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Urgent Concerns Regarding Project 2025 and Its Threat to Democracy and the American People

3/16/2025

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It will only take 15 minute to copy and paste this email and send to the 11 committees listed below and it makes a BIG DIFFERENCE! 
Dear Members of the [House/Senate] [Committee Name],
 
I am writing to express deep concern over the implications of Project 2025, a comprehensive policy blueprint designed to reshape the U.S. government in ways that could undermine democratic institutions, concentrate power in the executive branch, and economically devastate millions of Americans. While this project is framed as a way to make government more efficient, its core proposals threaten the balance of power, the integrity of civil service, and the fundamental rights of American citizens.
 
Key Concerns Regarding Project 2025:
 
1️ Expansion of Executive Power
  • Proposal: Project 2025 seeks to centralize power within the presidency, making it easier for the executive branch to bypass congressional oversight and rule by decree.
  • Implication: This could lead to an "imperial presidency," where policy decisions are made unilaterally, stripping away the checks and balances essential to democracy.
  • Source: (American Progress)
2️ Dismantling the Impartial Civil Service
  • Proposal: The plan replaces tens of thousands of nonpartisan government employees with political loyalists, expanding the number of presidential appointees from 4,000 to 50,000.
  • Implication: This would destroy the neutrality of government agencies, leading to policies that serve political interests rather than the American public.
  • Source: (The Guardian)
3️ Defunding and Gutting Oversight Agencies
  • Proposal: Project 2025 seeks to eliminate federal agencies and cut budgets for oversight bodies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Securities Exchange Commission.
  • Implication: Without these agencies, corporate polluters, predatory financial institutions, and anti-consumer industries would operate unchecked, harming public health and safety.
  • Source: (Politico)
4️ Undermining Economic Stability and International Standing
  • Proposal: The plan calls for the U.S. to withdraw from global financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank and weaken economic regulations that protect consumers.
  • Implication: These policies could destabilize the economy, weaken the U.S. dollar, and make financial crises more severe—all while prioritizing corporate profits over workers’ well-being.
  • Source: (AP News)
5️ Legalizing Economic Exploitation & Disenfranchisement
  • Proposal: Project 2025 calls for severe restrictions on social programs such as Medicare, Social Security, and food assistance, while also curbing workers’ rights to unionize and collectively bargain.
  • Implication: Millions of Americans, particularly the most vulnerable, would face widespread economic hardship, increased poverty, and reduced access to healthcare.
  • Source: (Time Magazine)
 
Economic Genocide: Project 2025 as a Systematic Assault on the American Public
 
At its core, Project 2025 represents not just political overreach, but economic genocide—a deliberate consolidation of wealth and power that sacrifices the well-being of millions of Americans to benefit a ruling elite.
  • By stripping government protections, gutting regulatory agencies, and replacing experts with political operatives, this plan ensures corporate control over public life, while leaving ordinary citizens vulnerable to economic hardship, environmental disasters, and workplace exploitation.
  • The targeted dismantling of social safety nets will leave millions without access to food, healthcare, and housing--not due to economic necessity, but as a political choice that benefits only the wealthiest individuals and industries.
  • The long-term effect of these policies will be the forced economic disenfranchisement of entire communities, particularly low-income, working-class, and marginalized populations, while corporate elites accumulate untouchable levels of power and capital.
 
If enacted, Project 2025 would institutionalize policies that perpetuate extreme wealth inequality, undermine democracy, and entrench corporate and political authoritarianism—transforming the U.S. from a functioning democracy into a system where power belongs to the few at the expense of the many.
 
Call to Action: Stop Project 2025 Before It’s Too Late
I urge you to thoroughly investigate Project 2025 and its implications before these radical policies take hold. Specifically, I ask that Congress:
  • ✅ Launch an Oversight Investigation into Project 2025’s connections with corporate lobbying groups and its potential violations of constitutional checks and balances.
  • ✅ Ensure Legislative Protections that prevent mass purges of nonpartisan civil servants and prevent the political weaponization of federal agencies.
  • ✅ Publicly Commit to Opposing This Agenda and work across party lines to protect democratic institutions, civil rights, and economic security for all Americans.
 
The policies outlined in Project 2025 are not just misguided—they are a deliberate strategy to dismantle democracy and engineer economic subjugation. If these efforts are not stopped, the consequences for working Americans will be catastrophic. I urge you to act now, while there is still time to prevent this destructive transformation of our nation.
 
Thank you for your time and attention to this critical issue. I look forward to your response.
 
Sincerely,
Amanda

Write to Representatives

Find your senators and representatives at: ​https://www.congress.gov/members.

Write to Senate & House Committee Members

I've also been writing to committees that cover issues related to tehj corporate take over of our government. 
  • Some committees have a general email address for the committee
  • Some have a general submission form for the committee
  • The all have a lists of the all members of the committee, for which you have have to go to each congressperson website to submit your comments one by one. It's a bit laborious. Most Senators allow you to send letters even if you aren't in their state. Many/Most House representative only allow submissions from people in their own districts. In this case you'll only be able to write to your own representative, if they are on that committee, and/or write to the general mailbox for the committee, if there is one. 
  • You can send hand mailed letters to anyone and the addresses are all on their websites.
House of Representatives
​(1) 
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability
  • Why? This is the primary watchdog committee responsible for investigating executive branch abuses, government efficiency, and threats to democracy.
  • Contact:
    • Democrats: [email protected]
    • Republican: [email protected] 
    • Online Submission: House Oversight Whistleblower Form
(2) House Judiciary Committee
  • Why? This committee has jurisdiction over constitutional law, government reform, and legal affairs, making it critical in reviewing executive power overreach.
  • Contact:
    • Phone: (202) 225-3951
    • Website: judiciary.house.gov​
(3) House Committee on Energy and Commerce
  • Why? Project 2025 includes drastic deregulation efforts that would weaken federal agencies, impacting public health, environmental protections, and economic stability.
  • Contact:
    • Email: [email protected]
    • Phone: (202) 225-2927
    • Website: energycommerce.house.gov
(4) House Committee on Appropriations
  • Why? This committee controls federal funding for government agencies, and could block funding for policies that dismantle public programs.
  • Contact:
    • Phone: (202) 225-2771
    • Website: appropriations.house.gov
(5) House Committee on Homeland Security
  • Why? Project 2025 would reshape federal law enforcement and national security agencies in ways that could increase political control over these institutions.
  • Contact:
    • Phone: (202) 226-8417
    • Website: homeland.house.gov
(6) House Committee on Ways and Means
  • Why? This committee controls tax policy and social programs that Project 2025 seeks to gut.
  • Contact:
    • Democrats: [email protected]
    • Republicans: [email protected]
    • Phone: (202) 225-3625
    • Website: waysandmeans.house.gov

U.S. SENATE: Key Committees to Contact
(7) Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  • Why? This is the Senate’s primary oversight body for government operations, federal agencies, and national security policies.
  • Contact:
    • Phone: (202) 224-2627
    • Website: hsgac.senate.gov
(8) Senate Committee on Judiciary
  • Why? This committee has jurisdiction over legal issues, constitutional rights, and executive overreach.
  • Contact:
    • Phone: (202) 224-5225
    • Website: judiciary.senate.gov
(9) Senate Committee on Appropriations
  • Why? Like its House counterpart, this committee controls federal funding for programs and agencies that Project 2025 seeks to dismantle.
  • Contact:
    • Phone: (202) 224-7257
    • Website: appropriations.senate.gov
(10) Senate Committee on Finance
  • Why? This committee oversees tax policy, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—all of which Project 2025 threatens.
  • Contact:
    • Email: [email protected]
    • Phone: (202) 224-4515
    • Website: finance.senate.gov
(11) Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
  • Why? Project 2025 includes deregulation of environmental protections, which falls under this committee’s oversight.
  • Contact:
    • Phone: (202) 224-4971
    • Website: energy.senate.gov 
    • Chairman Joe Manchin 
    • Ranking Member John Braises 
    • https://www.energy.senate.gov/members 

Strategy

1️⃣ Send personalized emails to each committee.
  • Use the provided email addresses and include your letter as an attachment or in the body of the email.
2️⃣ Call committee offices.
  • Congressional offices track constituent calls, and multiple calls on the same issue raise red flags for lawmakers.
3️⃣ Encourage others to send similar letters.
  • The more people who contact Congress about Project 2025, the harder it is for them to ignore.
4️⃣ Engage with investigative journalists and media outlets.
  • Consider submitting an op-ed or tip to news organizations like ProPublica, The Guardian, The Intercept, or Mother Jones to help expose Project 2025.
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End Corporate Control of our Government

3/13/2025

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Let's bring this vision out of the imagination and into reality. 
Dear Congress person,

​I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to reform campaign finance and institute restrictions on corporate lobbying. Our government has become far too influenced by big business, to the point where the wealthiest individuals, like the richest man in the world, are cutting funding for crucial agencies that protect the public—such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In addition, programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which support our most vulnerable citizens, are now under threat.
 
This impacts public safety at fundamental levels and decisions being made are actively putting children's lives at risk and threatening the future of at least 80% of Americans. It is a betrayal of at least 250 million US citizens and cannot continue. The influence of fossil fuel industries alone is taking investments away from Climate change, which is is putting up to 4 billions lives on the planet at risk. This is NOT acceptable.
 
This is not a partisan issue. It is a human issue. The Red and Blue need to stop fighting each other and focus on the people they are meant to serve. Working-class Americans, regardless of political affiliation, share far more in common than what divides us. We all want basic security: the opportunity to thrive economically, the assurance that we will be supported when we face illness, and the safety net we rely on when we grow older. Corporate interests—amoral and disconnected from the struggles of everyday people—should not dictate the direction of our country.
 
The majority of corruption and inefficiency in our government does not come from the bureaucrats working in agencies, as some might claim. The workers at agencies like the CFPB, EPA, and SEC are often middle class, making an average of $100k a year. While there may be inefficiencies and corruption, the real problem lies not within these agencies, but with the corporate influence and lobbying that has infiltrated the political system. Why aren’t you all uniting to call this out? The corruption is at the top, in the very system that allows corporate money to sway policy in ways that hurt the majority of Americans.
 
We also face the growing threat of monopolies in the tech industry. A handful of billionaires control not only the data that drives our economy, but also the social platforms where we connect, share information, and engage with the world. One of these billionaires is now using his power to undermine agencies that protect the public from predatory corporate practices. Corporate lobbyists have actively worked to block meaningful regulation and now they are pushing to completely dismantle protections that help the average citizen. This is an unacceptable betrayal of the people who put you in office.
 

The idea of privatizing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid isn’t just misguided—it is harmful to millions of vulnerable Americans. It’s an attack on our social safety nets that borders on economic genocide. This policy will have devastating consequences for the most vulnerable members of our society. And this isn’t good for anyone - not you, not even the Wall Street brokers and tech bros. When no one has any money to spend, how strong will our economy be?
 
You know what is right. We are counting on you to stand up for us. Please act now to protect the interests of the American people and put an end to the unchecked influence of corporate power in our government.
 
Thank you for your time and consideration. I urge you to take immediate action to correct this dangerous course.

Sincerely,
​Amanda
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U.S. Representative Stands up for the Elderly

3/13/2025

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This is extremely cathartic to watch as Representative John Larson speaks out about the plan to privatize social security, medicaid and medicare. 
I look to ChatGPT these days a lot to get less emotional descriptions of what's going on in our country right now. This is what it said about privatization of these economic support programs:

What does Privatizing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid mean?
This would be a disaster for most Americans, especially the poor, elderly, and disabled. Here’s what would likely happen.
 
1. Social Security Privatization: Risky & Disastrous for Retirees
Right now:
  • Social Security is a guaranteed benefit.
  • It provides stable income for retirees, disabled individuals, and survivors (widows, orphans).
  • It’s not tied to stock market fluctuations.
If privatized:
  • Your benefits would depend on stock market performance—meaning a crash could wipe out your retirement savings overnight.
  • Wall Street firms would profit by charging management fees on your retirement accounts.
  • Wealthier people would do fine (they have financial advisors), but millions of retirees who rely on Social Security alone would suffer.
Who benefits? Banks, hedge funds, and Wall Street investors. They’d get trillions in new money to gamble with.
 
2. Privatizing Medicare: Higher Costs, Worse Care
Right now:
  • Medicare negotiates lower healthcare costs and ensures coverage for seniors.
  • Administrative costs are way lower than private insurance (~2% vs. ~12-15%).
  • It’s a lifeline for millions of elderly and disabled Americans.
If privatized:
  • Insurance companies would jack up premiums, co-pays, and deductibles to maximize profits.
  • Coverage could be denied for pre-existing conditions or high-risk patients.
  • Seniors would be forced into for-profit plans that limit their choice of doctors.
  • Drug prices would skyrocket since Medicare wouldn’t be able to negotiate lower costs.
Who benefits? Private insurance companies, Big Pharma, and healthcare profiteers.
 
3. Privatizing Medicaid: Millions Lose Access to Healthcare
Right now:
  • Medicaid covers low-income families, pregnant women, children, and people with disabilities.
  • It’s the biggest payer for nursing home care in the U.S.
  • States administer Medicaid, but federal funding ensures it reaches millions.
If privatized:
  • Low-income people could be forced onto voucher programs or private plans that offer less coverage.
  • Nursing homes would become even more expensive, forcing families into massive debt.
  • Many people would lose access to care completely because private insurers could deny coverage.
Who benefits? Private insurers and healthcare corporations that can deny expensive care.
 
Bottom Line: Privatization = Corporate Looting
This isn’t about making these programs more efficient—it’s about giving Wall Street, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies more control over trillions of taxpayer dollars.
 
If Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are privatized:
  • Retirement becomes a gamble.
  • Healthcare costs skyrocket.
  • Millions will lose access to essential services.
  • Corporate profits will explode while regular people suffer.
This is why billionaires and Wall Street push privatization—they see these programs as a goldmine to exploit.
 
Why Don't the People Benefit?
The only people who benefit from privatizing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are corporations, Wall Street, and the ultra-wealthy. Here’s why they push for it:
 
1. Wall Street Wants to Gamble with Social Security Money
Trillions in new investments = Huge profits for banks & hedge funds
  • Right now, Social Security is a stable, government-run system that pays out guaranteed benefits.
  • If privatized, the money would be invested in stocks and mutual funds—letting Wall Street charge fees and take cuts of your retirement.
  • A market crash? Too bad. Retirees would lose their savings while banks get bailouts.

2. Insurance Companies Want to Profit Off Medicare & Medicaid
 For-profit healthcare would replace public programs
  • Medicare currently negotiates lower prices for healthcare, making it more affordable.
  • Private insurers want to kill that so they can charge higher premiums, co-pays, and fees.
  • They also deny expensive treatments to maximize profits.

3. Billionaires & Corporations Want to Stop Paying Taxes
Cut taxes for the rich by destroying public programs
  • Social Security & Medicare are funded by payroll taxes.
  • The richest 1% hate paying into it because they don’t “need” these programs.
  • By privatizing them, they can slash their own taxes and shift all the risk to individuals.

4. Politicians Want to Reward Their Donors
Big Money controls Congress
  • Wall Street, insurance companies, and pharma donate millions to politicians.
  • Those politicians then push for privatization because they’re bought off.

Who Gets Screwed?
  • Seniors: No more guaranteed Social Security checks—just risky investments.
  •  Low-income families: Medicaid cuts would leave millions without healthcare.
  • Workers: Higher retirement costs, worse healthcare, and no safety net.
 
This isn’t about "efficiency"—it's corporate looting of public money. They want to turn essential programs into profit centers for billionaires.


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Social Media is the New Opioid Epidemic

3/13/2025

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I recently sent a letter to 17 senators on the Judiciary subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, and subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. I also sent it to the general email of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust.

Please feel to copy and paste it and send to your senators and representatives.

Dear Congress person,

​I’m a concerned citizen writing to all members of Congress in relevant subcommittees to bring attention to the urgent need for accountability regarding social media platforms, especially Meta (Facebook, Instagram). These platforms have become not only an addiction but a public health crisis in their own right—much like the opioid epidemic that has devastated millions.

Meta has intentionally designed its technology to exploit human vulnerabilities, creating a system that promotes addiction. Just as opioid manufacturers knew about the dangers of their products but continued to profit, Meta has been aware of the harm caused by its addictive algorithms. Internal research, whistleblower reports, and mounting evidence all point to the fact that Meta’s platforms contribute to significant mental health issues, particularly among young people.

The mental health crisis fueled by social media does not just apply to some small subset of people with addiction problems—it's widespread impacting hundreds of millions of people. The long-term damage is not fully known yet, but studies show users suffering from anxiety, depression, and loneliness, while society becomes more polarized with “fake news” and the erosion of trust in institutions.

How can we trust in our government when it fails to protect us from corporate corruption—whether through physical pollution of our food, air, and water, or the emotional pollution of our well-being through social media? Social media is the drug of the 21st century, and the lack of regulation surrounding privacy and algorithms is an embarrassment to humanity and civilization.

Meta must be held accountable for its role in creating this addiction, just as Big Pharma has faced consequences for the opioid crisis. We need regulation to protect users, transparency about the harmful effects of algorithms, and consequences for companies that prioritize profit over public well-being, particularly at the scale of harm that this is inflicting on people.

I urge you to consider the parallels between Meta and the opioid industry and take action to protect the public from further harm as soon as possible. 

Power is consolidating into the hands of a very few tech moguls, and at some point, it may be too late to reverse the damage or even enact meaningful regulations if regulatory capture becomes too entrenched. The stranglehold corporations have on our government is not sustainable and is NOT in the public’s interest. The income gap is increasing while people are becoming more isolated, depressed and addicted.

This is a non-partisan issue - I hear the complaints and concerns on both sides, from conservative voices like Tucker Carlson to more liberal leaning ones like Chris Cuomo. 

We MUST come together.

Please, this is urgent. We need to show these companies that we care—that there are real people behind the data and the screens. That what they are doing is fundamentally breaking down the fabric of society. 

Sincerely, 
​Amanda

The Times: We can’t ignore social media dangers any more
Capitalism incentivises tech to exploit human weakness—state intervention is the only answer
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A Burning Appeal

3/11/2025

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Please join the movement.
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The World Is Ready for the Truth - Me Too 2

3/10/2025

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A Rude Awakening

Despite my belief in socially progressive ideals, I have come to understand the 2024 election as a mirror—an honest reflection of where we really are as a country. It epitomizes not only how the corrupt elite and corporate conglomerates continue to evade accountability, but the degree to which internalized misogyny still runs deep and unchecked within American culture.
 
There is no class, race, political party, religion, or even gender exempt from this conditioning. Intellectual ideals are one thing; embodying them is another. And as neuropsychology and trauma research show, it’s the body that keeps the score. It’s our unconscious biases that drive most of our actions, and many of us are like fish unaware of the toxic misogynistic waters in which we still swim.

This understanding of the world was forced upon me in 2023, when I experienced it first-hand after being sexually assaulted by a neighbor, a Kamala Harris supporter, in liberal West Hollywood. Up until then, I’d always suffered from low self-esteem and people-pleasing and defaulted to taking the blame for others--a coping strategy I’d adopted in childhood to make sense of an unjust world and try to take back control.
 
But that approach completely fell apart in the face of the senseless dehumanization I experienced at the hands of someone I thought was my friend, a blonde haired-blue-eyed Aryan neighbor who’d only shown gentlemanly sensitivity until that night. It was sheer survival that forced me to open my eyes and see the matrix of lies I’d been living in my entire life, no thanks to the misogynistic hatred of women running through my own family line.

What I Discovered about Myself and Fellow Humans

It was astonishing what the experience revealed about my own beliefs. I initially failed to even take my own side or call out what happened for what it was—a criminal hate crime–even as my lofty spiritual ideals collapsed under the weight of the senseless violence.
 
It was terrifying what it revealed about the beliefs of my perpetrator and what he (and his peers) appears to believe is allowed conduct with women, which I won't go into here, but it's tangential to those involved in sex trafficking.
 
It was heartbreaking what it revealed about the beliefs of my supposedly liberal family and social circle who gas lit me and reflected back the victim blaming and minimization I feared.
 
And it was re-traumatizing when I finally felt strong enough to file the police report, and the officer dismissed my story before it was even heard, completely breaching protocol and manipulating my words around critical points in the timeline where consent was violated as if he was hoping I would be mistaken. (Who knew police officers had such a vested interest in someone not actually being assaulted?)
 
In short, the reactions of thos around me was as much if not more of a betrayal than the assault itself.
 
That said, this rude awakening to the destructive darkness running rampant through society was counter-balanced by a hidden beauty that was revealed as I sought out help from the RAINN crisis hotlines, Peace over Violence resources, assault survivor support groups, and the L.A. district attorney victim’s advocate office. So many courageous survivors and volunteers are actively working to heal, support others, and speak their truths—never minimizing their pain or pretending what happened didn’t shake them to their core.
Everything has been upside down: the strong were weak, the wealthy poor, the polished savage, the imprisoned innocent, the quiet powerful.

What I Learned About the Law and Predators

This experience led me to an eye-opening education that ideally everyone should be taught by the age of 18.
 
Did you know, for example, that under California law consent needs to be continuous and affirmative with both parties understanding the nature of the act? (Cal. Penal Code § 261.6) Did you know that sex by deception can be illegal because it robs a person of their ability to give informed consent? (Licea, 2022) Or that perpetrators exploit power differentials to trigger the freeze-fawn responses in their prey, impeding the woman’s ability to think clearly or resist in the moment? (Kozlowska, 2015)
 
There’s an abundance of free resources and support for survivors, but much of it is volunteer-run and underfunded. Navigating the social support systems, accessing affordable trauma therapy, and achieving justice is an exhausting labyrinthine process.
 
It’s important to keep in mind, predators statistically prey on those perceived as vulnerable and unlikely to pose a threat (Lisak, 2002). They don’t target beautiful women confidently striding down Melrose Avenue, who look like they come from money or influence. They prey on women with awkward gaits, who are neuro-divergent, economically challenged, or emotionally sensitive (Book & Costello, 2013)—in other words, women like me. It’s like they instinctively choose women that are not only less likely to have powerful allies or the resources to seek justice, but less likely to be believed. Yet the justice system ignores these statistics when cases get reported or go to court.
 
It's also important to understand that perpetrators don’t assault women they feel affection for. Sexual assault is not driven by overwhelming sexual desire or passion. It’s about power and dominance (Groth, 1979). It’s an act of violence, often using deception or force to humiliate and degrade, and has the emotional impact of a hate crime that can reverberate through a woman’s self-worth and nervous system for years, decades, lifetimes (UCLA Health, 2022).
 
Like in war, perpetrators rationalize such violence by dehumanizing their targets. But unlike in war, sexual assault often also involves a betrayal of a trust built during the grooming phase where the man is kind and gentle, used to disarm the victim, creating massive cognitive dissonance for her in the aftermath (Gómez, 2018). And since her perceived weaknesses were preyed upon to build the trust, speaking up becomes a heart-wrenching confession of her own vulnerabilities, the ones that prevented her from seeing the truth in time to escape.
 
The cognitive dissonance between the grooming phase and the assault is enough to drive anyone to intensive therapy. And with the nervous system trapped in a trauma loop, it becomes profoundly difficult to navigate the steps towards recovery and justice. It truly felt like overnight I had woken up in the Upside-Down world. But it was actually the real world we live in right now, here in liberal West Hollywood. My eyes were just finally open.

The Lucky Ones

And I am one of the lucky ones. Several months after the assault, I read in a trade publication that my perpetrator had been “let go” for purportedly contributing to an abusive work culture that left staff in tears. This acknowledgment about his character was a major turning point in my recovery—it helped me start believing my own experience. Until then, his higher socioeconomic class and professional status, compared to mine, made it hard for me to see that what he did was criminal. This discovery gave me the determination to seek help, leading me to exceptional therapy at the UCLA Rape Treatment Center, which has been vital to my healing.
 
But what happens to women who don’t receive the kind of external validation I did, or who are less vocal or call the hotlines when support services are stretched too thin? What happens to survivors who don’t believe in their own stories enough to seek help because everywhere they look society minimizes their stories or blames them?
 
Let me tell you: vast numbers of survivors end up institutionalized, attempting suicide, developing eating disorders, or turning to drugs to cope with the PTSD (Miles et al., 2024). It cannot be emphasized enough how deep the psychological and emotional damage cuts when a woman is humiliated and reduced to less than human in this way, especially by someone she trusted or admired. The impacts echo into every facet of her life—distorting the way she moves through the world and how she sees herself—with biological impacts that can be passed down for generations (Yehuda et al., 2014).
It cannot be emphasized enough how deep the psychological and emotional damage cuts when a woman is humiliated and reduced to less than human in this way, especially by someone she trusted or admired.

Does Anyone Remember Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King, Jr.?

It warrants reiteration: it’s not just the perpetrators causing harm. It’s a society that fails to take victims seriously. When I was mugged in Boston years ago, no one ever doubted a crime had occurred. Why, then, when false accusations are rare for both types of crimes, is sexual assault treated as debatable as to whether it even warrants investigation? We live in a culture where the onus is on victims of sexual violence to justify their trauma. “Innocent until proven guilty” rightly protects people from false conviction, but treating sexual assault victims as if they are lying or mistaken until proven otherwise exposes a toxic system that gaslights and silences survivors while letting serial predators roam free.
 
We are all complicit in upholding this paradigm, if only in our silence and unexamined prejudices. No matter how free thinking we believe ourselves to be, this conditioning runs deep. It goes far beyond a single political figure like Trump, or any criminal. It’s about how society, as a whole, responds when a woman speaks out about violence. Nearly half a million women and girls are assaulted each year under every administration (RAINN, 2024). It happened to me under Biden in a progressive California city by someone with a Kamala Harris sign on his lawn. Outward symbols of progressivism have little to do with respect for women.
 
And yet, it’s not hopeless. Real change begins with honesty, and with Trump’s election revealing the underbelly that still dominates America, we are being forced to confront it. Remember that the #Metoo movement started under Trump’s first presidency. Could having an openly fascist and misogynistic figure help galvanize momentum for women’s rights?
 
This is about all of us and we each have a role to play in changing the dynamics that perpetuate misogyny and its inherent violence. We start with ourselves. We start by believing victims and calling out predatory behavior and derogatory language in real time. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.”
 
Trump is not the enemy. He’s a reflection of a noxious regime—and the apathy that sustains it—that sets up women to be objectified and dehumanized and then gaslights them when they speak up. Liberal Hollywood’s glamorized sexualization and objectification of women is as much to blame as the conservatives who voted for an openly fascist anti-life misogynistic administration.

When Misogyny Ends, Everything Thrives (except evil)

The thing is, ending the violence of misogyny benefits everyone—not just women, not just the most vulnerable, but Everyone. For a world that honors and protects women means healthier children (Tough et al., 2010), a stronger society, and a brighter more loving future for all.
 
This is not a political issue—it’s a human one. In fact, it may be the single-most important issue for humanity’s long-term survival (United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2022). Take away women, and the children they birth, and we have NOTHING. No human life at all. On a larger scale, misogyny underpins the male-dominated rape and desecration of the earth enabled by a corporate funded government and media system that suppresses and silences the voices of the vulnerable.
 
It’s the same damn thing. It's all connected.
  • Rape of Women.
  • Rape of the Earth.
  • Rape of Resource-Rich Nations.
  • Rape of Children.
  • Rape of anything innocent and vulnerable.

And our country's descent into outright fascism is simply an escalation of what was always was. Misogyny is an intrinsic part of fascism, which is by nature anti-life, anti-woman, anti-child, anti-truth, anti-love.

And while the actions of this authoritarian regime may be the most evil we've seen in the U.S., there is still hope. For within its darkness lies the seed of its own destruction. Its brazenness has exposed what has been running the show behind the U.S. "success" for decades: murder, rape, war, pillaging and betrayal of those more vulnerable—children, women, minorities, and resource rich developing countries. Over and over and over again.

And now they aren’t even hiding it.
 
Now they are turning inwards against its own citizens - all without our informed, affirmative consent. That IS the definition of assault.
When misogyny and fascism are allowed to reign free everything that is
good and sacred comes under attack. 

There's Only One Question Left

Which side are you on?

  • The rapist,s who take without consent and hoard, desecrating and destroying the planet for everyone, including themselves?
  • Or the people, who unite, reclaim their power, and create a livable healthy world for ALL, even for the perpetrators?

It’s time.

Honesty is the first step.

Let's start by unveiling the Epstein Files and exposing the system that protects It. Then we might start to see the change we urgently need.

Statistics

  • ~1 in 3 women and 1 in 7 men have been sexually assaulted in their life
  • ~1 in 4 women have been sexually assaulted by the age of 18. For those under 9, it is usually an adult - member of family, community, 
  • ~1 in 6 men have assaulted a woman
  • ~1 in 12 men that have assaulted a minor, male or female.
 
This continues because of the good people that have been brainwashed to blame victims, do not question it, and do nothing.
The world doesn’t go down because of a few thousand psychotic billionaires. It goes down because of the good people that looked on and did nothing.

Note: This essay was originally written in December 2024, posted here in March 2025, and then updated with information regarding the connection between misogyny and f@sc1sm in July 21, 2025
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Resources

1._sexual_assault_survivor_resources.pdf
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2._research_on_sexual_predators_sex_by_deception_consent.pdf
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3._me_too_times_up_history_and_watchdogs.pdf
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References

Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.
 
California Penal Code § 261.6 (2023).
 
Licea, Ricardo (2022). How to expand rape by deception and protect consent. University of Massachusetts Law Review, 17(2), Article 1. https://scholarship.law.umassd.edu/umlr/vol17/iss2/1
 
Kozlowska, K., Walker, P., McLean, L., & Carrive, P. (2015). Fear and the defense cascade: Clinical implications and management. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 23(4), 263–287. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000065
 
Lisak, D., & Miller, P. M. (2002). Repeat rape and multiple offending among undetected rapists. Violence & Victims, 17(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.1891/vivi.17.1.73.33638
 
Book, A., Costello, K., & Camilleri, J. A. (2013). Psychopathy and Victim Selection: The Use of Gait as a Cue to Vulnerability. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28(11), 2368–2383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260512475315
 
UCLA Health. (2022, May 17). The long-term effects of sexual assault. UCLA Health. https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/the-long-term-effects-of-sexual-assault
 
Gómez, J. M. (2018). Gendered sexual violence: Betrayal trauma, dissociation, and PTSD in diverse college students. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 27(5), 570-594. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2020.1783737
 
Miles, L. W., Khambaty, T., Petersen, K., & Lechner, S. C. (2024). A systematic review of evidence-based treatments for adolescent and adult sexual assault victims. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 30(3) https://doi.org/10.1177/10783903231216138
 
Yehuda, R., Daskalakis, N. P., Lehrner, A., Desarnaud, F., Bader, H. N., Makotkine, I., Flory, J. D., Bierer, L. M., & Meaney, M. J. (2014). Influences of maternal and paternal PTSD on epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene in Holocaust survivor offspring. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(8), 872–880. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.13121571
 
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2022, November 24). Ending violence against women and girls key to tackling global crises and achieving prosperity. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/11/ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-key-tackling-global-crises-and
 
Ellery, B. (2024, July 23). Violence against women and girls ‘a national emergency’. The Times. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/violence-against-women-and-girls-a-national-emergency-68x8pw7dr

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The Water is HOT, Can You feel the Burn?

3/10/2025

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Reflections on A.I. from 5/19/23

First things First

Right out the gate, let’s be clear. This essay is not arguing for or against AI technology, nor does it go in depth about the benefits and harms it could cause society or humanity. What it does is critique the way the technology is being developed and how it’s being deployed; explores how the magnitude of AI's disruptive nature has brought to light more clearly, for me, the systemic issues in our political and socioeconomic systems which are long overdue for an overhaul; and advocates for upgrading our political system’s Operating System to one that can effectively handle the new technology, before it’s too late.
​People scraping the internet for text and images for AI without asking permission makes me feel: (1) naive for sharing my work publicly and carelessly across social media platforms; and (2) taken advantage of like a fool. Just like when I take responsibility for putting myself in a vulnerable situation—walking home at night alone—doesn’t make the person that mugs me innocent or justified; when someone admits they were naive about what they were signing away in privacy policies, does not mean what the AI tech companies did was ethical.

It's the Same but Different

That it has happened before (technological innovations shaking up society), and we have always adapted is not a good enough argument for why we should sit this one out and allow the tech moguls to force feed us a new way of living that we didn't have a hand in creating, except in the most literal sense of being the input to the algorithm, and inadvertently in our own passivity and acquiescence.
 
It has indeed happened before, very recently in fact, with the advent of social media, and look how that turned out. We haven't even caught up with the fallout from it--the biases, the rabbit holes leading to polarization, the impact on self-esteem, the algorithms that make people twist and contort themselves just to keep getting views. When the whole point of it, supposedly, was to share art, messages and connect with others. But we weren’t the social media company's customers, the advertisers were, which creates a trade system that lacks transparency on what is being bought and sold; in other words, a system primed for injustice. Add in the stockholders for these publicly traded tech companies and you’ve got all kinds of misaligned incentives and competing needs.
 
And it’s these same tech companies who aren’t being direct and honest about their motives or respecting people enough to ask permission (#me too movement anyone?) that are pervading every aspect of people's lives and no one seems to think there's anything dangerous about that.

​It’s like the “boiling frog” metaphor.

​I too have been guilty of being blind. But not anymore. 

Of course technological developments are always creating disruptions that takes people’s jobs, but the concern is that it hasn’t ever happened on this potential scale or speed. A question we might want to ask ourselves, is this:
Is this inevitable, is this the only way to move forward as a culture, as a society, as an evolving species, or is this just an arbitrary decision by some small subset of industry trying to maximize profit? Is there another way?

The Futility of Technology

Interestingly, the extreme disruptive nature of this new technology has prompted existential questions that reveal, not the greatness of technology, but its futility. We all know that people on their death beds don't regret not watching more YouTube videos or not working more and making more money, but rather not spending time connecting with their loved ones. And I'll bet money that AI taking over jobs will not lead to more fulfillment or more free time to spend with loved ones. Has any other recent invention, outside of healthcare that can extend lives, really given us more "free time?"
 
What people want is to feel good on a deep visceral level. People want real connection and they also want to work and have purpose. The priority isn't to do away with jobs but to compensate people fairly for their work, create meaningful opportunities for growth, and ideally set children up from a young age to figure out what kind of work will be most suited to them individually, so they are more likely to excel and become active contributing members of society.
 
There’s nothing wrong with shaking up the economy with a new invention, but at the very least, why not do it in a way that helps people prepare for it first, rather than blindly playing race to the market games? These are people’s lives we are talking about.

​These companies are in such a hurry toward this illusion of “technological progress” that they don’t mind leaving the majority of the human race in the dust. It is important to be able to adapt to change, but more people should have a voice in what the change is. Perhaps the really smart and adaptive thing to do is to start questioning the direction we are going.
 
Where are we trying to go anyways? Is this direction inevitable? Or is it just an arbitrary decision by a few giant companies playing around with their toys, trying to corner the market, to maximize profit without concern for the whole. It feels reminiscent of the days when industry was allowed to throw toxic waste in rivers and it’s being done right under our noses.

The Ends Don't Justify the Means - they never have

It's a great disservice to society that whether "the ends justify the means" is framed as something that’s up for debate. Not only is the philosophy of the ends justifying the means attributed to Machiavelli, a well-known scoundrel, but just based on simple logic, it falls apart. If you have to violate the principle/values/vision of the ends to get there, you will never actually get there. Whatever “there” is, it will be corrupted by the means.  

What these people behind ChatGPT and MidJourney did—how they did it—is not ethical, just as wrong as the way social media companies sell people’s data and lack transparency in their algorithms is unethical. With A.I., instead of claiming the effort was to connect people more quickly to things they want, they veiled it under the guise of a nonprofit collecting information to better humankind (which by the way they've since re-negged on and converted towards for-profit). But we all know, no matter what the benefits are--there are always some benefits--in the end, it’s likely going to perpetuate the same injustices and contribute to existing economic disparities favoriting those in power. 

For us to put our foot down, is it not enough to know that the people behind this technology are not taking proper safeguards? Why is it not a crime for them to have done what they have done? The companies behind this technology are not looking out for the people, not enough. If they did, they would have asked “the people” permission to do this. If they did, they would be taking incredible measures to make sure there are laws and policies in place to protect the public before deploying their new AI toys.

If WE, THE PEOPLE, don’t rally together and DO something, we are setting a dangerous new precedent about how willing we are to take things lying down while some small subset of techies direct the entire lifestyle of the country. They’re asking, “Can we do it, and how much can we make?” when they should be asking, “Should we do it, and how will it impact humanity?” They’re racing at breakneck speed to implement their vision of the future based on motives of curiosity and profit rather than heart and soul. That does not sound like a recipe for the benefit of humankind.

And since the code behind AI is programmed by humans, the unconscious biases people who have not been thoroughly vetted, are going to be mirrored in this technology. If a huge ethics committee isn't involved in the AI's creation every step of the way, how good do you think it's going to turn out? Think about it. And don't get me started on the transparency of the data going into the system—how do you even quality control that?

But even if they had built the model ethically and transparently, there's still the problem with the careless way they’re rolling the products out, which is incredibly dangerous to do without proper regulatory protocols in place to protect the massive amounts of disinformation and scams that will inevitably result—and those are just the most easily foreseeable issues.

“But that’s capitalism for you,” I used to say. No. Not this time. Not this way. Not this small subset of bullying, old school paradigm tech giants dictating the direction of humanity.

This could become a runaway train fast. Europe is already ahead of the U.S. in policy setting, as usual. Will we keep pace? We still haven’t addressed the massive corruption and immoral practices behind social media and the selling of people's data, algorithmic biases, etc. We haven’t even addressed the root of the housing bubble crisis of 2009 for that matter.

If nothing else, this is too much too quickly without the proper protocols and safety measures. It’s a negligence by a bunch of curious tech folks asking can we? not should we? Asking how much money? not how much meaningful benefit to mankind?

It’s too much to bear.  This has gone too far. Enough is enough.

Root Cause Solution

​The only solution I see is to go directly to the deeper level of the issue, namely, cleaning up the way in which money influences politics, such as campaign financing. Good old Bernie Sanders opened my eyes to this one. The government is working far too much for big business and not for the people and it’s only getting worse every day we don’t do something about it.
 
I know, companies are just made up of people. But you see, when they get big enough, the sum total is greater than its parts and takes on a life of its own (oh, hey, kind of like emergent AI.) And with competing incentives—customers, stockholders, employees, owners—things get mucky very fast.
 
Without government oversight, rivers and air get polluted, companies pay poverty wages, monopolies get created, mortgage-backed securities cause a housing crisis, and the American people get raped by Big Tech. We need a government that works for us, where the people in Congress setting the laws are no longer beholden to the corporations that fund their election and are free to reflect the needs of the individual people they represent.

So how do we change this? 

It's simple. We speak in the language they understand, our pocketbooks, and go on strike. We demand that corporate money be taken out of politics, arguably the most important thing to separate from politics since religion.


I can guarantee you, our founding father's would applaud such an idea. 

The very foundations of our democracy support this kind of movement to get us back on track where the country is for the people by the people, not for the corporations by the corporations. Big business pays a tiny fraction of the taxes individuals do, but influence policy orders of magnitude more. We need to make changes that allow for our voices to  be represented fairly. We need to realign the values of this country with the sentiment of democracy it was built on.

​
And there's no time to lose, because it's very possible that with A.I., at some point this kind of protest may no longer be possible. We could have put our foot down last time, and we didn’t.
 
If Americans came together on this bipartisan issue, demanding reform in campaign financing so that politicians are no longer so indebted to big business, we could really start to push the needle towards a better world. 

Conversely, if we don’t do anything, we are letting it happen. That’s it. On some level, we are part of the problem if we are not part of the solution. 

Of course, as I mentioned before, it's not AI itself that’s the problem. It’s the way it was created in isolation without approval, and the way it is now being deployed without care for the people, for the children, for the future of mankind. If there isn’t a Dalai Lama level conscience in the board meetings with these companies, they are doing it wrong. This stuff is potent, and they are being negligent. At least with the atom bomb we had enough sense to keep it tightly regulated.

And Yet....

It's understandable why it’s hard to see things clearly. On some level this is nothing new. This is just a symptom of an issue that's always existed; but we can see the widening gap of poor and rich in our country. That should be indicator enough that something is wrong; that while technological developments are surely moving the needle in areas such as medicine and research—extending people’s lives—they are not necessarily leading to greater wellbeing and enjoyment while alive. There is another step we need to take, that’s better for everyone involved, even business, in the long term.

That humans haven’t even mastered their own selves before creating AI is a phenomenal irony. That so much energy and money is directed towards technology when more and more young people are killing themselves, ostensibly as a result of this very technology, says something is really off with the priorities here. So much more beauty would come from a shift in focus to early childhood education, mindfulness, to learning how to be in our bodies, how to learn how to listen to ourselves and own longings and wishes, not the things people are telling us to long for and wish for. But a bunch of free thinkers with that much agency and aspiration running around isn’t necessarily in the interest of those already in power.

The silver lining in all this is that the monstrosity of the violation and rape that just happened is opening people's eyes to how deep this corruption goes – just how much our own brothers will sell us out for a quick buck. The selling of our data was the most recent violation and I didn’t understand it at the time. I feel ashamed about not speaking up about it, but now, with the release of AI in such a haphazard way, I see. Now I can feel it. 

The water is f*&$ing hot!

For More Reading:
  • The A.I. Dilemma - by Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin from the Center of Humane Technology, introduced by Apple CEO Wozniak
  • A.I. Revolution  - 60 Minutes interview with Google developer
  • A.I. Meets Hollywood -  Entertainment lawyer speaks on implications for screenwriters
  • Emotional Intelligence in the Age of AI - Daniel Goleman, PhD
  • How Will Artificial Intelligence Change Higher Ed? - The Chronicle
  • How One Screenwriter finds AI Useful (and Useless) - The Generator / Op Ed
  • There is no A.I. -  New Yorker Opinion Piece
  • A.I. and the Silicon Valley - Business Insider
  • A.I. Creativity, Neuroscience and the Future of Work - Substack blog Article
  • A Tireless Unoriginal Plagiarist Who Will Work for Free, A Tutored Parrot - Deadline article by Bohemian Rhapsody Screen Writer
  • The End of Art: An Argument against Image AI - Youtube channel
  • It Will Think of Something - Boston Globe Cartoon
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    Amanda Ianthe Greene, Research, Policy and Systems Analyst,

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