Rioters - Are We Covering Up the Fact They are Male?

Because men are on the top of our hierarchies in this country, are we falling into hierarchical traps of believing that white men represent all of society, and not just themselves?

In describing the people who are tending to incite violence and rioting: 

"Drifting out of the shadows in small groups, dressed in black, carrying shields and wearing knee pads, they head toward the front lines of the protest. Helmets and gas masks protect and obscure their faces, and they carry bottles of milk to counteract tear gas and pepper spray.

Most of them appear to be white. They carry no signs and don't want to speak to reporters. Trailed by designated "medics" with red crosses taped to their clothes, these groups head straight for the front lines of the conflict.

Night after night in this ravaged city, these small groups do battle with police and the National Guard, kicking away tear gas canisters and throwing back foam-rubber projects fired at them. Around them, fires break out. Windows are smashed. Parked cars destroyed. USA TODAY reporters have witnessed the groups on multiple nights, in multiple locations. Sometimes they threaten those journalists who photograph them destroying property."

We all know they almost all are white males. It is time we said so.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/30/george-floyd-protests-riots-violent-outside-agitators-minnesota/5291658002/

Michelle Obama: We All Must Deal with Racism

Michelle Obama said she's "exhausted by a heartbreak that never seems to stop," and continued, "Right now it’s George, Breonna, and Ahmaud. Before that it was Eric, Sandra, and Michael. It just goes on, and on, and on. Race and racism is a reality that so many of us grow up learning to just deal with. But if we ever hope to move past it, it can’t just be on people of color to deal with it."

"It’s up to all of us—Black, white, everyone—no matter how well-meaning we think we might be, to do the honest, uncomfortable work of rooting it out," Michelle wrote. "It starts with self-examination and listening to those whose lives are different from our own. It ends with justice, compassion, and empathy that manifests in our lives and on our streets. I pray we all have the strength for that journey, just as I pray for the souls and the families of those who were taken from us."

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a32719679/michelle-obama-statement-george-floyd/

Taylor Swift - Again On the Move Against Hierarchies

Superstar Taylor Swift's new tweet is her most popular ever. And terrific as it might help take down the hierarchies in our country, and their leader.

Yesterday Taylor Swift shared a 38-word Tweet criticizing Donald Trump for his provocative comments about the riots in Minneapolis.



Donald Trump addressed the ongoing riots in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers. Trump’s comment that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” was a call back to racially charged words used by Miami Police Chief Walter Headley in 1967, and echoed the commonly used phrase by presidential candidate George Wallace during the highly volatile 1968 presidential campaign.

Swift has 86.2 million followers on Twitter, and a fanbase of “Swifties” that has a reputation for rallying behind the singer-songwriter and her calls to action. As of this morning it was retweeted over 390,000 times, making it her most popular tweet ever.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethcohen/2020/05/30/taylor-swift-and-the-tweet-that-could-help-take-down-a-president/#23faf0495863

Trump: I'm On Top of the World Hierarchy of my Own (Trump's WHO), Who Cares About the other WHO?

In a move that is typical of a president who is showcasing problems with the top of our nation's hierarchies to a wide audience, Donald Trump told reporters yesterday of his intentions to immediately cut ties with the international health agency. 

Today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, the EU's top diplomat, called on Trump to reconsider his plans, saying "actions that weaken international results" during the coronavirus pandemic "must be avoided."

For people like Trump who see the world from the top, only what is good for him is considered. What is good for the whole is not important. If exercising his authority is the goal, and he sees that as being good for him, then what is good for everyone else is inconsequential. 

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/30/866218416/european-union-leaders-urge-u-s-to-remain-in-who

Supreme Court Rules Against Religion Getting Special Treatment in COVID

In what is being called as a blow to the religious right, and a victory for public health and the collective good, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision establishing that states still have some power to regulate how many people are allowed to gather in churches during a deadly pandemic. Roberts sided with the liberal contingency. 

Roberts writes in his opinion, “although California’s guidelines place restrictions on places of worship, those restrictions appear consistent with the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”

That’s because “similar or more severe restrictions apply to comparable secular gatherings, including lectures, concerts, movie showings, spectator sports, and theatrical performances, where large groups of people gather in close proximity for extended periods of time.”

It does not violate the Constitution’s religious liberty protections, in other words, to require churches to follow the same rules that apply to similar institutions. And it certainly doesn’t violate those protections to give churches more freedom than similar institutions.

All four of the Court’s most conservative members dissented in South Bay United, and three of those justices joined an opinion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh that would make it quite difficult for states to regulate potentially dangerous conduct by religious institutions.

Typical with hierarchy supporters, where their wants are supposed to take precedent over the good of the whole.

https://www.vox.com/2020/5/30/21275379/supreme-court-churches-roberts-kavanaugh-south-bay-united-pentecostal-newsom