Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #14


11/30/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,


I was a little mean in that last letter.  I won't guarantee that I won't do it again, because having my civil rights threatened, my country looted, and the Constitution disdained all makes me a bit cranky.

However, lest anyone think I'm just rooting for you to fail miserably so that Democrats can swoop in and save the day like FDR on a white charger (recalling what happened the last time Republicans had all the marbles)...here's some straight-up, honest advice:
  • Romney is all right.  I don't agree with him, but he's competent and seems like a decent enough person.
  • DeVos has no idea what she's doing.That could be said of many people you are offering jobs to, but education is my wheelhouse.
  • Mnuchin does know what he's doing, but all of it is bad.  He is another economic meltdown waiting to happen. This isn't just how you wind up with another Great Recession; this is how you wind up with the populace sharpening up their guillotines. Don't do it.
  • Likewise, that victory lap you want to take?  Don't.  Governing is very different from campaigning, as you are discovering. Also, Americans traditionally hate our government and believe any yahoo could do better...that's why you ran for President, yes?  Except now you ARE in the government and now get to be in the hot seat. That's what you asked for. Don't run away.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Liars, Traitors, Cheats, and Thieves: Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #13


11/29/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,


Elliot Lusztig was talking about Hannah Arendt's The Origin of Totalitarianism and its applicability to you and yours. Specifically, that fact-checking you is useless because you aren't dealing in facts; you are framing the narrative for what you want to do next.  The Nazis knew the Jews weren't to blame for Germany losing World War I, they were just ginning up a reason to murder them.  Likewise, you know millions of people didn't vote illegally in the election. You're just ginning up a reason to suppress the vote. As Lusztig says, "What Trump is saying is not that 3m illegals voted. What he's saying is: I'm going to steal the voting rights of millions of Americans."

But why would you do that?  The answer is the same reason Jim Crow laws were passed, the same reason Republicans want voter ID laws and are against early voting but for closing polling places.  You know you will lose if everyone who is eligible to vote actually does, so you machinate to take their voting rights away.  You can't win any other way, so you cheat. You...along with every Republican colluding with you...are a liar, and a cheat, and a thief who wants to steal democracy itself.

I cannot imagine anything more deeply un-American. To wave the flag and conspire to undermine the Constitution is more than hypocrisy; it's a kind of idolatry in the worst possible sense.  The symbol is nothing; the thing itself, the country, America, the Republic, that is everything. America isn't a flag.  America is us.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Monday, November 28, 2016

D is for Defiance: Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #12


11/28/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

 Today is a study in contrasts.  There's a nasty creature, one of your fans, who has spent years harassing and intimidating local politicians in his best (not very competent) Brietbart/O'Keefe style...deceptively edited videos, belligerance, outright lies.  He tried to pick a fight with me online.  I called him out, stood my ground, and he scurried away like a cockroach when you turn the light on. 

And then my friendly acquaintance Catherynne Valente wrote this story, a fairy tale about politics (what else are fairy tales about?) and deception, and despair, and defiance. 

I say No.  No to your corruption, your bluster, your lies, your callous disregard for the Constitution, your tacit encouragement of bullies, your poisoned sweets.  And Yes, yes to my friends, yes to my glorious diverse and joyful American community, yes to freedom and music and poetry and love, yes to stories, yes to truth.  Yes to the Republic, as it should be.  Yes to every item on the Bill of Rights, but especially the First.  I defy you or anyone who tries to encroach upon it.  I am full of defiance, and I am turning on the light.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Blue Staters in Trumpland: A Survival Guide

Back in May of this year, Kyle Whitmire over at AL.com wrote a column about "the Alabamification of America."  He described the state of affairs in Alabama thusly:  "Our governor is under investigation. Our House speaker is under indictment. Our chief justice is suspended from duty and awaiting trial, again. We're one of the poorest states in the country, living off the federal dole, and we sit at or near the bottom of most empirical rankings of quality of life. Our leadership is non-existent and our government is on the brink of collapse."  This is, I wish to note, what happens when you let crazy take the wheel of governance.  And it is not a solely Republican phenomenon...I do live in DeKalb County, Georgia...but since Republicans have been riding the fact-free crazy train for years now, and have currently reached what I dearly hope is the apotheosis of same, we are going to talk about that for a little bit.

He went on to warn, "don't think for a minute that you're better than us. Donald Trump is the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, and you put him there. You're closer to Alabama than you care to think."

And so here we are. 

Many of us are wondering what the hell just happened, and feeling a combination of disbelief and betrayal by our fellow citizens that is, alas, somewhat familiar.  I felt that way in 2000, when "F for Fiasco, L for Lord help us" Florida happened. However, if anything 2004 was worse.  Not only did the country re-elect George W. Bush, thus removing any brake on the trainwreck-on-fire economic collapse that was already barrelling down the tracks, but the Georgia legislature put a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot.  That drew the haters out in droves.  Democrats lost twenty-five seats overnight and their previous majority in the state House of Representatives; the governorship and both houses in the state legislature have been held by Republicans ever since. That means twelve years of, as Whitmire puts it, "stuck on stupid." Though I would argue that Georgia has avoided some of the excesses of foolishness exhibited by some of our neighbor states.  Some of that is because we have Atlanta, which is the largest city in the Southeast, and a loud and boisterous liberal minority.  That last part is important...especially since, nationally, liberals are NOT the minority but the majority.  In other words...things are pretty bad.  But this fight isn't over.  It is just beginning.

So, my left-leaning friends in Democratic majority states who are contemplating the appalling prospect of a Republican Congress being the only thing between them and Donald Trump's apocalyptic notions of Presidency, including his hair-raising policy proposals, I have a few words of advice that will help you get through the next four years, especially the next two:

  • First, you CANNOT lose your mind over every reckless, hare-brained, bigotry-codified-into-law idea that they float as possibilities.  That well is inexhaustible, but you are not, and most of it won't go anywhere.  That is because they are throwing red meat to the seething tank full of piranha who are their base, to keep them interested. They propose laws to make English the official language, or to outlaw hijab, so they can go back to their constituents and say "I TRIED but you know how politics goes..."  If they don't, they are subject to primary challenges by Republicans even crazier than they are. This is why even moderates will do a little two-step with the Devil every so often. 
  • However, it IS worth your while to oppose all of it, by letting your opinions be heard loud and clear.  Because...
  • The more sensible among them realize that if they let too much crazy through the gate, the public will recoil and they will get creamed like an eclair in the next general election. This is what happened to Pat McCrory in North Carolina, for all that he's fighting it like mad.  The consequences did not, alas, extend to their legislature.  Being vocally opposed to ALL of the stupid helps drive home the message there.  I am just saying you don't need to pull the fire alarm every single time...since wearing you out is part of the strategy, too. 
  •  They also, after beating the drum of "government is bad" and being the party of obstructionism for so long, now have to actually govern.  If they don't, they own the screw-up.  And while their base will just rationalize that away, they know many of us...especially those swing voters they need to stay in office...will not.  Here in Georgia that means some surprisingly practical and useful things have emerged from the legislature, alongside all the voter ID laws and abortion bans. 
  • They must therefore thread a careful path between the Scylla of their own base and the Charybdis of the rest of us.  Your job is to make sure the latter part of that double threat has some real teeth to it. 
  • You do this by learning the best way to apply pressure, to whom, and when.  Let your own representatives know how you feel, reward them for standing up to stupid, and call them out when they don't...that's important.  Politics is about horse-trading, and you want to make sure that your legislators (who WILL need Republican support to get anything done) are not tempted to cave on anything you find important.  Nobody wants to go out on a limb that won't hold their weight. 
  • Some Democrats will sell us out.  That 2004 ballot measure I mentioned above was passed because of a handful of quisling bigots with a D beside their names.  It needs to be clear that if a Democrat in Congress does something like that, a primary challenger will appear.  Be ready, which means getting involved. 
  • Beyond that, find out who the gatekeepers are.  That means learning what legislation goes through which committees.  Either call up Democratic members of those committees and/or the chair (who will determine whether a committee even votes on a bill).  Because the Republicans hold the majority, those seats will all be held by Republicans. In most cases they will be pretty secure in their seats, but...not necessarily.  Depending on where they are from, you may have some leverage, especially with Republican senators from liberal-leaning states. If you are a constituent in one of those states, be all up in their business, all the time.  Have them on speed dial.  You are their new best frenemy. 
  • Figure out whose seats may be vulnerable in 2018 and, if they are anywhere near you, start helping the effort to unseat them now
  • Help the ones who aren't near you, too, if you can.  I can tell you right now that some of these supposedly "red" states are shifting under the Republicans' feet; I live in one of them.  Six counties went for Hillary Clinton that were held by Romney in 2012.  Three of them were in Georgia.  In the same way that supposedly Democratic strongholds proved to be volatile in 2016, lots of supposed Republican strongholds are not so solid going into 2018 and 2020.  If you have a little extra dough, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Henry County Democrats could put it to good use.  
  • Encourage your state and city governments to push back against the stupid as well.  The city of Clarkston, Georgia recently decriminalized marijuana, and several municipalities around the state offer non-discrimination ordinances for LGBT residents. Even when those measures seem like gestures of defiance, that is worth something in and of itself.   Because...

    • The overall principle here is that behavior that has a political reward will be repeated, and behavior with a political cost will not be.  There are powerful forces rewarding certain kinds of nastiness and stupidity; we need to be a counter-weight providing an equally powerful pull in the other direction.  We have the advantage in that we actually ARE in the majority, and the left is motivated right now in a way we haven't been for a pretty long time...maybe not in decades.  That provides an opportunity to break the stale-mate we have been in for a while.  What we do with it remains to be seen.   

    Be kind to each other.  Take care of each other.  The biggest thing we need to do, if you ask me, is to show that all of that "stronger together" stuff isn't just a slogan; that there is a vision of American society as a community made up of many different people from diverse backgrounds who actually do care about each other and the country as a whole which is far more compelling than the poisonous daydream being sold by Trump. We need to live it.   There are quite a few people who are about to have a rude awakening, when they figure out just how badly they have been lied to.  That is going to be one hell of a hangover and we need to be kind to them as well, while still standing up for the values I just described, and the value of every American. 

    An observation I have made before is that conservatives seem to love "America" the abstraction, while we love Americans.  America is us.

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #11


11/27/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

 I was busy yesterday talking to people about their personal lives and aspirations...the kind of work that always revives me. No matter how much people in the aggregate disappoint and sometimes horrify me, individuals generally restore my faith.

It needs a lot of restoring, lately.  Accounts of people threatening Muslims, immigrants, or whomever happens across their path and invoking your name in the process keep turning up.  Your very weak "stop it" obviously did nothing.  Yes, this is your responsibility...you are the one who used the incendiary language that got all of those people stirred up. You now have to attempt to govern a country where a significant portion of the population is in legitimate fear of another portion, due to what you unleashed.  It's your job to put that monster back in its box.  If you can.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Friday, November 25, 2016

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #10


11/25/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

 I noticed you are naming a billionaire with no classroom experience who thinks privatizing public education is just dandy to be Secretary of Education.  Well, at least you're consistent.

I note in passing that a ballot measure sold as school improvement but described by some as "an experiment in privatizing education" just failed spectacularly in Georgia. The problem of course is that when your real objective is to turn education into a profit stream, you can't actually increase local control because people are unpredictable and might make decisions in their own best interests.  You therefore have to put in controls that make sure they make the "right" decisions...and that always gives up the game.  You can't talk local control and school choice and walk privatization.  They are mutually incompatible.  And people notice.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #9


11/24/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

 I know you don't realize it, but you have done something my late brother warned people never to do.  He was a Vietnam veteran, and after thirty years of PTSD, finally succumbed to liver cancer probably caused by exposure to Agent Orange.  He used to say, of my older sister, "Don't make her mad."

I am preparing to drive to her house, in rural north Georgia, where there will be much talk of politics and what to do next.  Don't say I didn't warn you. 

Meanwhile, some folks out in the Dakotas are defending their land from incursion by government (via eminent domain) and corporation.  It is in fact their land; it was granted to them by treaty and the Standing Rock Sioux never ceded it willingly. The pipeline itself is a disaster on multiple levels.  I was interested to hear that you sold off your shares of Energy Transfer Partners, which at least eliminates one conflict of interest.  Good start; get rid of the rest of them as well.  But at the end of the day, your threat to eliminate NASA's climate change research shows where your priorities really are.  You are in the exact same position as the North Carolina legislature, which forbade accurate reporting of sea-level rise on the grounds that it would negatively affect real estate development along the coast.  Your will to keep us from understanding the danger we are in will not keep us from drowning. 

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #8


11/23/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

Just a reminder...

You lost the popular vote, by a margin that seems to get bigger every day.

There is enough evidence of vote tampering that serious people are urging an audit in several states.  And there's evidence that the Russians intervened in the election in your favor.  And then there's the FBI director violating the Hatch Act...

The day you take office, any gifts or favors you receive from foreign governments become a violation of the Constitution.

And nobody believes you when you half-heartedly disavow "alt right" neo-Nazis, because Steve Bannon is still on your payroll.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The United States of Hell No Letter #7


11/22/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

Today I met a woman named Beatrice, at the funeral of a mutual friend. We were chatting about the video going around of some of your more "exuberant" supporters saying "Hail Trump!" and giving Nazi salutes.

"They want to take us back to post-Reconstruction," she said, referring to the backlash that followed the period of relative freedom and equality just after the Civil War, the backlash that led to rulings like Plessy vs. Ferguson and the establishment of Jim Crow. 

I know many women like her...elaborately braided gray hair, self-composed, elegant to her fingertips.  Chair of the Social Justice Committee in her AME church.  Lifelong member of the NAACP.  There are hundreds like her just in Atlanta alone...running civic organizations, volunteering, donating to political campaigns.  Working behind the scenes mostly, just like they have done for decades.  She was wearing a safety pin and made sure I knew what it was for, and also made sure I knew there was going to be a Women's March in January.

I trust women like her.  They re-shaped the world I grew up in, into something better and more just.  They may not be as young as they used to be, but they know how this is done.  They have been here before, and they aren't scared.  And with that kind of example before me, what else can I do but fall in line?  If this is to be a battle for the soul of America, then so be it.  I know whose side I want to be on.

Do you really want to go down in history as a villain?  There's still time.  It doesn't have to be this way.  But if you aren't afraid of the elegant black grandmothers of this world, then you simply do not understand what you are dealing with. If you continue down the path you are on, they will be coming for you.

"I have a six year old grand-daughter.  She is not going to grow up under that. We have fought too hard for too long.  We are not going back."

"No," I agreed.  "We are not."

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Monday, November 21, 2016

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #6


11/21/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

I had literal nightmares about your appointment of Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General last night.  They still qualify as nightmares even though honestly, they were merely full of a low-key fog of dystopic horror indistinguishable from reality. 

In the dream I had a samurai tattooed on my belly, and my parents were alive.  I wanted to go listen to music.  My father said I needed to make a large black cat first.  I said I wasn't sure how.  My mother didn't want me hanging around in bars, but I told my father I had a friend meeting me there and he said that was smart.  He seemed to think I would be ok.

I understand the message of my dream.  It's time to be a warrior, and an artist, to listen to each other's songs.  There isn't actually a way for you to turn back the clock, no matter how hard you try.  I have friends meeting me there.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #5


11/20/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

So, I hear you settled your Trump University fraud case for $25 million.  You immediately tried to spin it as being "smart" (because you would have spent more money if it had gone to court...Doesn't that amount to an admission of guilt?) and because you're too busy with the important business of preparing to destroy American democracy more than you already have.  That's not how you put it, but I read between the lines.

I mentioned before that I teach college.  I am from a family of educators; five generations of my family at least, maybe more.  I have a distant cousin who calls it the family business.  Not a very profitable one, most of the time. But my family has a record of public service and idealism going back to the American Revolution and beyond.

I have a teaching philosophy statement that says things like "Teaching is the art of cultivating epiphany" and muses on the balance of challenge and encouragement necessary for teaching complex skills. Running underneath, unstated, is my belief that every human being who walks into my classroom has unique skills and gifts worthy of development. I teach all of my students with equal attention to their potential.  I see all of them, their presence in my classroom, as a kind of grace.

You see students as rubes to be manipulated with promises of success and separated from their money.  Education for profit is not education; it is a cynical poisoning of people's dreams.  Trump University isn't just the latest in your string of bad business and chicanery.  It is an insult to every teacher in America, every person who believes education is a means to uplift those who struggle, every American who understands that education is a cornerstone of our democracy. I note that what landed you in court is not the fraud itself, but the fact that people eventually figured it out, got the backbone to admit they'd been conned, and rebelled.  Your campaign for President has been exactly the same as your other cons:  big empty promises, manipulation of people's desires for a better life, a cynical poisoning of the the American Dream for your own advantage.  Those who have tasted your poison may yet recover, once they realize that there's nothing there. May it be so.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

PS from Sara:  I've taken to just tweeting these at him.  He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to.  *snort*

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #4


11/19/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

I went to yet another doctor's appointment this morning.  I am fortunate in that I now have a job that provides insurance, one of those flexible spending accounts, and all of that.  There have been periods of time in my life when I didn't have those things.  There have been periods of time when I was dependent on Medicaid, notably when I was fired when I got pregnant.  (They, too, viewed pregnancy as "inconvenient").  I had eclampsia when my son was born and nearly died; if I hadn't been getting weekly checkups, I would certainly be dead now and probably my son along with me.

There was also a period of time a couple of years ago when the legislature was playing politics with my job and my insurance was dropped; I had to get it through the ACA exchanges. As I am diabetic, this was not a trivial matter and even though I was able to get the care I needed, the instability of it caused me some problems.  Nerve damage from high blood sugar levels is not reversible, by the way.  I am here to say that any attempt to undermine or repeal the ACA, or to dismantle Medicare/Medicaid, means people will die. I know this for a fact.  You know this, or you should.  Paul Ryan and Mike Pence certainly know this. 

Just between you and me, I know you aren't trying to make health care better for average Americans.  You are trying to make it better for insurance companies.  That means you are putting a price on American lives, and because insurance is all about math, it's actually possible to determine what that price is.  There is an actual answer to this question:  How much profit is each person's death worth?  (As a side question, how much profit does needless suffering due to lack of preventative care translate into?  I suspect that is the real bonanza here; I'm not worth much dead, but as a potential diabetes patient on dialysis I'm probably worth hundreds of thousands). And how much of it redounds to you personally, or to Paul Ryan, or Mike Pence?  Are you benefiting directly, or are you just doing it as a favor for a friend?

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

Friday, November 18, 2016

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #3


11/18/16

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

I skipped a day.  Did you miss me?  Did you think I gave up already?  I drive an hour and a half each way to teach college.  I teach writing, critical thinking, and such things as supporting claims with evidence.  After working all day I went to a political meeting. So while I wasn't composing specific words aimed at you, you could say that my whole day was a repudiation of every damage you have already visited upon our Republic. 

Today I made some phone calls.  I expressed my distaste for your white supremacist appointees where it would do the most good.  I figured I would exercise all of my glorious First Amendment rights while I still have them.  Expect a lot more of that.

By the way, it is in no way President Obama or Hillary Clinton's job to tell the protesters to stand down.  It's now YOUR job to quell their fears by acting like a President should, and reassuring them that you aren't about to set the Constitution and our whole way of life on fire.  So far you aren't doing a very good job. My advice:  Kick Bannon to the curb.  Send your children home; if they are going to run your business interests, they should be nowhere near the White House.  Stop acting like a fascist in waiting, and maybe people would freak out a little less.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America


From Dorine Jennette:

PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dorine's posts can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #2



11/16/16


Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

I just wanted to mention a couple of things about that interview you gave for 60 Minutes.

First off...a "couple" of incidents?  The Southern Poverty Law Center has logged over 400 instances of hate-filled intimidation and harassment since your election.  437 as of this writing.  And counting.  I am aware of a few here in Georgia, either as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution or in my own social circles.

Secondly...Paid protesters is not a thing.  It's a common right-wing myth, but it's bullshit.  During Occupy some of us would sarcastically greet one another with "Got your check from Soros yet?" "Nope" "Me neither. Bastard quit taking my calls."  (Next time you see him, let him know I'm still waiting).


I've never encountered anyone actually being paid to protest, ever. The closest is organizers sometimes get a salary from the organization they are part of, and union members may get a supplement to make up for the loss of pay when they are on a strike, but as far as mass numbers of people being paid to go out into the streets? How do you think that would even work?

I don't think you have thought that through.  There seem to be a lot of things you didn't think through. And I'm wondering why the right accuses the left of astroturf grassroots and insincerity so often.  Are you projecting?

Of course, I'm writing from the assumption that you didn't know you were wrong when you said those things.  That is me being charitable.  Either you were deliberately lying, or you are inexcusably ignorant.  Which is it?

Or...more charitable...you are trusting the wrong people to inform you. That is a problem you can solve, right now. It would have been better if you'd done so before, but...better late than never.  Bear in mind that there will be a point where it is actually too late, and I'm worried about that. You ran on telling everyone how dangerous the world is.  You volunteered to protect us.

I don't trust you to be able to do that. Prove me wrong.

Yours sincerely,

Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States


PS for those following my Twitter back to my blog, or who otherwise find it, who think you are going to make me another statistic:  First, you'll be proving my point and second, Georgia has pretty good cyber harassment laws, and third...don't think I would do this without a plan.  Civil disagreement is fine.  Anything else will be dealt with summarily.  Don't try me.


From Dorine Jennette: PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on! You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . . As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.

Dear Assailant-in-Chief, Letter #1

Dear Assailant-in-Chief,

In the week after the election, I was texting back and forth with a friend. He is a Gulf War veteran, was wounded and has PTSD. He is also, like over a million people in the US, HIV+

He is absolutely, utterly, completely terrified that the Ryan Smith funding that keeps people like him alive is going to be cut...if not immediately, then soon. Paul Ryan has said he wants to cut it. Mike Pence has said he wants to cut it. Even if you don’t personally, your callous attitude about the consequences of some of your other policy items suggests that you won’t protect it. You may see it as a bargaining chip, something to trade for something you do care about. You may trade my friend’s life away for a stupid wall that should never be built, or something equally pointless. Equally dead.

You need to understand that he views every vote for you as a vote to murder him. He views it as a personal betrayal by the country he risked his life for. You are, in your choice of running-mate, responsible for that.
Unfair? Maybe. Did you think that being President was going to be fair? You should ask the guy who is still sitting in the office you are about to step into. He will no doubt be gracious, because that is who he is. He may not even mention the words “birth certificate.”

Being President means being responsible. For all of it. Everything that you do or don’t do, every consequence of every choice you or your staff or your administration makes, intended or unintended. Every. Single. One.

I hope you find that terrifying. Not because I am cruel, but because it would show that you at long last comprehend what you’ve done. I am certainly terrified, along with many other people, along with my friend.
I haven’t heard from him in a couple of days. I hope he’s ok. I’ll keep asking.

Citizen of these United States,

Sara Amis

From Dorine Jennette: PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on! You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . . As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.