U.S. Soccer Sees Women as Charity Cases

The top of hierarchies rarely cause change to happen, and will most likely fight it.

The top also sees lower groups as charity cases, and expects to be praised for the crumbs that they hand out.

In a statement released today, U.S. Soccer recounted the role the federation has played in the growth of women’s soccer, including its introduction to the Olympic Games and in providing full-time salaries for top players. 

See what we mean?

 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/sports/soccer/uswnt-us-women-carli-lloyd-alex-morgan-hope-solo-complain.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Bundys – Don't Like Government But Send Them the Bill

The occupation of Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by the Bundys and friends supposedly was a protest against the government, but their actions have left the government they despise with a big bill to pay. Someone has to pay for their actions, in terms of cash.

John Sepulvado of NPR member station Oregon Public Broadcasting at the Malheur occupation.  He said, "The refuge, which was blanketed in snow during the 41-day occupation, shows signs of spring's arrival: birds twitter and chirp and cattle graze in the distance. On the surface, life seems to be moving on. However, there are numerous costs in returning the refuge back to normal."

The cost of the occupation as a whole, Sepulvado says, includes a price tag of $5.7 million and counting, an enormous backlog of unfinished work on environmental projects, and psychological toll on workers and the community.

 http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/25/471833029/photos-the-mess-occupiers-left-at-malheur-national-wildlife-refuge

HB2 "Bathroom Bill" Effecting North Carolina Businesses

According to WFMY News in Greensboro, North Carolina, the High Point Furniture showhas  been receiving cancellations since HB2 or what most call the 'Bathroom Bill' became law in North Carolina. Governor Pat McCrory signed the bill into law hours after it was passed on Wednesday, March 23.

If the Republican-controlled legislative body won't listen to human decency appeals, maybe the money love so much will talk to them.

http://www.wfmynews2.com/mb/news/local/customers-cancel-attendance-at-high-point-furniture-market-over-bathroom-bill/106302741

Will You Marry Me? Glad They Aren't in North Carolina

In the wake of North Carolina's striking down of Charlotte's anti discrimination law protecting LGBT rights, we present a wonderful video of a gay couple in Oregon announcing the big day.

Andrew Foster and Roman Martinez, both flight attendants for Alaska Airlines, announced their wedding singing songs from "Frozen" at North Portland parks.

http://www.oregonlive.com/trending/2016/03/oregon_frozen_wedding_announcement.html

Male Tennis Players Should Thank Women for More Opportunity

Perhaps men should get down on their knees to thank women that men have so much of the sports empire to themselves, so they can earn more money and have heftier careers than women.

But instead, Indian Wells tournament director Raymond Moore said that women tennis professionals should get "down" on their "knees" every night to thank some of their male contemporaries.

Perhaps Moore is one of those ignorant older white males who should move over to allow more enlightened people of every type to take over.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/21/tennis/indian-wells-tennis-raymond-moore/

Women Need More Sleep Than Men As Fighting the Patriarchy Is Exhausting

The Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, England recently found women need more sleep than men. About 20 more minutes of sleep per night, to be precise.

Why? According to the New York Post, the director of the Sleep Research Center said:

“Women’s brains are wired differently . . . so their sleep need will be slightly greater. Women tend to multi-task – they do lots at once and are flexible – and so they use more of their actual brain than men do... For women, poor sleep is strongly associated with high levels of psychological distress and greater feelings of hostility, depression, and anger. In contrast, these feelings were not associated with the same degree of sleep disruption in men.”

Caption under the picture says, "Dreamin' of a matriarchal society."

http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/03/study-finds-women-need-more-sleep-than-men.html 

Death of Hierarchies Has Been Coming a Long Time

"Donald Trump isn’t the destruction of the Republican Party; he is the fulfillment of everything the party has been saying and doing for decades. He is just saying it louder and more plainly than his predecessors and intra-party rivals," according to Neal Gabler on billmoyers.com.

"The real story – one the popularity of Trump’s candidacy has revealed and inarguably the biggest political story of the last 50 years — is the decades-long transformation of Republicanism from a business-centered, small town, white Protestant set of beliefs into quite possibly America’s primary institutional force of bigotry, intellectual dishonesty, ignorance, warmongering, intractability and cruelty against the vulnerable and powerless."

Hierarchies have been in a death struggle for decades, and now it has caught up with them enough that the death struggle is obvious to most people, even if they haven't been following it for years like we have been doing. We live in fascinating times. 

 http://billmoyers.com/story/blowing-the-biggest-political-story-of-the-last-fifty-years/

Colin Powell: Actions Belittling to the Office to which They Are Striving

Colin Powell, once a rising star in the Republican party until George W. Bush sent him to the United Nations to plead the lie about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has even come out saying the Republicans are acting inappropriately. He also served as Ronald Reagan's national security adviser.

Referring to the "civility" and "lack of any nastiness" he saw in Ronald Reagan, Mr. Powell decried the tone of the current Republican presidential campaign. "To stand there and do junior high school tricks on one another is belittling the country and belittling the office to which they are striving," he said.

Here in the death struggle of hierarchies, the ground is shaking and unfamiliar to those at the top, and we can predict we will continue to see efforts to stabilize back to life as it used to be.

http://www.npr.org/2016/03/06/469420705/colin-powell-gop-candidates-belittling-the-country-and-presidency

Women on the Supreme Court – Speaking for People Like Them

In the opening day of arguments at the Supreme Court in the landmark abortion case, "Whole Women's Health v Hellerstedt," Dahlia Litwick reports in Slate that "it felt like, for the first time in history, the gender playing field was finally leveled" and the women justices "were emboldened to just ignore the rules...There was something wonderful and symbolic about Roberts losing almost complete control over the court's indignant women, who are just not inclined to play nice anymore."

In a just and equal diverse society, we must have people represented by others of their own group, and not be subject to decisions made by those who are placed on top our hierarchies. Men do not, in general, clearly represent the views of women. Men, being at the top, have historically been clueless about women, and act accordingly, and instead make decisions that keep men in power.
 
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/supreme_court_dispatches/2016/03/in_oral_arguments_for_the_texas_abortion_case_the_three_female_justices.html

Trump – His Size Makes Him Qualified

For centuries our hierarchies dictated that having a penis is a qualification for leadership. For many people, that requirement hasn't changed.

But Donald Trump assures us that not only does he possess that qualification, but in his case, he is sufficiently endowed. On national TV no less.

 http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/donald-trump-talks-about-his-hands-and-manhood

Caitlin Jenner – She Still Doesn't Get It

Talking about clueless at the top, Caitlin Jenner, whose very existence as a woman was supported by not Republicans, but progressives who work for an inclusive society, has come out in favor of Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz – a man who works against probably every effort of those who have worked hard to create a social climate that could accept a transgendered person like Jenner.

Some people are just determined to support hierarchies, even if life experiences try to educate them otherwise. Apparently Jenner is one of those. Looks like the effects of being an able-bodied, heterosexual, celebrity, white, wealthy, famous male were just too large to overcome in her case.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/caitlyn-jenner-s-presidential-preference-i-ted-cruz-n531311

Ghostbusters – Now Women On the Job

In an article entitled "5 Times the New 'Ghostbusters' trailer destroyed the patriarchy," USA Today brings us the trailer for the all-female version of the classic movie, to be released this summer.

Who you gonna call? The all-female new Ghostbusters team.

"Goodness gracious it is everything we hoped and dreamed for. In addition to being incredibly hilarious and visually on point, the trailer is also unabashedly proud of its four female leads and the feminism it is espousing."

With Hollywood feeling the pressure to move away from believing that good movies have to be about young white heterosexual men and their fantasies of violence, here is one alternative.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2016/03/03/ghostbusters-trailer-destroys-patriarchy-melissa-mccarthy-paul-feig-kristen-wiig-leslie-jones-kate-mckinnon-chris-hemsworth/81258406/