Thursday, April 27, 2017

Young White Pro-Trump Males Form New Fight Club

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a "fraternity" of young, white, pro-Trump men are forming a new fight-club, supposedly to defend free-speech rights by "Alt-Right" leaders and engage in street fighting.

Kyle Chapman, a California activist arrested earlier this month in in Berkeley at a clash between anti-fascist protesters and pro-Trump demonstrators, is forming the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights (cleverly called “FOAK).

With an Internet meme “Based Stick Man,” Chapman says his new militant, highly-masculine group will be the “tactical defensive arm” of the Proud Boys, another group that shows up at pro-Trump rallies looking to rumble with counter-protesters.

These hierarchy supporters will be promoting and using a typical control tactic of hierarchies - violence.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/04/25/new-alt-right-%E2%80%9Cfight-club%E2%80%9D-ready-street-violence

Trump/Pence Presidency Inspiring Women to Run for Office

Emily's List president Stephanie Schriock said "it's a wave" when referring to the number of women, calling the number "unprecidented."During the 2016 cycle, her group spoke with about 900 women interested in running for school board, legislature, or Congress. This year the group has heard from over 11,000 women in all 50 states, with a few dozen seriously considering House races.

Schriock said that Republicans should sit up and take notice, because this is only the beginning. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trumps-presidency-has-inspired-11000-women-to-run-for-office_us_58fd863ae4b06b9cb917d111?gam&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Confederate Flag Removal – Fuels South Carolina Championship

In addressing the South Carolina Legislature, Coach Dawn Staley said that her women's basketball team at the University of South Carolina was fueled by the removal of the confederate flag from the state house. She said that the removal of the flag triggered a fan base that would be the largest in the country.

The momentum of the removal of the flag played a big part in the program's success, according to Staley.

http://www.thestate.com/sports/college/university-of-south-carolina/usc-womens-basketball/article146622374.html

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Dawn Staley - Great Coach and Player

A great player and coach, Dawn Staley has become the highest paid women's basketball coach in the SEC. Far cry from when Pat Summitt had to sell doughnuts in order to afford uniforms for her women's team at Tennessee.

South Carolina agreed on a new deal that runs through 2024-25, adds four years to her existing contract, making $1.45 million next season. Staley and her team won the national championship this year.

Women coaches do not make as much as men's coaches. The "Final Four" to most people means the Men's Final Four (in the hierarchy, we assume the top represents everyone, so the only real basketball tournament is the men's), whereas you have to say "Women's Final Four" to be clear, but is slowly progress is being made so we are headed in the right direction.

http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/19212631/dawn-staley-gets-four-year-contract-extension-south-carolina-gamecocks-coach

Resources for the Top, Cuts for the Bottom

The Independent from UK points out that while Donald Trump is cutting food for the poor, he spends about 2.4 million dollars every weekend he goes to his privately-owned resort, Mar-a Lago.

Four programs that face elimination - tackling homelessness, unemployment of people over 55, participation in the arts, and helping the poor to access to higher education, could be maintained at the costs of Trump's trips to his resort over the course of four years.

The estimate cost of giving Trump a weekly vacation is $600 million, and the estimated costs of these services is $597 million.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-budget-cuts-mar-a-lago-nea-arts-poor-elderly-meals-on-wheels-florida-weekends-us-a7634551.html

Top: Takes Credit for Good, Assigns Blame for Bad

In an article in the Washington Post this morning, we who study hierarchies see another piece of evidence of how Donald Trump places himself on top of our nation's hierarchies.

When we live in hierarchies, we are all programmed to praise the top for whatever goes right, and blame people we push lower for whatever goes wrong.

According to Calvin Woodward and Jim Drinkard,  "One of the most consistent features of President Donald Trump’s public statements is his drive to take credit and assign blame. It’s a tendency that consistently lands him in trouble with history, either recent or long ago, and has been on display as he approaches his 100th day in office."

There we have it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/ap-fact-check-when-trump-takes-credit-and-assigns-blame/2017/04/22/02bd29e0-275d-11e7-928e-3624539060e8_story.html?utm_term=.f77af3a67496

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Looks Like Boys Will Be Boys, Utah Judge Praises LDS Convicted Rapist

Men on top of the hierarchy have for centuries have taken sexual assault by men as a joke, something for fun and games.

Utah Judge Thomas Low allegedly held back tears as he sang the praises of Keith Vallejo, a former bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found guilty of sexually abusing two women in separate incidents dating back to at least 2013

“The court had no doubt that Mr. Vallejo is an extraordinarily good man,” Low told the courtroom Wednesday moments before sentencing Vallejo.

Kristen Houser, the chief public affairs officer for the National Sexual Violence Research Center, said the judge’s choice of words could “definitely leave the wrong impact” on a rape victim.

As usual, lower groups, in this case women, are ignored and assumed to be to blame.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rape-survivor-utah-judge-lds-bishop_us_58f0f350e4b0da2ff860352e?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Republicans – Building Hierarchies by Treating Lower Groups As "Other"

In hierarchies, lower groups are considered "other" by those on top.

In an article in the Huffington Post, "Seven Keys To Sean Spicer's Very Republican Holocaust Gaffe," Richard Eskow describes Sean Spicer's comments about the lack of use by Hitler of chemical agents, as, "By saying that Jews, gays, Romany, and others murdered in the camps were not Hitler’s 'own people,' Spicer seemed to suggest that a nation is only reflected by its dominant social group. Religious and other minorities are always the 'other,' no matter how integrated they may be by law and rights."

Republicans – the political and social group in the United States most currently championing hierarchies. Great title to sum it up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/7-secret-keys-to-sean-spicers-very-republican-holocaust_us_58ed8532e4b081da6ad00900

Republicans Can't Let Go on Same Sex Marriage

Republican lawmakers hold so ever tightly to the sexual orientation hierarchy they love so dearly. In North Carolina Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to outlaw same sex marriage even though it is the law of the land.

In their bill, the quoted the Bible, and entitled the bill, the "Uphold Historical Marriage Act." Yes, we agree that in history, hierarchies were very strong, but we are in the process of breaking down a lot of them, with Trump and Pence as our motivation.

When are these hierarchy conservators going to get a clue? Maybe in their next lifetimes, but maybe not.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-north-carolina-same-sex-marriage-ban-20170412-story.html

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Sexual Assault is a Joke to Trump

Again proving himself to disregard women, and see them as pawns to be used by him, Trump said he doesn’t think Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women, did anything wrong.

Of course it is the privilege of any person on top of the hierarchy, in this case men, to gain from lower groups in any way they please. And any harm done to a lower group, in this case women, is not important.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-bill-oreilly-harassment_us_58e51f1ee4b0917d347635f9

Pulling Money From Women and Girls OK with Republicans

While Republican policies help those white males on top of our hierarchies with more resources, those lower, such as women and children suffer from their support for the top.

The Trump administration's decision to pull support from a United Nations family planning agency hurts some of the world's most desperate women and girls, advocates said Tuesday.
The State Department announced late Monday that it was yanking money from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which focuses on family planning, help for pregnant women and new babies.

Of course we all know this wouldn't happen if men could get pregnant.
 
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/trump-administration-hits-women-s-health-fund-n742631