Jess Lahitou

Welcome To #RavsRecs, a look inside the lives (and minds) of your Ravishly staffers, with a list of things that are probably unnecessary but definitely awesome.

It’s early 2008 in Iowa. Hillary Clinton had been leading in the early polls, but her numbers have been steadily dropping when she is suddenly – shockingly – bested by a young, almost unknown senator from Illinois.

Silicon Valley companies defending sex trafficking has made me question if good people — or even baseline-human people — actually exist anymore.

So Michael Moore is known as a provocateur.

What’s the greatest achievement of the Rio Olympics? Is it the success of Latin America’s first host nation, Brazil? Is it the extraordinary feats of the US Women’s gymnastics team? Is it the spellbinding brilliance of Usain Bolt’s superhuman speed? Or is it perhaps the Twitter feed of Leslie Jones?

There were two stories that emerged from last night’s Republican debate: 1. The matchup between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, arguing over immigration policy and foreign policy (Cruz: no amnesty, build a wall, bomb ISIS while somehow not harming innocents. Rubio: eventual legalization of illegal immigrants, strengthen borders, work with Arab partners to defeat ISIS, more troops).

The 2016 election has, for a while now, felt eerily akin to 1984 (lots ‘o doublespeak coming out of Trump and his supporters). Or The Hunger Games, to take a more recent example of dystopian genre fiction. Wherein, government becomes solely about politics and the media spectacle, rather than actual policies and ideas.

Four years ago, my husband took a job transfer to Bogota, Colombia.

Because it looms a mere three days away, the subject of President-elect’s inauguration is a media fascination. Will there be protests?

Will every story that Trump doesn’t approve of get the “fake news” label, its authors permanently blacklisted forever?