Hats Off to Tom Steyer

All people at the top of our wealth hierarchy aren't clueless.

Billionaire Tom Steyer has instituted a $10 million dollar ad campaign calling for Donald Trump to be impeached. Watch it here.

http://ktla.com/2017/10/27/trump-calls-billionaire-pro-impeachment-activist-tom-steyer-of-california-wacky-unhinged/

Whitefish - People at the Top Aren't Held Accountable

Usually people at the top are a little more discrete about taking what they want with little opportunity for accountability. But Interior Secretary's Ryan Zinke ignored even that when he gave a contract to a small Montana energy company worth $300 million dollars to supposedly rebuild power systems in Puerto Rico.

Not only is there no accountability for awarding the contract, but a copy of the deal obtained by reporter Ken Klippenstein reveals that the government isn't allowed to "audit or review the cost and profit elements" under the agreement, allowing the company greater discretion and secrecy for how it spends the $300 million to restore power to the island. Puerto Rico is rebuilding after two major hurricanes wiped out most of the island's electrical grid.

Whitefish contract also states that the Puerto Rican government "waives any claim against Contractor related to delayed completion of work." 

Under Trump/Pence and the Republicans, people at the top expect and get what they want at the expense of the rest of us.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/357473-whitefish-energy-contract-bars-government-from-auditing-deal

New World Record - People Dressed as Rosie the Riveter

3,755 girls and women dressed as Rosie the Riveter gathered at the Eastern Michigan University's Convocation Center in Ypsilanti on Saturday, October 14, breaking the world record.

Dressed in blue shirts and red bandanas, the youngest was six months old, and the oldest 110.

Rosie the Riveter was a patriotic symbol pictured in a poster of a woman wearing a bandanna and flexing her muscles under the slogan, "We can do it!" The character was inspired by Michigan native Rose Will Monroe, one of thousands of women who worked at the Willow Run plant producing B-24 bombers during World War II.

And women are still refusing to stay in lower rungs of our country's hierarchies, and are creating change, here and across the world.

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2017/10/michigan_smashes_world_record.html

Extremes at the End of the See Saw

As explained in Everyone Jump Together, that is downloadable for free on this website, people clinging to hierarchies have moved out to the extreme end of the see saw, being motivated by people who want to end hierarchies. Chaos continues to emerge.

In "The Republican Civil War is Spreading," Paul Waldman describes the civil war that is spreading in the ranks of the Republican Party.

"They are beginning to tear themselves apart over the question of who is to blame for their current difficulties, with one side saying it's the fault of a feckless establishment that is insufficiently loyal to President Trump, and the other side saying — mostly sotto voce, but occasionally out loud — that the responsibility lies with Trump himself."

Also, Waldman predicts that if tax reform going down in flames, the conflicts within the GOP will get even uglier.

http://theweek.com/articles/730474/republican-civil-war-spreading?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=afternoon&utm_medium=10_14_17-article_1-730474

Pas de deux - With Two Men at the New York City Ballet

Even in the days of Trump and Republican enabling, people are moving on to break down hierarchies all over our country. 

One example is ballet, which is examining the traditional male and female roles. Gender norms in ballet have developed through the use of the pointe shoe, worn by women to create the illusion of lightness and of floating, and the rules of partnering: Lifts require upper-body strength that men access more easily than women.

A pas de deux — a dance for two — is usually about love and usually between a man and a woman. But in Lauren Lovette's sweeping, romantic ballet “Not Our Fate," a lush pas de deux is created for two men, not incidentally men of color, in a tender, athletic display of desire.

According to the article, what feels unusual in this two dance, and in another ballet with a male pas de deux, “The Times Are Racing”  also at the New York City Ballet, one of the world’s premier companies, is their fresh approach: full of abandon and brimming with romantic desire, they seem utterly natural. 

One of the dancers, Taylor Stanley said of the performance, “It’s not like we’re pushing boundaries, it’s just that things are sort of looking how they should be looking.” 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/arts/dance/same-sex-duets-justin-peck-lauren-lovette-new-york-city-ballet.html

Mock PSA in Denmark: A Charity Appeal to Help Americans to Deal with the NRA (Nonsensical Rifle Addiction)

People on the top of hierarchies often have a hard time seeing what is so obvious to other people. Such is the case with the gun situation in the United States.

Calling the NRA, the Nonsensical Rifle Addiction, a Dutch news satire program created a Public Service Announcement, looking like a charity appeal, asked Europeans to step up and help Americans dealing with the NRA by providing funds for "water, blankets, facts, insights, statistics, and truth bombs." The program is hosted by comic Arjen Lubach.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dutch-tv-nra-guns_us_59db1b36e4b0f6eed3514c55

What the Top Gets Away With in Real Life

In our hierarchies, we are taught to not hold the top accountable for actions that lower groups would be called out when doing.

Here is a good list of actions by Donald Trump and his cohorts that Republicans and people who support them refuse to think to be a problem. After all, when someone supports a hierarchy, the top can never be wrong.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/08/opinion/editorials/republican-etiquette-guide.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The US Supports Murdering Gays and Lesbians

Joining Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, the United States has refused to support a UN resolution that  condemns the death penalty for having gay sex. Silence speaks volumes.

The Republicans and Trump/Pence continue to move farther and farther out on the see-saw in support of hierarchies, choosing to ignore how their policies affect anyone not like those on the top. One day they will fall off, hopefully before they take the entire country with them.

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-gay-sex-death-penalty-un-same-sex-relations-human-rights-council-saudi-arabia-iraq-nikki-haley-a7980981.html