Catholic Church - Protect the Hierarchy Above All

"Most of the victims were boys; but there were girls too. Some were teens; many were prepubescent. Some were manipulated with alcohol or pornography. Some were made to masturbate their assailants, or were groped by them. Some were raped orally, some vaginally, some anally. But all of them were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all."

The religious hierarchy of the Catholic Church – protect the top no matter the expense to anyone lower. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-16/catholic-church-sexual-abuse-scandal-continues-its-betrayal

Republicans Push Gender Hierarchy To Gain Advantage

"Republicans have made attacks on high-profile Democratic women a key part of their strategy for holding onto congressional majorities. The GOP aims to cast rank-and-file Democrats as puppets of House Minority Leader Nancy Peloisi, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic boogeymen, calculating that suburban and rural voters won’t want to replace their Republican lawmakers with Democrats beholden to the party’s power brokers."

Such are the statements in an article by Melanie Zanona, who also says that those tactics fire up the Trump base.

But, if if Democrats win the House in November, thirty-five women are poised to lead committees and subcommittees in the next Congress

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/402397-boogeywomen-gop-vilifies-big-name-female-dems

African American Woman Elected President of American Medical Association (AMA)

We keep making progress in the age of Trump and hierarchical Republicans.

Dr. Patrice Harris has made history by becoming the first African-American woman elected to be president of the American Medical Association (AMA). Harris, who hails from Bluefield, West Virginia will serve as the Association’s 174th president.

https://wire.ama-assn.org/ama-news/patrice-harris-md-wins-office-ama-president-elect

West Hollywood City Council Asks Trump Star to Be Permanently Removed

Even though we have an incredibly strong pro-hierarchy organization in the Republican party and its leader Donald Trump, we can be encouraged that people all over the United States are still working to end our hierarchies.

The West Hollywood City Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday night urging that Donald Trump's star be removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“Getting a star is a privilege; it’s not a right,” West Hollywood’s Mayor Pro Tempore John D'Amico said, who jointly put forth the resolution. "When one belittles and attacks minorities, immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities, or women - the honor no longer exists."
 
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-star-west-hollywood_us_5b690b10e4b0de86f4a47cab?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003

The Week: Republicans Might Tank

Damon Linker, in an article in The Week, states that Republicans might experience a big belly-flop in November. Not because the 24 percent of people who are Republicans still adore Trump/Pence, but because there are so many people who, more than usual in the midterms, are so opposed to the Republican leadership. He states that it is too early to tell, but the lead-up to the elections is pointing that way.

"Over and over again, at all of these levels, Democrats have outperformed expectations, often winning in districts that in recent election cycles have strongly favored Republicans. That's because Democrats are energized, highly motivated to push back hard against the president and what the GOP has become since Trump stormed the stage during the 2016 Republican primaries."

In the Republican quest to keep our hierarchies strong, we can hope that their lack of flexibility and commitment to what they hold most dear, will sink them sooner rather than later.

http://theweek.com/articles/788811/coming-republican-wipeout

Ruckelshaus: Trump More Frantic than Nixon

William D. Ruckelshaus, the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, deputy attorney general in 1973, and administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1970 to 1973 and 1983 to1985, points out that President Trump is acting with a desperation he's seen only once before in Washington: 45 years ago when President Richard M. Nixon ordered the firing of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox.

He states that in some ways, Trump is conducting himself more frantically than Nixon, all the while protesting his innocence. 

The people in this country who are fighting to keep our hierarchies alive are stopping at nothing, evidenced by supporting this man and his swamp. They are disparately trying to hold back the tide of change, a movement so strong that it takes no less than these Trump measures. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/only-one-other-president-has-ever-acted-this-desperate/2018/08/06/7eed964e-9994-11e8-b55e-5002300ef004_story.html?utm_term=.24ad395efa9f

ATU in Washingon D.C. Stands Up to Hate

The Amalgamated Transit Union, Washington D.C.'s public transportation Metro’s largest union, leaked plans that the system is considering providing separate trains for white nationalists attending the so-called “Unite the Right” rally next weekend.

The Amalgamated Transit Union has stated that it refuses to accommodate the hate groups.

In hierarchies, many times the top groups assume that the rules only apply to them. Republicans including Trump have championed laws that state that people can discriminate against others because of religious or personal convictions, implying that only their hierarchical religions matter.

If they pass the "religious freedom laws," hopefully many, many people whose religion revolves around equality and justice will call out Trump supporters and Republicans and refuse to serve and support them.

http://fortune.com/2018/08/04/unite-the-right-rally-unions/