Leah McElrath Profile picture
Activism, analysis, commentary | Psychology, human rights, geopolitics | @smithcollege BA, MSW | @LSEalumni | #ActuallyAutistic #LGBTQ #hEDS
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Oct 9, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
There is still disinfo and agit prop going on (which @attackerman and @kpoulsen do a good job putting in context here) but some good news:

“Researchers: No Evidence That Russia Is Messing With Campaign 2018—Yet”

1/3
thedailybeast.com/researchers-no… 2/3

A couple of factors to keep in mind:

Trump has the U.S. bully pulpit now and is doing a better job sowing domestic and international division than Putin could have ever hoped for.

There are more mechanisms in place that would result in retaliation for direct interference.
Oct 8, 2018 10 tweets 5 min read
Trump campaign aide Rick Gates sought proposals for social media manipulation (including creation of fake online personas) and opposition intelligence gathering from Psy Group, an Israeli intel firm

(Trump referred to as “the Lion” in proposals 🙄)

🚨
nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/… (Those of you who’ve followed me a long time know I have speculated in the past about Israeli versus/in addition to Russian involvement in the social media psy-ops during the 2016 election. Remember all those hashtag “MAGA” troll/bot accounts that had hashtag “StandWithIsrael”?)
Oct 7, 2018 7 tweets 5 min read
@RadioFreeTom Similar to Trump admin stripping immigrant children from parents: the message is “we can and will target anyone.”

@JKhashoggi didn’t identify as a “dissident,” was supportive of the monarchy, and only sought reform.

MBS apparently believes Trump and Bibi will turn a blind eye. @RadioFreeTom @JKhashoggi (And MBS is likely correct he will do this with impunity. The context, of course, is the recent imprisonment of numerous female human rights advocates and charging them with serious crimes, seeking the death penalty for at least one - all without meaningful U.S. response.)
Oct 6, 2018 6 tweets 4 min read
.@JKhashoggi was an journalist with the @washingtonpost.

He entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, went missing, and is now reported to have been killed inside the consulate. Thread with more information and context on the reported but UNCONFIRMED assassination of @washingtonpost journalist @JKhashoggi

Oct 5, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
I hope @SenatorCollins is proud of doing her part to promote rape culture.

Just read these (TW for sexual violence survivors): ❄️🙄❄️

Oct 3, 2018 6 tweets 3 min read
HEADS UP:

There appears to be a new army of troll accounts deployed to harass and try to silence women speaking out against Trump and Kavanaugh.

Please do NOT engage them in my mentions.

(My recommendation is you block them immediately, as they are not who they claim to be.) I have the “quality filter” on, which works okay (but also filters out real people) so do not tend to see these accounts except for when others engage with them and “reply all” in their responses.

However, some more sophisticated ones seems to be getting through the filter now.
Sep 28, 2018 5 tweets 1 min read
Senator Flake and Senator Grassley just fucked over the Democrats and all the survivors of sexual assault and rape in the United States. Flake is trusting McConnell and Trump to do what he asked regarding re-opening the FBI background check.

There is NO evidence that trust is well-placed. None.

Flake also tends to do appealing symbolic things and then vote straight party line.

There is NO formal agreement.
Sep 27, 2018 6 tweets 2 min read
⚠️TW⚠️

I was raped by two men in a hotel room in a foreign country. I tried to jump out of the window to my death to escape.

I have blocked out most of the rape. Still.

After they were done, I vividly remember their laughing and offering to buy me room service breakfast. The laughter of the rapists and their offer to buy me breakfast stuck with me because it made clear to me that I literally was not human to them. I was a set of orifices over which they temporarily had control. They likely did not even see what they did as rape.

2/3
Sep 27, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
THIS.
Caputo couldn’t more accurately exemplify the norm for entitled, wealthy white boys/men in the 1980s if he tried. And he’s oblivious to his behavior: the dismissiveness, hostility, thinly-veiled rage when opposed.
Now imagine saying NO to a guy like him & his drunk friends. Hey, guess what, @MichaelRCaputo?

Those girls you used to intimidate and harass (and who knows what else)?

WE GREW UP INTO STRONG, COURAGEOUS WOMEN LIKE @KirstenPowers, AND WE ARE NOT AFRAID OF YOUR RAGE ANYMORE.

You’re a sad, pathetic excuse for a man.
Sep 24, 2018 5 tweets 1 min read
Sep 23, 2018 6 tweets 3 min read
To the best of my knowledge, @MichaelAvenatti has not yet made a statement asserting testimony or evidence that didn’t eventually prove to be real.

So: Not sure if this is related to or separate from but in addition to @MichaelAvenatti’s assertion, but fyi:

Sep 21, 2018 8 tweets 5 min read
All based on ANONYMOUS *SECONDHAND* accounts:

“Several people described the episodes, insisting on anonymity...The people were briefed either on the events themselves or on memos written by F.B.I. officials...”

WYD @nytmike and @adamgoldmanNYT? Publishing an incendiary report like this based on such thin and distant sourcing is journalistic malpractice.

Publishing an incendiary report like this without revealing the relationships of the sources to Trump (ie “close to the WH” or “Dem operative”) constitutes propaganda.
Sep 20, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
Sep 16, 2018 8 tweets 2 min read
“I thought he might inadvertently kill me.”

1. She names two others at the party.
2. She told her husband in 2012 couples therapy per notes.
3. She discussed the attack in 2013 individual therapy per notes.
4. She passed a polygraph test in August 2018.

washingtonpost.com/investigations… I stand with Christine Blasey Ford.

I stand with Christine Blasey Ford.

I stand with Christine Blasey Ford.

I stand with Christine Blasey Ford.

I stand with Christine Blasey Ford.

I stand with Christine Blasey Ford.

I stand with Christine Blasey Ford.

#StopKavanaugh
Sep 14, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
.@joshtpm, I wouldn’t even buy their framing on this. It’s ridiculous on its face. I graduated 1st in a class of 620 (which I note to indicate I had some level of visibility), and I don’t think you could find 65 women to vouch for my character in high school or even recognize me. If anything is worth researching, it’s the political donations of his supportive supposed girl friends and how many have donated Republican.
Sep 10, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
The Trump administration plans to behave internationally the same way it is behaving domestically: Bolton announces the U.S. will cease cooperation with the International Criminal Court.

The ICC prosecutes war crimes/crimes against humanity.

It is the only court empowered to prosecute governments when they target their own people.

🚨Pay attention🚨
Sep 10, 2018 18 tweets 12 min read
Many focus on hurricane wind speed and eye placement - which are important - but most hurricane-related deaths occur from storm surge and inland flooding.

#Florence is projected to hit land as a major hurricane and then SIT. It’s a worst-case flooding scenario similar to Harvey. The most dangerous side of a hurricane is the “dirty” side, aka the one subjected to the most rainfall.

North of the equator, that is the NE side of a hurricane.

Because of these storms’ counterclockwise rotation, moisture from the ocean is cycled onto land as rain.
Sep 10, 2018 6 tweets 2 min read
One of the most potentially devastating hurricanes in history threatens the entire mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Trump woke up and has tweeted/retweeted 14 times in the past hour - all about himself.

#UNFIT #Florence is the kind of storm for which a POTUS should be consulting with top advisors and exploring military responsiveness, search and rescue services, post-hurricane resource distribution, and other critical emergency management issues.

Trump is talking about...himself.
Sep 8, 2018 8 tweets 6 min read
I wasn’t even watching and this made me tear up.

You are a class act, @serenawilliams.

Congratulations, @Naomi_Osaka_!

You are BOTH queens 👑👑

#USOpen Before today’s match at the #USOpen

Sep 8, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
As Putin disseminates disinformation and prepares to aid Assad in what they plan to be a final assault on the Syrian city, the people of Idlib continue their courageous and peaceful assertions of resistance and calls for freedom: Pretty sure the “summit” was actually an attack-planning meeting, but other than that: