Russia, dozens of strange accounts would immediately tweet various lies and falsehoods that fringe alt-right websites would subsequently use as a basis to write fake news stories. Since much of the public discussion of Russia’s interference on our democratic process thus far has focused on Russia’s influence in the presidential election, I think it is important for the American people and my colleagues in Congress to understand that Members of Congress and their efforts to communicate with their constituents may also be vulnerable to this type of foreign disruption.

Women continue to step forward to relate stories of sexual harassment. One of the latest targets of their ire was Mark Halpern, a powerful journalist with ABC News. In a series of tweets, Melissa McEwan of Shakesville reminds us every organization must have a zero tolerance policy on misogyny. Tolerating any misogyny, even simple banter, tacitly signals that harming women is okay. Abusive men use every such incident to justify thinking that all men behave the same way. One guy might separate “locker room talk” from actual harm to women, but an abuser doesn’t. So, a zero tolerance policy on misogyny.



A lawsuit was filed by election reform advocates in Georgia. Their hope is to require the state to upgrade its antiquated election technology. Part of the reason for the suit is a computer server that is a statewide staging area for key election related data. A security expert disclosed gaping security holes on this system that were not fixed six months later.

Just after the suit was filed that computer’s data was wiped.

McEwan notes:

Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, which is one of the plaintiffs in the suit, says she believes the data was erased from the server to hide its security flaws. (Take a moment to appreciate the irony there.) She said: "I don't think you could find a voting systems expert who would think the deletion of the server data was anything less than insidious and highly suspicious."

Another aspect of what McEwan is calling Russia Reversal: She comments on a Wall Street Journal article that describes the connection between Russia and Hillary Clinton is “a bombshell.” She notes:

That's about as blunt as it gets, in terms of laying out the strategy: To create the narrative that it's the Democratic Party who has a "dalliance" with Russia that can't be ignored.

The entire premise of the piece, however, is a lie.

Then McEwan quotes David Corn of Mother Jones who discusses the Steele dossier that is at the center of this misguided storm.

So you see what's happening? Republicans are asserting the Steele memos should be dismissed because they are a dastardly Democratic oppo concoction and saying this somehow undermines the whole Trump-Russia scandal. Yet at the same time, they are demanding an investigation of the fake Clinton-uranium scandal that was based on a debunked story subsidized and promoted by a big-money conservative donor and Trump backer.