Monday Reads: Me Too

Yesterday and today, all of my social media began to light up with two simple words placed into hashtag format. #MeToo. 

Two simple words became a rallying cry on Twitter to stand against sexual harassment and assault.

“Me too.”

Social media was flooded with messages Sunday, mostly from women, who tagged their profiles to indicate that they have been sexually harassed or assaulted.

On Sunday actress Alyssa Milano tweeted a note that read “Suggested by a friend: If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote “Me too” as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”

“If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet,” she wrote.

The movement started in response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal and its ensuing fall out.

One woman on twitter started the momentum as woman after woman admitted to having been assault and harassed during her lifetime.  That woman was actress Allysa Milano.

Twitter and Facebook have ignited with personal stories of abuse.

It started on Sunday with American actress Alyssa Milano calling on Twitter users to write “Me too” if they have ever been sexually assaulted or harassed to “give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.

I’ve felt this entire year has been the year of the Sexual Predator exposed.  We have an admitted one President who openly bragged about sexually assault caught on a hot mic.  We saw a Cable News Network exposed as a Ring of Predators with management and talent having paid hush money for years to stop allegations. I relived the horror of it all during a Presidential Debate watching disturbing acts of stalking, bullying and intimidation play out on the debate stage. Hilary Clinton was subjected to horrific abuse through out the campaign by Kremlin Caligula and his awful supporters.

Sexual harassment impacts to your health. 

Dr. Colleen Cullen, a licensed clinical psychologist, notes that for victims of sexual harassment, the most common diagnoses are depression, anxiety, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“An experience [with sexual harassment] can either trigger symptoms of depression and anxiety that are new to the person; or it can exacerbate a previous condition that may have been controlled or resolved. Patients may also see a worsening of symptoms,” says Dr. Cullen. “Some research has found that sexual harassment early in one’s career in particular can [cause] long-term depressive symptoms.”

Someone going through or dealing with the aftermath of sexual harassment may also exhibit symptoms of PTSD, especially if the harassment leads to violence and/or assault

“Among women who experience a sexual assault, 90 percent who experience sexual violence in the immediate aftermath exhibit symptoms of acute stress,” says Dr. Helen Wilson, a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise on the effects of trauma. “For many people, these symptoms dissipate over time through social support and coping strategies, and many people totally recover and move on; others will be so distressed that it really interferes with their work and life. It takes a certain number of symptoms to diagnose, but that’s when it can become PTSD.”

There is nothing usual about this administration. Even if we manage to get rid of the man making Iranian leaders appear rational, we get the bizarre Mike Pence in his stead. This is the man who refuses to be in a room with women if his wife–who he calls ‘mother’–is not there.

Trump and Pence are misaligned politically, too. Trump campaigned as an unorthodox outsider, but Pence is a doctrinaire ideologue. Kellyanne Conway, the White House counsellor, who became a pollster for Pence in 2009, describes him as “a full-spectrum conservative” on social, moral, economic, and defense issues. Pence leans so far to the right that he has occasionally echoed A.C.L.U. arguments against government overreach; he has, for instance, supported a federal shield law that would protect journalists from having to identify whistle-blowers. According to Bannon, Pence is “the outreach guy, the connective tissue” between the Trump Administration and the most conservative wing of the Republican establishment. “Trump’s got the populist nationalists,” Bannon said. “But Pence is the base. Without Pence, you don’t win.”

Pence has taken care to appear extraordinarily loyal to Trump, so much so that Joel K. Goldstein, a historian and an expert on Vice-Presidents who teaches law at St. Louis University, refers to him as the “Sycophant-in-Chief.” But Pence has the political experience, the connections, the discipline, and the ideological mooring that Trump lacks. He also has a close relationship with the conservative billionaire donors who have captured the Republican Party’s agenda in recent years.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump characterized the Republican Party’s big spenders as “highly sophisticated killers” whose donations allowed them to control politicians. When he declared his candidacy, he claimed that, because of his real-estate fortune, he did not need support from “rich donors,” and he denounced super pacs, their depositories of unlimited campaign contributions, as “corrupt.” Pence’s political career, though, has been sponsored at almost every turn by the donors whom Trump has assailed. Pence is the inside man of the conservative money machine.

Oh, the loathsome West Wing Mommy   Both Trump and creepy KellyAnne attended the Values Voter Meeting held by the Hate Group “Family Research” council.  She told the cult gathering that she loves working for Trump because he truly “respects” and “elavates” women . She’s definitely on my Arya list probably as high up as Little Finger was on hers until last season.  “I work in a workplace where working moms and certainly women are respected.” Most likely she feels safe because there are armed guards around him.

She’s most likely Adult Day Care Mommy now.  Here’s more of our tax dollars at work.  It’s on the same level of his frequent trips to his properties to play golf and fleece us of funds.

Some Trump aides spend a significant part of their time devising ways to rein in and control the impetuous president, angling to avoid outbursts that might work against him, according to interviews with 18 aides, confidants and outside advisers, most of whom insisted on anonymity to speak candidly.

“If you visit the White House today, you see aides running around with red faces, shuffling paper and trying to keep up with this president,” said one Republican in frequent contact with the administration. “That’s what the scene is.”

The White House dismissed Corker’s suggestion that administration officials spend their days trying to contain the president. The point was highlighted last week in an unusual briefing by White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, who sought to tamp down reports that he was focused on attempting to control Trump.

“I was not brought to this job to control anything but the flow of information to our president so that he can make the best decisions,” Kelly told reporters. “So, again, I was not sent in to — or brought in to — control him.”

Kelly also praised Trump as “a decisive guy” and “a very thoughtful man” whose sole focus is on advancing American interests. “He takes information in from every avenue he can receive it,” Kelly said. “I restrict no one, by the way, from going in to see him. But when we go in to see him now, rather than onesies and twosies, we go in and help him collectively understand what he needs to understand to makes these vital decisions.”

Trump is hardly the first president whose aides have arranged themselves around him and his management style — part of a natural effort, one senior White House official said, to help ensure the president’s success. But Trump’s penchant for Twitter feuds, name-calling and temperamental outbursts presents a unique challenge.

One defining feature of managing Trump is frequent praise, which can leave his team in what seems to be a state of perpetual compliments. The White House pushes out news releases overflowing with top officials heaping flattery on Trump; in one particularly memorable Cabinet meeting this year, each member went around the room lavishing the president with accolades.

Speaking of more insane members of the Trump clown posse,  Axios today has this headline: “ The next CIA director could be Tom Cotton.”