monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

His apology was equally meaningless and narcissistic.

We, as humans, are going to have to find better ways to describe these evil humans like RC church clery. Pigs are actually way way way better than they are, as is every other animal.

someone in this thread who shamelessly supports the gross sexual misconduct of that shameless, horny bishop.

Three Salvadoran children experienced sexual violence in Arizona shelters, official tells media

After experiencing the trauma of being separated by their families at the border, three Salvadoran children were subjected to further trauma when workers at their shelter sexually abused them, a government official from El Salvador said.

The Associated Press reported that Liduvina Magarin, deputy foreign relations minister for Salvadorans overseas, told journalists of the alleged abuse of children from ages 12 to 17 on Thursday. The Salvadoran government is providing lawyers for the families should they decide to use them. These abuses allegedly took place in Arizona shelters but the shelters were not named.

In August, an employee at an Arizona facility for detained immigrant children, Fernando Negrete, was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse and faces charges of sexual abuse, aggravated assault, and molestation of a child. According to the Arizona Republic, the victim’s roommate told police that the suspect had kissed the 14 year-old victim and touched her breasts and crotch — claims that were backed up by video. Negrete admitted to his involvement, police said.

. . . it usually don't amount to a hill of beans.

Candidate Donald Trump ran on a populist platform aimed squarely at economically and racially anxious white working class voters, promising more jobs and higher wages. But President Donald Trump has routinely enriched himself and his wealthy ilk, delivering massive tax cuts to corporations and leaving middle class workers in the lurch.

According to Trump, the American people are living in “the greatest economy in the HISTORY of America and the best time EVER to look for a job.” The facts reveal something quite different.

While unemployment may be low, workers are experiencing historically low wage growth, forcing 40-hour-a-week workers to live paycheck to paycheck. And corporations, who were granted a significant tax cut in the GOP tax bill, are routing their profits mostly to top executives and large corporate shareholders in the form of stock buybacks.

So on this Labor Day, here is the sorry state of affairs for workers in the United States:

A decline union membership

Unions are essential for maintaining income equality by giving workers bargaining power to fight for better wages and working conditions. As multiple studies have shown, the hollowing out of workers’ wages is tied to the decline of collectively bargained union contracts. In one long-term study by Princeton University, researchers found that unions have consistently “provided workers with a 10- to 20-percent wage boost over their non-union counterparts over the past eight decades.”

Union membership, however, has been in a downturn for decades — so much so, that the decline of the American middle class almost exactly mirrors the fall in union membership. In the 1950s, more than one-third of all private-sector workers belonged unions, compared to roughly 10 percent now. But the decline isn’t due to a lack of enthusiasm among workers; In fact, new research suggests that nearly half of non-union workers — roughly 58 million Americans — would join a union if given the opportunity. That’s quadruple the number of American workers currently in a union.

But the future for collectively bargained unions, unfortunately, looks bleak given the president’s position as Union-Buster-In-Chief. Since taking the office, Trump has rolled back a series of pro-union Obama-era regulations.

In December, the majority-Republican National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) got rid of policies that helped smaller unions organize, protected the rights of franchise employees, and shielded workers from union-busting tactics. The Trump-appointed NLRB general counsel Peter Robb, made the agency’s pro-employer stance crystal clear in a memo to regional offices that signaled the NLRB would continue to reverse Obama-era policies.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative appointed to the Supreme Court by Trump, was the deciding vote in the recent anti-worker Court decision, Janus v. AFSCME. The holding of Janus is that workers in a unionized shop who choose not to pay union dues can still receive the benefits and protections a union offers because the agency fees workers are required to pay are form of speech protected by the First Amendment. The decision creates a “free-rider” problem that could severely depress union membership. After all, why pay dues if you can get something for nothing?

CEO-to-worker pay ratio

The salaries CEOs receive compared to the pay for rank-and-file workers is starkly disproportionate and upsetting. At industrial giant Honeywell, the largest company to disclose the ratio in February, the ratio was 333 to 1. At Amazon, a company plagued by strikes against long hours and harsh working conditions, billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos makes the median salary of an Amazon employee every 9 seconds. In 2017 he made 1.2 million times the median Amazon salary.

On average, CEOs are paid 333 times the wages of an average employee at their company.

This gap is only expected to grow as changes put into motion by the GOP tax bill take effect. Rather than delivering an “economic turnaround of historic proportions,” as Trump recently boasted, the bill will likely end up costing well over $1.4 trillion dollars, as it continues to provide handouts to the wealthiest Americans.

A recent Politico review of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings revealed that corporate executives, who often receive most of their compensation in stock, have been profiting enormously from the bill through stock buybacks. Following the passage of the measure last December, Oracle Corp. CEO Safra Catz sold $250 million worth of shares in her company, the “largest executive payday this year.”

Research by Americans For Tax Fairness found that powerful Fortune 500 companies have spent a total of over $238,244,348,330 in stock buybacks since December. This is what corporations choose to do instead of raising wages.

And according to the two thumbs down for this post so far, it appears that at least two posters approve of the bishop's groping ways. Abusers are known by their defense of abusers.

I agree with Oliver, people just like to make up a scandal and get all het up about it and it usually don't amount to a hill of beans.

It’s all about the narrative.

And according to the two thumbs down for this post so far, it appears that at least two posters approve of the bishop's groping ways. Abusers are known by their defense of abusers.

but instead the subtle groping by the bishop of Ariana Grande.

How is groping "subtle"? This should be good.

It’s all about the narrative.

So according to you, the only significance of Aretha's passing and funeral is the groping of one of her eulogizers by the bishop?

Your hypocritical signature line: Perhaps the most insidious threat facing Western democracies has been the progressive decline of elite accountability and responsibility.

Houston: Hilton and Starbucks ban ex-Muslims wearing “I’m an ex-Muslim” t-shirts

“This appears to be a case of discrimination,” says President of Ex-Muslims of North America, Muhammad Syed. “We were asked to leave the premises and informed that we could only enter the premises if we removed the shirts, none of which stated anything inflammatory. The treatment was unjust and especially cruel considering the plight of ex-Muslims. We are killed and abused all over the world for our disbelief. It is unconscionable that companies like Starbucks and Hilton acquiesce to conservative religious sensibilities”.