News you need to knowAmy Siskind, a former Wall Street executive, LGBT activist, and concerned citizen, watchdogs the Trump administration and its turn towards authoritarianism.
Why this is not normalIn November 2016, Siskind started the Weekly Authoritarianism List, monitoring the erratic, dictatorial behavior of Donald Trump and his administration so the conduct can’t become normalized.
Each bullet point on Siskind’s list has a reputable source link and each item details a democracy-decaying action of Trump, his administration, or his 1 percent cronies.
By Siskind’s ninth week, the list went viral.
The list regularly contains near 100 items that showcase the despotic leanings and “not normal” behavior of our billionaire president and his pals. For example, this week Siskind links to a lawsuit that alleges Trump’s pro-private prison policy is due to receiving illegal campaign contributions from a private prison company. She links to stories about both Jared Kushner and Jeff Sessions quietly attaining lawyers to defend their Russia connections. She links to Trump’s absurdly low approval rating, to Trump’s SoHo project being connected to Russian money laundering names, and to Trump himself on camera quoted as saying how he doesn’t want to hire poor people.
It’s not normal for a private citizen like Siskind to have to spend 15 to 20 hours a week compiling a list of not normal government behavior, so the United States doesn’t have an excuse of not seeing authoritarianism coming.
Check out Siskind’s Weekly Authoritarianism List at https://medium.com/@Amy_Siskind.
Patty TempletonDGO Staff Writer
