Unions in Trouble

Due to work slowdowns, strikes and picket lines in its arsenal, membership in workplace unions has plunged over the last few decades, particularly in public-sector jobs. Over the past years labor unions members were above 30% in the 1970’s but recently it has decreased to less than 10% effectively making it harder for unions to stay afloat during voting tolls. The Supreme Court is also standing against labor unions making it harder for employees to work in their unions. “If, as expected, the Supreme Court strikes down so-called "fair-share" laws that fund collective bargaining for all employees, and as more states pass laws that eliminate unions as a workplace option, employees are taking to the streets to demand what they want, bypassing union leadership and negotiations with management in the process.” Unions have begun to lose their past amount of interest and has now become even more endangered. This could also lead to the further downfall of labor unions as the more they fight the less people will want to work in unions.

I agree with the author about labor unions entering a downfall because even if they tried to go to court I don’t think it would go well for them since they are also against them. But since picketing is causing an uproar within the unions what would be another way? For me I think they could try and bring these issues up to the executive branches or even through  social media where it could gain a large amount of traction.

https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2018-03-23/janus-supreme-court-case-could-spell-a-grim-future-for-unions

Mass, March Madness

The march for our lives rally that took place on saturday had a much meaning than just the parkland shooting. Many students involved in the march, especially students of color in the U.S. wanted to change the violence they see in their own neighborhoods and communities. No one has focused especially on this topic so they took the opportunity to integrate it into this. 16 year old Kaiseona Lockhart said “ They’re trying to say that mass shootings and shootings, they don’t Connect, but in reality they both happen by a gun”. This specific mass shooting has been seen as having more staying power and its because of students who survived the parkland shooting. Although this was focused around mass shootings that isn’t the only situation revolving around gun-deaths. A study was conducted and it found roughly 1,077 people have been killed in mass shootings since 1966, 176 of them children and teenagers. In 2017 itself, chicago nearly had 3,000 shooting incidents, snd 3,457 shooting victims. Between 2006 and 2015 , more than 14,500 people were shot in philadelphia, a rate of one shooting evry sox hours (which is insane). Many are calling for more strict gun laws Black lives matter groups, the march for our lives rally participants etc. and haven’t gotten what they deserve. They have gained tiny achievements in the gun control movement, Florida state legislature passed new firearm regulations and Trump signed a bill on Friday that helped to move forward to better laws like the Fix Nics Act which helps with better background checks for gun purchases. Many have also been calling continuously for a ban on assault weapons specifically AR-15’s that were present in the recent mass shootings. Something the March organizers  had on their agenda could reduce gun violence immensely. Their plan was to make it so anyone privately purchasing guns had to be subjected to a background check. This wasn’t  something to just protect white kids in white neighborhoods, this helped everyone could be potential victims.
       This article helps to give light to so much more than just the recent mass-shootings but the daily or weekly shootings that kids see everyday on their block or in the community in general and can’t escape it cause they have nowhere else to go.  These mass shootimgs have become a very controversial topic and a real problem-in the united states as of late and seem to be unpredictable  as to where could be hit next. One thing that struck me as problematic is why does this specific mass shooting have staying power and what makes it so much more in depth than the others that peopel wanna talk about it. Getting better gun control laws are always a main focus of these articles or whenever anyone talks about them and the main contributor to mass shootings in general. If someone has such easy access to purchasing a gun with no trace back to them or  at a private show and if they have the intent to commit an act like these they have all the tools to do it. Do you believe that gun control laws are the only factor to helping stop mass shotings or is there an even better way to prevent this? Personally I do see more strict gun control laws being the only way because without guns there is no mass shootingsand there can’t be any mass stabbings cause that would be dumb. https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/556463/?__twitter_impression=true

Trump pushed White House staff to sign non-disclosure agreements: report

President Trump asked senior White House staff members to sign confidentiality agreements, much like he did as a private citizen, according to a reported column in The Washington Post.Post columnist Ruth Marcus wrote she obtained a draft of the non-disclosure agreement, calling it a "doozy." If found violating the NDA, staffers would be penalized $10 million, to be paid to the government. She wrote that the $10 million figured likely was watered down in any final version because the people she spoke to about the agreement didn't remember that "jaw-dropping sum."The NDAs, a person who signed the document told the Post, “were meant to be very similar to the ones that some of us signed during the campaign and during the transition. I remember the president saying, ‘Has everybody signed a confidentiality agreement like they did during the campaign or we had at Trump Tower?’”According to the Post, staffers balked at first but, pressed by then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the White House Counsel’s Office, they ultimately signed because they figured the agreement wouldn't be enforceable, particularly since the NDA was to also cover time past the Trump administration, the Post reported.As a candidate, Donald Trump suggested he'd like to see high-level employees of the federal government sign NDAs so staffers couldn’t write about goings-on in a Trump White House.“When people are chosen by a man to go into government at high levels and then they leave government and they write a book about a man and say a lot of things that were really guarded and personal, I don’t like that,” Trump told the Post  in 2016.Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush, told Politico shortly before the 2016 election that Trump could not enforce a non-disclosure agreement as president like he could as a private businessman, and the agreements could not violate existing laws like the Freedom of Information Act. Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in an email Sunday night, “Public employees can’t be gagged by private agreements. These so-called NDAs are unconstitutional and unenforceable.”Since president Trump has prior experiences with the NDA's where do you think he's trying to go with it. I think that he's just trying hide something that he doesn't want the American people to find out about. Is he using the fear of money to make a point of not talking to the public about his presidency? The main question that we should ask our self's is what is he hiding since NDA are non constitution.

FBI Deputy Director Fired

Recently, Andrew McCabe was fired from his position as the FBI Deputy Director as of Friday, March 16. He was fired due to being accused of misleading investigators and failure to disclose information between F.B.I officials. In other words, he was for fired for a failure to answer questions he took an oath he would answer. During this event, President Donald Trump had made McCabe a victim of scorn and mockery. He continuously degraded McCabe for treason and continuously pestered him and urged for him to be fired. Subsequently, McCabe was fired and apparently two days before his retirement. His retirement was denied by Attorney Jeff Sessions. Even after his retirement, he was still pestered by Trump. Trump posted on his Twitter "Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy, "Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!" In my opinion, this act against McCabe was morally wrong. He served his country, and yet he was denied the compensation he deserved. It is unknown why he refused to the questions he was asked but no one deserved the torment and humiliation dealt by the officials and the man called the President of The United States. What are your thoughts on this situation? Do you think the decision of him being fired was justified? Also, Do you think Trump's actions were justified or do you think his actions were cruel and unfair?

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/16/politics/andrew-mccabe-fired/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/us/politics/andrew-mccabe-fbi-fired.html

Could Trump presidency come to a close?

          On March 18, 2018, there was an incident with Presidents Trumps idea with firing special counsel Robert Mueller. The idea of this firing him was so shocking even members of the Republican party disagree with him even threatening him. Members of your own party that's a little extreme but we need to know what is Trump's reasons for doing this. This problem started to boil when John Dowd Trumps's lawyer hoping that Rod Rosenstein would stop Mueller's theories with the 2016 election and say that Russians where messing with the election. Can you imagine if this was really how would vote for candidates that run for president if the elections are rigged? Also, how do you think Trump will react to this if you were him? Mueller was the only one to feel his wrath Mueller's team, Andrew McCabe (former FBI Deputy Director), and now fired FBI director James Comey. Now we see a tweet from Trump stating "Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans?" Trump wrote."Another Dem recently added ... does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!" Do you agree with Trump that group that apart from the government has to have an even amount of Democrats and Republicans so should we leave it alone? How would you think Republicans would react to this knowing you leader is doing something this drastic they say this won't be tolerated by Congress. If he would continue this he could have been impeached. So is Congress putting Trump in check for the amount of power and what he can do as a president? Anyway, do you think that a president should be able to fire whoever he/she wants if they threaten them or give them a bad name?

Trump’s crack down on school violence

In recent trading times there has been a spree of school shootings and many have died from them. Due to these events Trump is trying to pass laws to make change for the safety of the kids and adults. Trump has sat down and spoke with different families of victims and members of the NRA and lawmakers to come to find out what would be needed to lessen this problem. In these meetings Trump has advocated for aiming teachers and faculty in schools to be prepared and armed to shut down situations like this. While democratics and teachers union don’t agree with this he stands by this, but also has other options in plan. He also plans for optional class for teachers and faculty to take to be able to see signs of this before they get to far that people get hurt. Besides cracking down on school disasters he also is trying to change laws as well. In the process he is planning on changing the age requirement for people to possess guns. He is also trying to have universal background checks on all people not just people with licenses. The NRA is not agreeing won th this but Trump is advocating for this to the Congress. Do you agree with teachers being armed in schools with guns or should they just be prepared to see the signs? I say they should be prepared for the signs instead of more guns in schools. Also should gun requirement be changed and universal to all people?


https://www.google.com/amp/www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-school-shooting-plan-20180311-story,amp.html

Banned from snow?

A school in Britain has banned their students from touching snow. Their reasoning is that kids usually have snowball fights for fun, but these fights can also be dangerous. They believe there can be rocks and or grit in the snow, and this can hurt the children. The principal of the school, Ges Smith also states that the snow can make kids wet and “unfit for school”. Although it can possibly be dangerous, I don’t think completely banning the touching of snow was the way to go. All kids have snowball fights, and yes sometimes kids get hurt while having fun. However, that is life. Kids should be able to live and learn and have fun. What do you think? Did Smith overact by banning the touching of snow? Or were his reasons just?

http://www.offthegridnews.com/current-events/school-bans-kids-from-touching-snow-because-they-might-get-hurt/

Growing Pains?!?

      It is said that being a president of a superpower of a country is a tough job to have. This is true as we can visibly see the toll that this job has on people. With Trump we can’t see it as much as we can feel it. His change is more emotional. Reporters say that being the president has had a huge mental affect on Trump and he is slowly breaking down. He has increasingly become more and more emotionally unstable to the point where anything said about him can be seen as a threat towards him. They also say that the more pressure that is put on him, the more he feels the need to isolate himself. He has been making tons of rash decisions and in the minds of his peers is becoming unhinged. He is doing things like making huge plays on bills and signing them without consulting his advisory groups, letting people into the White House without backround checks and screenings and plenty of other things. His peers are growing worrysome and fear that his play on the steel and aluminum tariffs are going to somehow dwindle the economy and cause issues with foreign nations.

      In my analysis, I believe that Trump is making the moves that he should have always been making as president. I also think that his peers are starting to criticize him because he is making moves that he wouldn’t have normally considered. He even had an interview with the NRA passively aggressively attacking them and the second amendment as the cause of the school shootings going on and other mass killings. I wouldn’t say that Trump is totally changing for the good but what I am saying is that when he does make a good move the media will still attempt to find a way to villainize him. Let me know your thoughts. Why do you think it is that the media is trying to keep Trump in a certain light? This is a huge changing point for the country because the current extreme moves that Trump is tying to make all have reasons behind it, valid reasons I might add. He wants a tariff on aluminum and steel because if you guys have forgotten, America is still in debt. He is attacking the NRA and 2nd amendment because our schools are no longer safe. If he can make the right moves and pass a good law or two, this can change our government forever.



'This is not going to end well': Trump's friends and allies are worried he's spiraling out of control — and they say this time is different - Business Insider https://apple.news/A695N-QLQSBWaRDdUn06zmA

Nine notorious dictator Nine shout-outs from Donald Trump

In the past week Trump has congratulated the nine of the well know dictators in the world  who are Xi Jinping from China, Trump stated that Mr. Jinping  that he is a great leader , how he is present for life. Also he congratulated Mr.Jinping  on the work that he has done in his country and how we should try this this some day in other words Trump would want to to try a dictatorship in the United States. The next person he congratulated was of course Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump of course congratulated  Mr. Putin on how he is a leader also on how he has a very strong control over his country. Lastly he stated that  the system that the Russians follow he doesn't want to follow but he felt that Vladimir Putin was a far better leader than the United States previous leader which was President Barack Obama. Now these remarks from Trump where considered the first time trump expressed his admiration for Mr. Putin as president he has also done before during the election. what is interesting is that in the United States human rights report described restrictions in Russia on political participation, the suppression of civil society, and  allegations of torture. thereof based off of these reports Putin is a wonderful leader to Trump. the last major leader is Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte Trump congratulated him on his accomplishment of  cracking down on drug problems. What he did to crack down on the drug problem is that he hunted and killed suspected drug dealers who where selling the drugs while he was mayor. Now that he is president these killings have risen. Trump wants to adopt this idea by putting drug dealer on the death penalty when they are caught. When Trump congratulates these three out of the nine he congratulated it shows something about how trump want to change the course of the United States it seem that he wants to follow a dictator regime this is very dangerous for our society being this can effect our way of living. my question too you is that should we as citizens be worried about trump congratulating these major dictators ? Keep in mind that these leaders are communist leaders which the United States over the years tried to limit the growth of communism in the world.




https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/trump-xi-jinping-dictators/554810/