I often get tired of listening to the news and the liberal narrative that we must all be afraid of gun violence and we need more arbitrary restrictions on gun rights. I don’t need to hear such things so I just don’t listen to the news anymore. I’m glad I couldn’t hear the news while I was up in the wilderness due to valley blocking the radio signal.
The choice for thousands of union workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County was to either spend Tuesday standing in a giant hall waiting for President Donald Trump to speak, or to take the day off with no pay.
“Your attendance is not mandatory,” read the rules that Shell sent to union leaders a day ahead of the visit to the $6 billion construction site. But only those that showed up at 7 a.m., scanned their cards, and prepared to stand for hours — through lunch but without lunch — would be paid.
“NO SCAN, NO PAY,” the rules said.
Those that decided to sit out the event would have an excused absence, the company said, and would not qualify for overtime pay on Friday. The company has a 56-hour workweek with 16 hours of overtime. That means those workers who attended Mr. Trump’s speech and showed up for work on Friday meeting the overtime threshold are being paid at a rate of time and a half, while those that didn’t go to hear the president are being paid the regular rate, despite the fact that both groups did not do work on the site on Tuesday.
President Trump may have been joking about wanting to buy Greenland, if he said it, but officials there want him to know: The island isn't for sale.
Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, a Greenlandic politician, told Here & Now that she was "not surprised" by media reports that the U.S. president was interested in purchasing the massive, ice-covered island.
"It sounds a little bit like a joke because Greenland is not for sale," she said.
In this phase of the 2020 Democratic presidential contest, there are a number of interesting story lines for political observers: the huge candidate field that keeps resisting its “winnowing,” the apparent indestructibility of front-runner Joe Biden, the constant fears about electability and Trump’s efforts to paint the Donkey Party as a bunch of socialists who hate America and love open borders, and the intermittently sharp elbows the candidates are displaying toward each other.
But the development that currently demands attention is the emergence of Senator Elizabeth Warren as something other than the candidate of policy wonks, dismissed as nonviable even among people who think she’d make an outstanding president. Her strong debate performances, a knack for organizing (based on her outstanding retail political skills), and the misfortunes affecting some of her rivals have combined to give her the clear path to the Democratic nomination that she really did not have in the early going.
President Trump’s proclivity for spouting exaggerated numbers, unwarranted boasts and outright falsehoods has continued at a remarkable pace. As of Aug. 5, his 928th day in office, he had made 12,019 false or misleading claims, according to the Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement the president has uttered.
Two high-profile episodes this week could signal a year in which the glare of the campaign usually reserved for candidates pivots to put those who make personal donations to political campaigns in the spotlight.
The first comes courtesy of Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, of San Antonio, who is also the co-chairman of his twin brother Julian Castro's campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.
I think it’s fair to say that many of President Donald Trump’s views are racist, or at least excessively conventional and unwilling to accept the multicultural, diverse nation we are that benefits from trade and maintaining a strong relationship with other nations. I am hesitant to call anyone a racist, just because I think it’s important to judge ideas on their merits and not by labels.
To be sure, some of the policies that the president has called for reexamination are overdue but you have to wonder if his ideas are rooted in fairness and sound economics. There’s a case to be made that many are not rooted in those principles. But maybe it’s time for a change, to experiment and try new ideas. To be critical of existing institutions which haven’t necessarily served the American people well.