Where were the girls?

I recently read a story of the rage unleashed upon a woman who moved NASA tank tops from the boys' section to the girls' in a big box store (see link below). It's not surprising that there's still a stigma attached to gender. There's a gender pay gap for identical job titles and responsibilities.Women/girls are usually prohibited from competing against boys athletically. And many people disliked Hillary Clinton because she was "outspoken" and "pushy," qualities admired in male presidents.

Because I recently attended my high school reunion and have renewed friendships from long ago I began to wonder about the overt and subtle prohibitions that girls faced years ago. It was brutal enough going to Catholic school for 12 years but were there other restrictions in play? How did they manifest themselves? For example, up through 8th grade we were in one room so we all learned the same lessons. Once in high school, classes were by subject. In Freshman and Sophomore years, there were an equal number of boys and girls in math and science classes. By Senior year there weren't any girls in math classes nor in Physics, that I can recall. Why was that? It certainly had nothing to do with intelligence. How did that happen?

http://www.womenyoushouldknow.net/because-i-moved-5-shirts-portrait-of-an-unexpected-twitter-storm/

Patriot or traitor

Air Force veteran, Reality Leigh Winner, 25, was arrested for mailing a top secret document detailing Russian meddling in the American election to a news outlet, The Intercept.

Is she a whistleblowing patriot or a traitor?

The World According to Trump

To Donald Trump, the world is made up of only two sorts of people, or nations: strong winners whom others respect and fear, and weak losers whom others exploit and laugh at. There is no other alternative.

“At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us, as a country?” Trump asked Thursday during his major announcement from the White House Rose Garden that the US would be withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. “We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore. And they won’t be. They won’t be.“

For Trump, there is no such thing as collaboration for mutual gain. Cooperation is a sham. 

Similarly, social insurance is a con. Billionaires can be trusted because they’ve already made their money – presumably by out-exploiting others. 

Dictators are admirable because they’re respected and feared. But democratically-elected prime ministers and presidents need to be shown who’s boss – their hands grabbed in white-knuckled contests of dominance, their bodies shoved aside if they get out in front. And treaties and compacts need to be renegotiated so America wins.

It’s the same at home: Political opponents must be humiliated, White House staffers demeaned (even the Vice President shown his place), the press degraded, recalcitrant judges debased, others intimidated. 

Everything is a giant zero-sum game in which either you win and they lose, or they win and you lose. And if they dare put up a fight, you get even.

This is the personality of a sociopath. 

Trump is now the single most powerful person on the planet, with the ability to order the destruction of the world in just over four minutes. It is necessary to get him out of the White House, peacefully and legally, as quickly as possible.

Published by Robert Reich

June 4, 2017