The Morning Briefing: Dems Turn on Hillary, Twitter Goes Full South Park

Thank God It’s Friday!

Except if you’re Hillary Clinton…

Donna Brazile, former Al Gore campaign manager and brief chairwoman of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), published a tell-all about Hillary Clinton’s corruption with the DNC — and it’s worse than previously thought. Clinton used the Democratic Party to milk donors above their contribution limits to her campaign, even while paying off the party’s debt.

As Hillary’s campaign gained momentum, she resolved the party’s debt and put it on a starvation diet. It had become dependent on her campaign for survival, for which she expected to wield control of its operations.

It gets worse.

When I got back from a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, I at last found the document that described it all: the Joint Fund-Raising Agreement between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary for America.

The agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.

Brazile was notorious for feeding CNN debate questions to the Clinton campaign in March 2016. CNN forced her to resign, but she said, “My conscience — as an activist, a strategist — is very clear.” Now, not so much.

She ended the Politico tell-all remembering a phone call to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the self-described socialist Clinton’s corruption had damaged most — besides herself, of course. She told Sanders to fight, that Clinton didn’t have the election in the bag, that she needed his supporters.

“When I hung up the call to Bernie, I started to cry, not out of guilt, but out of anger. We would go forward. We had to.”

Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) agreed the Democratic primary “was rigged” for Clinton. (When she remembers the difference between DNC Chair Tom Perez and Tom Perriello, that is…)

Do you agree with the notion that the DNC was rigged in Hillary Clinton's favor?

Elizabeth Warren: Yes https://t.co/TIoytO15Ca pic.twitter.com/TjkBS0mbB8

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) November 2, 2017

Put it down!

On Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump vanished off the face of the Earth. Or at least, his Twitter profile did — which is pretty much the same thing, right?

Around 7 p.m. Eastern, visitors to @realDonaldTrump were greeted with the message “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!”

Who was to blame? A particularly nasty employee known as “human error.”

“Earlier today @realDonaldTrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. This account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored,” the Twitter Government account explained. “We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again.”

Earlier today @realdonaldtrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again.

— TwitterGov (@TwitterGov) November 3, 2017

President Trump is officially a “winner” on the social media platform, with 41.7 million followers. But it has also stirred controversy, with many suggesting Trump should avoid tweeting while … reacting to something he doesn’t quite like.

“South Park” mastered the issue in this side-splitting ad.

Even better, Twitter later announced that an investigation revealed the perpetrator: “a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day.”

Through our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day. We are conducting a full internal review. https://t.co/mlarOgiaRF

— TwitterGov (@TwitterGov) November 3, 2017

Perhaps the Twitter employee was watching a little too much “South Park.”

Mass. State Senate passes “junk science” sexual assault bill.

K.C. Johnson reports.

Two months after @EmilyYoffe exposes "junk science" behind this concept in campus training, MA State Senate passes this provision 39-0. pic.twitter.com/6IV6nERfVE

— KC Johnson (@kcjohnson9) November 3, 2017

The Atlantic‘s Emily Yoffe explains.

Being assaulted is traumatic, and no one should expect those who have been assaulted to have perfect recall or behave perfectly rationally, but this argument goes much further. It generally goes like this: People facing sexual assault become terrified, triggering a potent cascade of neurotransmitters and stress hormones. This chemical flood impairs the prefrontal cortex of the brain, impeding victims’ capacity for rational thought, and interferes with their memory. They may have significant trouble recalling their assault or describing it coherently or chronologically. The fear of imminent death may further elicit an extended catatonic state known as “tonic immobility,” rendering them powerless to speak or move—they feel “frozen.”

This logic makes it almost impossible for those accused of sexual assault to defend themselves. Yoffe quoted Washington, D.C. attorney Justin Dillon:

Trauma, he says, is used to explain away all inconsistencies in some complainants’ accounts that would otherwise seem to contradict their having been assaulted. Schools do not make public the training materials of those who investigate and adjudicate sexual assault. But through lawsuits, Dillon has obtained some examples, and he says the assertions of the “neurobiology of trauma” that infuse these materials make it almost impossible for the accused to mount a defense. When such assumptions are held by those sitting in judgment, he says, “how do you prove your innocence?”

Harvard psychology professor Richard McNally put the nail in the coffin.

In his 2003 book, Remembering Trauma, McNally writes, “Neuroscience research does not support [the] claim that high levels of stress hormones impair memory for traumatic experience.” In fact, it’s almost the opposite: “Extreme stress enhances memory for the central aspects of an overwhelming emotional experience.”

Yoffe’s conclusion? “The spread of an inaccurate science of trauma is an object lesson in how good intentions can overtake critical thinking, to potentially harmful effect.”

Thor: Ragnarok is out! And it’s “unpredictable…”