Rapists Should Not Get To Be President

Rapists should not be allowed to become President of the United States. Full stop.

Tonight, ladies and gentlemen of #TheResistance, I am going to talk about some difficult things, and I am going to reveal my scars to you. When I began this public journal of life in the Trump era, I made a decision not to talk too much about myself, because I wanted this journal to be accessible to anyone. I envisioned it sort of as America's public journal.

But, frankly, that was a stupid idea.

That was stupid because for anyone to be real, they must first be themselves. I cannot offer an unflinching view into The Trump Era if I hide myself from my readers. Moreover, if I hide the fact that I am a survivor of domestic violence and multiple sexual assaults, then I am hiding one of my main problems with Our Dear Orange Leader. I know I am not alone in this regard, and by hiding I cheat myself out of a way of connecting with my readers.

So here goes, full disclosure time. (Trigger warning: rape and sexual assault).

I am, as I said, a survivor of multiple sexual assaults. I have been raped by five men. The first time I was nine. He was my mother's boss. He raped both my sisters (ages five and eleven) and I, and a three year old girl we lived with on a regular basis during the time we all shared the same dwelling. Our mom got us out of there, but to this day denies the reason.

The next time I was raped I was fifteen. He was a boy my age. We lived in a group home for troubled youth. He climbed in my window while I slept.

The last time I was raped I was seventeen. Over the course of eight years, five different men sexually assaulted me. I can't even remember how many individual instances there were. 

It doesn't matter how many individual instances there were. The damage was done the first time. Every woman who suffers sexual assault--and there are way too fucking many of us--are damaged with the first attack.

  
Sexual assault of any kind--from groping and grabbing to rape--teaches the victim (mostly, but not always a woman) that she exists for the taking by others. That she has no worth beyond what part of her can be consumed by others. Rape and sexual assault have nothing whatever to do with desire (save for the desire for power and aggression) or lust (save for the lust for power and aggression).

It's about dominance, pure and simple.

Our current President is a rapist. He has been accused of assault by an alarming number of women. He has been caught on tape bragging about his ability to get away with grabbing, groping, and kissing women without consent because "he's a star." Not only has he denied any of the claims, he has threatened to sue his victims for speaking out publicly. A January article from The Independent quoted Trump at one of his campaign rallies last year:

Mr Trump dismissed the claims from Natasha Stoynoff, telling the crowd at a Florida rally, "Look at her", suggesting she was not attractive enough to be assaulted.

Let's break that statement down. That is a pretty goddamn loaded statement, and it is one that damages not only the victims of sexual assault, but all women.

First and foremost: rape and sexual assault are not about a man's sexual desire for a woman, and they are not about a woman's desirability.

Dismissing a woman's claim that she was sexually assaulted on the basis that you do not find her attractive is disgusting, and it says WAY more about you than about her. 

Mr. Trump, when you called that woman out for not being "pretty enough" to be raped, what message were you sending the attractive women in your life? That they win, and the prize is earning the right to be sexually assaulted? 

And Mr. Trump, what of that woman you first assaulted and then scoffed at? Because I fully fucking believe you assaulted her. In fact, I believe ALL of your accusers.

One of the less discussed scars that rape and sexual assault cause is the ugliness scar. Being assaulted makes you feel ugly. It makes you feel undesirable. It makes you feel unlovable. It is because it is an act of violence and because the predator uses your body without permission, taking what he wants and then leaving. 

Victims of sexual assault and rape are left feeling hollowed out, dirty, and ugly.

And again, it doesn't matter if it "only" happens one time or if it happens a thousand times. Rape and sexual assault are pernicious. The after-effects--and there are many, many after-effects--have a way of coming back again and again throughout your life. 

So, in a very real way, when Trump stood before his throngs of MAGA-hat-wearing admirers and scoffed at a woman he assaulted, claiming he couldn't have done it because "Well, look at her," he re-assaulted her. He re-victimized her, and for a punchline!

There are so many things I hate about Trump, but that is the number one thing. He embodies everything about toxic masculinity, and he knows it, and he is stupid enough to think those character flaws are benefits. 

Trump is a vile, pathetic, lying, serial assaulter of women. He doesn't deserve to be president of HELL, let alone the United States.

I wept on Election Night when it became clear to me that the rapist was going to win. And, to be honest, I haven't been fully okay since then. I am fortunate to have a loving and supportive husband, and a loving and supportive daughter. And I'm fortunate that it has been over two decades since the last time I was personally assaulted, and I am fortunate that I haven't had to see any of my rapists since.

But imagine for a moment what it feels like for TRUMP's numerous victims? Can you imagine what it's like watching your RAPIST ruin our country while scoffing at your pain and calling you a liar?

We have to get this predator out of the White House. Thank you for listening while I opened up. Thank you for your thoughtfulness. 

Follow me on twitter: @LiteraryGrrrl The revolution will be tweeted!

Taking a Deep Breath

Welcome back, dear friends.

It's been two weeks since I checked in with my public journal of Life in Trump's America. Last weekend my husband and I went away to La La Land, where we took in some comedy, some bad ass women's wrestling, and generally avoided anything news-related.

It was great, but in the end the real world caught up to us. It does tend to do that.

I've had a lot of thoughts since returning to Real Life, and believe it or not, not *all* of them have been about the obnoxious Orange One who now inhabits the White House. Some of them have been about chocolate, for instance, and others have been about wrestling.

Indulge me in a divergent train of thought for a moment, reader. Is it weird that at the same time our nation is facing a crisis, one pillar of which is about reality itself, professional wrestling is experiencing a much-heralded revolution? Professional wrestling, an athletic endeavor whose detractors deride as being a "fake sport," is about spectacle and storytelling and seeks to wring emotions out of its followers. 

Professional wrestling is also a big business, and its billionaire administrators have ties to the White House and the Orange One himself. Linda McMahon, wife of WWE owner Vince McMahon sits on Trump's cabinet as Secretary of the Small Business Administration.

President Trump loves to rail publicly against what he calls the "Fake News Media." A very real argument can be made that he and his administration seek to shape public opinion and push policy agendas via the creation of spectacles and sowing fear and discord in our citizenry.

Is that weird? Or am I simply, as is my wont, overthinking this? Is there a connection or am I nuts?

It's weird. Anyhow. Sorry for the digression. 

Actually, no. I'm not sorry, and frankly that wasn't much of a digression. Because the rapidly vanishing distinction between what's fake and what's real--between surreality and *actual* reality--is a central problem to life in Trump's America. I'm no longer talking about the twin rise of professional wrestling and the Trump administration. I'm talking about EVERYTHING about life now. All of it.

Our President last weekend made up a terrorist attack in Sweden. In the past month, his surrogates have also made up terrorist attacks in Kentucky and Georgia.

Trump constantly refers to the media as "fake," and polls that show his low approval ratings as "rigged."

All members of the GOP have taken to pretending that the millions of Americans who now routinely protest this administration are paid agitators. At a conservative conference this past week, NRA president Wayne LaPierre said: 

“Right now, we face a gathering of forces that are willing to use violence against us,” he said. “The leftist movement in this country right now is enraged. Among them, and behind them, are some of the most radical political elements there are. Anarchists, Marxists, communists, and the whole rest of the left-wing socialist brigade.”

LaPierre also noted that “many of these people hate everything America stands for,” including “democracy” and “free-market capitalism.”

All of these activists, LaPierre continued, were funded by left-wing billionaires such as George Soros, and are also “angry,” “militant,” and “willing to engage in criminal violence.”

Read the full article here. 

Friday the White House officially banned many solid, well-respected media outlets (including CNN, NYT, BBC, and more) from its press briefing, but allowed overtly biased outlets such as Breitbart to attend.

FYI: Breitbart's twitter bio is: "News, commentary, and destruction of the political/media establishment."

For comparison: the new masthead of the Washington Post, one of the outlets banned from the White House's press briefing, is Democracy Dies in Darkness.

Did I mention that Steve Bannon, Trump's chief political strategist, was until very recently editor-in-chief at Breitbart? Or that at least two other senior editors from that media outlet now serve the administration in a national security advisory capacity? (Read the Times article here.) 

I could cite many more examples of truth-bending from the Trump administration and its advocates. But I won't. Instead I will leave you with this quote from British politician and social activist Arthur Ponsonby:

When war is declared, truth is the first casualty. 

The revolution will be tweeted. Follow me: @Literarygrrrl

Am I Losing My Effing Mind?

Greetings. We just finished the third week of our new America. We now know that it's possible for the entire nation to live in a state of perpetual shock and outrage for at least three weeks without exploding.

Today is Saturday, February 11. Yesterday I woke up with one question in mind: What horrible thing is going to happen today? What horrible revelation or new Executive Order will come out of the White House today to horrify the nation and dominate the weekend's news?

Because that's been the pattern so far. Two Fridays ago, the Executive Order known colloquially as the Muslim Ban came out and we had a weekend of detentions, deportations, and families ripped apart. Last Friday a courageous judge in the state of Washington placed a restraining order on the ban, so we got a weekend of DJT maligning that judge, and, indeed, the entire judiciary, on twitter. So I knew that something was coming. Something had to. 

And indeed it did. It came to the nation's attention yesterday that Trump's promised mass-scale deportations of undocumented immigrants have begun. As it turns out, the operation began the previous Monday, but it ramped up towards the end of the week. You can read about it here. 

Yesterday when I turned on my car and NPR's Morning Edition poured from the speakers, I heard a report about an ICE detention that happened just two hours earlier less than half a mile from where me and my family live. A family of undocumented immigrants were stopped on the highway. Why? It wasn't reported. The driver, an adult male, was detained. ICE says he has a criminal record, but they won't provide details or evidence. He and his family fought back, and an ICE officer was taken to the ER with minor injuries. I'm positive there will be repercussion from that.

This shook me. I immediately texted my husband with what little I gleaned from the half of the news report that I heard. He looked online but couldn't immediately find any other news. By yesterday evening, however, there were reports coming from around the country.

That's exactly what I thought would happen. That's this administration's pattern: dump scary or ugly news Friday evening to whip the nation into a frenzy and encourage more protests in the nation's cities. That serves two functions: it puts on a big show of force, and it mobilizes the opposition, which will play into the federal government's hands whenever they decide to go ahead and criminalize protests and demonstrations.

Do I sound crazy? Paranoid? That's what living in Trump's America has done to me. But I'm also right. Trump's administration is working hard to divide us, and they're succeeding. There are many, many Americans who will not and do not understand why we are outraged over the start of coordinated, nationwide mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. After all, the laws being enforced predate the Trump administration, and THOSE PEOPLE ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, ANYWAY. This will be the third straight weekend of large nationwide protests, and this time we've gone from marching against a ban on refugees and LEGAL immigrants from specific Muslim countries to marching against deportations of immigrants who came here illegally.

The marches, demonstrations, and protests against Trump's unconstitutional Muslim ban, border wall, and mass deportations are wonderful and amazing and I'm so very, very proud of my fellow Americans. But that's not how everybody feels. And by associating these loud, disrupting events with so-called 'Criminal Aliens' and 'Illegals' will further inflame the passions of the Americans who wish we would all just shut up and adjust to our new way of life. 

News flash: we will not and MUST NOT shut up and adjust to our new way of life.

Even if (when) things get worse. Even if (when) the new administration criminalizes protests. Even if (when) the new administration criminalizes aiding undocumented immigrants. 

We must resist. We must persist.

I ask myself at least twenty times every day if this is real. Is Trump really saying what he's saying? Does he mean what he tweets? Is Bannon really masterminding anarchy? Are they really turning our democracy into an authoritarian regime? Or do they just want us to think so, and to be paralyzed by fear? Because it's really one or the other, right? Surely they don't believe what they're doing is democratic.

I'm trying to train myself to stop asking those questions, and to stop getting trapped into the logical mazes they create. Because, in the end, it doesn't matter. In the end, it amounts to the same thing. The only reason to cripple us with fear tactics is so they can do whatever they want without challenge. 

Whether Donald Trump calls himself President or Fuhrer, and whether Bannon ever steps out of the shadows is irrelevant. They ARE what they ARE: evil, greedy, corrupt, racist, misogynist and hell-bent on a world of chaos.

Last weekend I was demoralized. This weekend I'm ANGRY. Time to #Resist!

The revolution will be tweeted! Follow me ----> @LiteraryGrrrl

Oh Shit Trump is President!

Wednesday January 25 2017

I'm really not sure how this journal is going to work.

I got the idea for this public journal a few weeks after the election night. But the idea wasn't fully formed. About all I knew for certain then--indeed, all I continue to know for certain--is that I wanted to keep a journal about living in Donald Trump's America, and that I wanted it to be public.

Forgive me for throwing up in my mouth when I typed the words "Donald Trump's America."

I expect I will use this space to vent, and to gather my courage for the continuing fight. I also want to share my experiences with you so that we can feel more connected, because I predict that the country's fractures are only going to deepen. Americans are an independent folk, and that generally serves us well, but it also works to enable an US vs. THEM mentality. The presidential campaign really ramped up that kind of rhetoric, and now that the Trump administration is installed in the White House our nation is getting a pretty clear picture of just what the government feels the official THEM look like. And how they worship. And how they vote. And who they love.

I do not intend for this journal to become a list of the horrible things that the Trump administration is doing, because there are much better sources for that kind of information. However, I do want to give you a little picture of where we are right now, in case you've been living under a rock or you're reading this from the future. (If you are reading this from the future, please tell me we make it out ok! What's it like? Do we finally get flying cars??)

Donald Trump has been president of the United States for 6 days now. Less than a week. And already things are changing. Already things are looking grim.

• Trump's administration immediately paved the way for the coming repeal of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, which provides health insurance for some 20 million people
• Trump and his press secretary Sean Spicer made overt threats to the media, insinuating that they would cut off access to the White House if they receive unfavorable coverage
• Trump and his administration continue to tell obvious and needless lies to the media and the country about such things as the size of the inauguration crowd in DC
• Trump's administration put a gag order on many federal agencies, such as the USDA, the EPA, Department of Commerce and others that states they cannot talk to the press, cannot share any information with the public, cannot make public any scientific findings, etc.
• Trump's administration froze all funding for the EPA and ordered all employees to stop working and to make no communications with anyone until further notice
• On Twitter, Trump made a threat to the city of Chicago, saying that if they didn't get their gun violence and homicide rate under control he would "send in the feds"
• The GOP is pushing through a bill with the absolutely Orwellian name of First Amendment Defense Act that would make it legal to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans on the basis of their sexuality

Remember, a WEEK AGO Barack Obama was president and America was leading the world in our efforts to combat climate change and fighting against discrimination of transgender Americans. This is nightmarish.

And this is just a teeny-tiny sample of what's going on right now. I could go on for hours. But this isn't a newspaper and you didn't come here to read a rundown of current events. This is a public journal designed to be...what?

I guess I want this to be a conversation. I want you to feel like I've taken you by the hand and am leading you through my day. Maybe we're sitting on the porch having a drink and bitching about work. I want this journal to not only give you an idea of what life looks like in Trump's America, but also what it feels like. 

So let me tell you a little about me. My name is Shana Hammaker Roy. I'm a forty year old wife and mother. I live with my husband Brandon and my college-age daughter Meredith. I am a pharmacy technician but am looking to (finally) make the move into journalism. I have lived in Austin Texas for the past four and a half years, but was born and raised in California. In between, I spent varying amounts of time living in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Tennessee. 

I'm a high school drop out with three college degrees. I owe more than I make in two years in college debt.

I've been around. I've met a lot of people. I feel like I have a unique perspective of our great nation.

And now, along with the rest of America, my life has been upended. I feel like I'm standing at the edge of a precipice and I can't see what's below me. Is it razor-sharp spikes? Is it a sea teaming with electric eels and hungry sharks? Is it sun-baked desert sand? Is it fluffy pillows?

It's probably not fluffy pillows.

Anyhow, welcome to my journey. If you're from a nation that has already struggled with autocracy and moved beyond it, please read my worries with a gentle heart. As you know, America is a young country. We're still figuring shit out. If you're in the future, I guess you know how this story ends, which is sort of weird to think about. Thanks for taking this ride with me anyway! I plan to add to this journal as often as I can, but at least twice a week. For now, see you soon and be safe!

3 Facts About Trump and his BFF Putin

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3 Reasons Why It's Bad Trump Tweets--But Don't Look Away!

Make no mistake about it -- the revolution will be tweeted.

There were many things that distinguished this year's presidential election. It was longer than elections past, and uglier. It's looking more and more obvious to more and more people that Russian hackers interfered to sway the outcome in favor of Trump. 

But the thing that perhaps most distinguished the 2016 presidential race was the role of social media: Facebook, and, to a slightly lesser extent, Twitter. Social media sites are modern-day salons. They are places where partisans of all stripes go to meet like-minded individuals and have their viewpoints vindicated. And, to an ever-increasing degree, they are places where regular Americans get their news (or fake news, as the case may be).  

Donald Trump was the first American presidential candidate to fully embrace the use of social media in his campaign. For Trump, a through-and-through Twitter man, that meant weaponizing his Twitter account in service of his campaign. Unlike many celebrities of his caliber, Trump has (with few and brief exceptions) always run his own Twitter account. And again, unlike many celebrities of his caliber, Trump has never been above using his Twitter account to malign or complain about the people he doesn't like. And, of course, the election didn't change any of that. 

Only his targets changed.

No one really knew how to treat this sort of a presidential campaign. Not journalists, not the other candidates, and certainly not the American people. This sort of behavior is not part of the traditional political script. But it made an amazing spectacle, so no one could look away. We all just stared--some of us in horror, some of us in glee--as Donald Trump barreled through all of his competition in the primary. When the primary was over, we all breathed a momentary sigh of relief, because surely Trump would change direction during the general election part of the campaign. Surely, now that the partisan circus of the primary season was over, he would start acting more presidential.

But he didn't. And then he won the general election, too.

At that point, many of us were hoping he would announce that is was all a joke. We assumed Trump would tweet that he just wanted to prove that he could win the presidency, and that he would go back to Celebrity Apprentice and resume his regular life. Others waited with bated breath for him to change, to abdicate his Twitter account and start acting more presidential.

Trump hasn't done any of those things. And his Twitter account hasn't changed a bit.

In our last discussion, 3 Reasons We Need to Hold Onto the First Amendment For Dear Effing Life, it was said that we were taking the content of all of the President-Elect's tweets seriously as they were written. For today's argument, we are looking at those tweets themselves. Here, we examine why it is so very awful and scary that our next American president communicates the way he does. 

3 Reasons Why It's BAD that Trump Tweets (But Don't Look Away!)

• The President-Elect weaponizes his Twitter account against particular companies and individual Americans

So far since winning the election, Trump has aimed the full force of his Twitter account against three American companies (not including media outlets, as that is a topic covered in a different post) and a slew of individuals, including the entire cast of the Tony-winning Broadway musical Hamilton. 

Here is a list of the companies and individuals attacked by President-Elect Trump through his Twitter account:

Companies
Rexnord (Trump says they are moving to Mexico)

Boeing (Trump derided the price tag of the new Air Force One they're building)

Lockheed-Martin (Trump complained about the price tag of the F-35 program)  

Individuals
Cast of Hamilton (Trump demanded they apologize for addressing Vice-President Elect Pence after a show)

Alec Baldwin (Trump belittled his impressions of him on Saturday Night Live)

Former presidential candidate Jill Stein (Trump called her a scam artist for calling for a recount of several key states)

Leader of Local Steelworkers 1999 Chuck Jones (The union rep publically--and rightfully--accused Trump of lying about the terms of his Carrier deal)

And here are the President-Elect's actual tweets:

• The President-Elect's public whining about the election reveals him to be thin-skinned 

Every time Donald Trump complains on Twitter about the recount in Michigan, or reiterates what he sees as his "landslide" Electoral College win, or calls Jill Stein a scam artist, or claims he would have won the popular vote, too, had it not been for all of the imagined voter fraud, he makes himself look like an ass to Americans and a weak, easily-manipulated despot to foreign powers.

Which might actually be exactly why Russia worked so hard to install him in the White House.

• The President-Elect's Twitter feed serves as a constant, horrifying spectacle to distract and confuse the populace

Do a Google search for "Evidence that Trump's tweets are a distraction" and you will get just as many hits for news articles that claim they are not mere distractions and need to be taken seriously as you will articles that warn against spending too much time staring at them.

I contend they are both.

Yes, the President-Elect tweets spontaneous, angry tirades when an SNL skit offends him. But also, yes, the President-Elect tweets crafty, well-thought-out messages designed to distract the American public from the fact that, for example, he appointed the racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic head of Breitbart to be his chief White House strategist. Or that he appointed the CEO of Exxon-Mobile to be his Secretary of State. 

This is why we Americans now have the seemingly impossible task of watching the Donald's tweets AND watching the Donald's deeds. It's too big a job to handle alone. This MUST be a group effort. Talk to your friends. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your family. Form resistance groups. Resistance is patriotic!

We have a long, hard, road ahead of us and we will tire. Nurture each other. Remind each other about the end goal: taking our country back. 

The revolution will be tweeted!

Follow me: @LiteraryGrrrl 

3 Reasons We Need to Hold Onto the First Amendment For Dear Effing Life

How does that Lee Greenwood song go? That's right:

'Cause I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I'll gladly thank the men who died to give that right to me. And I'll proudly stand up next to you to defend her still, today. 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land. God bless the USA!

Us Americans love that we're free. We talk about it all the time. But how often do we think critically about the constitutional framework that supports our freedom? Not often enough. That better change, though, because if President-Elect Trump's twitter feed is any indication, those constitutional supports won't be there for long after he takes the oath of office. 

Today we're going to talk about why we need to hold onto our beloved First Amendment rights for dear life. Our discussion assumes that we are taking Trump's tweets seriously as they were written. This will not be a discussion of whether it is reasonable to take the President-Elect's tweets seriously, or a forum in which we mull over all of the myriad reasons why Trump tweets the way he does (Stephen Colbert of the Late Show offered an interesting explanation, however). Those are both deserving debates and they are ones we will have another day.

3 Reasons We Need to Protect the First Amendment with Our Every Breath

• The President-Elect Wants to Strip Citizenship from Dissidents

I can not believe that I actually had to type that last sentence. Everything about it feels surreal, and yet here we are. Last week (on November 29), out of the blue, President-Elect Donald Trump tweeted that those who burn the American flag ought to have their citizenship revoked, or at least spend a year in jail. And when I say "out of the blue" I mean out of the blue. Although the constitutionality of flag burning does pop up every now and again, it's been awhile since this discussion has been on the national radar. There haven't been any flag burnings in the news. It would seem that Trump woke up that morning, shrugged his shoulders, and thought to himself: "What the hell, I'll tweet about flag burning." 

In fact, as the picture above reveals, the flag-burning tweet came sandwiched in between a tweet denigrating CNN (a constitutionally problematic tweet in its own right) and a tweet offering condolences to the victims of Gatlinburg, Tennessee's recent wildfire.

In other words: out. Of. The. Blue.

I'm not going to waste your time or insult your intelligence with a long, passionate speech about why the President-Elect shouldn't speak out against constitutionally-protected free speech and constitutionally-protected political dissent. We are starting with the assumption that we can all agree on those things. What I am focusing on here is the fact that the President-Elect is suggesting that American citizens should be stripped of citizenship for political dissent.

In America, we have birthright citizenship. (For a primer of what that means, click here.) If you are born here you are a citizen, and that can never be taken away from you. It is one of the many things that distinguishes Americans, and it is one of the many things of which we can be proud.

And President-Elect Donald Trump, weeks before assuming office, made a public statement in which he threatened to take that away from us. If you're not terrified, you're not paying attention.

• The President-Elect is waging a constant war against the free press

Since Donald Trump was certified as the President-Elect, late on the night of November 8, he has tweeted 121 total tweets (as of 8:18 pm Central Standard Time 12/06). I have poured through all of them (you're welcome) and separated them into four troublesome categories, along with a category of "other." The four troublesome categories are: anti-media, anti-first-amendment otherwise, whining about the election, and self-congratulatory.

Here is how Trump's 121 tweets divide up:

Anti-media: 21 tweets, or 17%
Anti-First-Amendment Otherwise: 5 tweets, or 4%
Whining about the election: 21 tweets, or 17%
Self-Congratulatory: 10 tweets, or 8%

That leaves 64 tweets, or 52% as "other." But don't let that fool you. These tweets aren't wholly benign. All of Trump's antagonizing tweets about China fall into this category, for example, as do all of his tweets about Carrier (and the other businesses he's calling out by name, like Boeing).

What I want to highlight in this section, however, is the anti-media category, which currently comprises a full 17% of the President-Elect's tweets. Below are a few gems from this category.

ANTI-CNN

ANTI-ALL MEDIA

ANTI-NY TIMES

(These tweets deserve some special attention. It needs to be noted that the Times only found out that Trump cancelled the meeting through this very tweet. He never called them. Then, when the meeting finally took place, he spent most of it railing at the journalists for what he deemed unfavorable coverage. Reminder, this is the PRESIDENT-ELECT.)

ANTI-ALL MEDIA

• The President-Elect's Family is Calling for FBI Investigations of Political Dissidents

Jared Kushner is Trump's son-in-law, and he is also owner/publisher of the New York Observer. On Friday last the paper published an op-ed titled "Comey's FBI Needs to Investigate Violent Democratic Tantrums." Read the full text here. This is how the article begins:

It’s time for the FBI to conduct a detailed investigation into the violence and political thuggery that continue to mar the presidential election’s aftermath. A thorough probe of the protests—to include possible ties to organizations demanding vote recounts—will give the Bureau’s integrity-challenged director, James Comey, a chance to sandblast his sullied badge.

Director Comey must also include “elector intimidation” on his post-election investigation list. Reports that members of the Electoral College are being harassed and threatened by angry, vicious (and likely Democratic Party) malcontents require Comey’s quick and systematic attention.

In other words, the author is calling for the FBI to embark on an all-out investigation of citizens who are expressing their constitutionally-protected right of free speech.

Think on that for awhile, friends.
Until next time, my fellow Americans!

The revolution will be tweeted! Follow me: @LiteraryGrrrl 

3 Reasons Why Trump's Carrier Deal Should Alarm You

Unless you've been hiding under your bed since Election Day without your phone or any other access to the news or social media, you've undoubtedly heard about President-Elect Trump's recent deal with the Indiana-based air conditioner company Carrier. (Read this if you need a primer on the situation first.)

On Thanksgiving Day Trump tweeted (see picture below): "I am working hard, even on Thanksgiving, trying to get Carrier A.C. Company to stay in the U.S. (Indiana). MAKING PROGRESS -- Will know soon!"

I don't know what you first thought when you read that tweet. My first thought was: "Huh?" And my second thought was: "How much Carrier stock does Trump have?" And then I might have (probably) called him an unflattering name. 

The thing is, though, Trump's hands-on intervention in Carrier's labor strategy is a really, really bad thing. And now we will take a look at 3 reasons why that is. Our argument will be illustrated with some more of the President-Elect's tweets.

3 Reasons to be Alarmed by Trump's Carrier Deal

• It's not the President's job to negotiate with individual businesses. 

This might actually be the most minor problem with the whole Carrier shenanigans, but it bears mentioning. I don't think there are actual legal prohibitions on the President engaging in such negotiations with individual businesses, but it really just doesn't make sense for him to do so. Not only would it be incredibly time-consuming and tedious to sit down with every company that is thinking of moving overseas one by one and hammering out deals to get them to stay, but the President has more important things to do. That is why, historically, negotiating with businesses has been left to state and local governments. As the heads of their respective economies, mayors and governors are best positioned to do the street-level deal making required in such situations.

The stakes in deals like these are high, frequently involving millions of dollars in tax incentives and potentially thousands of jobs saved or lost. Once the President gets involved, those stakes get even higher, and that leads to the second reason we should all be scared:

• Crony capitalism

We have to ask ourselves why President-Elect Trump made Carrier's labor issues his own personal business. One answer, that we will get into in point three, is most certainly "a craven grab for accolades", but another is definitely crony capitalism. (If even Sarah Palin is saying so it must be true.) 

How much Carrier stock does Trump own? Maybe none, but according to this WSJ article, in 2014 he owned up to $250,000 worth of their parent company. Did that factor into his decision to cut Carrier a deal? Of course it did. 

And what did he mean when he tweeted "They will sell many air conditioners!"? Is Trump going to buy Carrier air conditioners for all of his hotels now? I wouldn't be surprised. Would you? 

In Fortune magazine, the venerable onetime VP nominee Sarah Palin wrote: 

“When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent,” she wrote.

Has Sarah Palin ever sounded so rational? 

And, oh look: it didn't take long for Trump to move from praising one company to denouncing another. Eight days. Then he tweeted this: 

• It's all about the spectacle

Donald Trump the man is a carny. He is long on spectacle and short on substance. Donald Trump the president is shaping up to be largely the same. He has said that he wants to continue to hold rallies as President, and indeed held the first of these on December First in Ohio when he kicked off his so-called Thank You Tour (#ThankYouTour2016).

In fact, the entirety of the Thank You Tour should be concerning to all Americans. The President-Elect is making a tour of states that were key to his win. He is holding huge self-congratulatory rallies in states that he won. Does that sound like the behavior of an American president? Or does that sound like the behavior of an emperor or fascist dictator?

And what better way to kick off a victory tour--because let's be serious, that's what the Thank You Tour really is--than with the backdrop of a victory for American jobs? 

Stick with me for a minute, because this bullet point needs explanation. The reason spectacle is a problem in terms of national policy is because it is used for its psychological effect on the population. History shows us that spectacles have been used to control the population through fear and national fervor. In terms of a Trump presidency, spectacle will likely be used to distract us from the president's YUGE conflicts of interest with his business interests. 

I'd say something about those conflicts of interest but those will have to wait for (several more) posts.

The revolution will be tweeted! 

Follow me: @LiteraryGrrrl