Friday, August 28, 2020

In the news, Monday, August 17, 2020


________

AUG 16      INDEX      AUG 18
________


________

from Competitive Enterprise Institute

Can You Have Worker Representatives without Unions? Uber Hopes So
Rideshare company Uber is trying to find a way to allow its drivers to collectively express any grievances or concerns they have without having those drivers form a union. The company is promising that it will meet with driver representatives to hear their concerns. That is very hard to do under U.S. law but Uber apparently thinks it can thread the needle.

________

from Forbes

Democrats Say California Is Model For Climate Action But Its Blackouts Say Otherwise
At the Democratic National Convention this week, presidential and vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will make the case for spending $2 trillion, or $500 billion per year, to transition the U.S. away from fossil fuels toward renewables like solar and wind. Biden has said he would not “tinker around the edges” with his plan. “We’re going to make historic investments that will seize the opportunity.” In many respects, the Biden-Harris plan is even more aggressive than California’s. “The plan is very bold,” Leah Stokes of the University of California, Santa Barbara, told the Financial Times. “There is no [US] state right now that has a target this ambitious.” But California’s big bet on renewables, and shunning of natural gas and nuclear, is directly responsible for the state’s blackouts and high electricity prices. 

________

from Gallup
Analytics and advisory services on the front lines of transformation

Trump Job Approval 42%; Below 50% on Seven Key Issues
President Donald Trump's job approval rating is 42% in the latest Gallup poll. This marks a slight improvement from two readings below 40% in June -- after nationwide protests on racial injustice -- but remains below his ratings prior to June, including several personal best readings of 49%.

25% in U.S. Say Neither Candidate Would Be a Good President
As both political parties prepare for their conventions, one in four Americans do not think either of the major-party presidential candidates would be a good president. At the same time, roughly equal percentages say only Joe Biden (36%) or only Donald Trump (33%) would make a good president, while 5% say both candidates would. Similar percentages of Democrats (75%) and Republicans (79%) think only their candidate is suitable, while a 37% plurality of independents do not think either would be a good candidate and nearly equal percentages say only Biden or only Trump would be.

________

from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS,  MIXED  American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.

China, Open-Source Information, and Transparency
The U.S. government’s “Open Source Center,” formerly the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, has largely disappeared from the public discourse—in part because all of its information can now only be accessed on U.S. government-approved computers. This has meant that there is no real “single source” of good, open-source information about China. It also highlights the need for an “air traffic controller,” directing researchers to the best sources for various types of information and providing its own analyses along the way. Ideally, such a “traffic cop” would both bring to light less well-known institutions and centers of excellence or ones less known to Washington policymakers, while also signaling a more bipartisan/non-partisan approach. As the coronavirus pandemic has underscored, America and her partners need to better understand the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party.The U.S. government’s former role in translating Chinese documents has evaporated, leaving no single, generally available body of reliable, open-source literature.Given the growing focus on China, policymakers and thought leaders should increase mutual information-sharing and research across multiple lanes and areas.

End Birthright Citizenship for Illegal Families
For conservatives, one unfulfilled promise really stands out—ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. President Donald Trump promised this during the 2016 campaign and on multiple occasions since then. Birthright citizenship automatically grants U.S. citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. At least 5 million individuals in the USA have received birthright citizenship but should not have. This practice is due to a misapplication of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the interpretation of the language “subject to the jurisdiction.” Legislative history makes no mention of illegal immigrants being subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Proponents of birthright citizenship often point to the 1898 Supreme Court case U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, but that case dealt with the children of lawful permanent residents, not illegal immigrants. The president doesn’t need Congress to end this practice. He could issue an executive order instructing federal agencies to issue passports and other government documents and benefits only to those individuals whose status as U.S. citizens meets this requirement. Trump’s 2016 campaign put out a policy paper saying that birthright citizenship “remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration.” He was right then and would be right now to end it.

________

from New York Post
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED,  Newspaper in New York

President Trump has told aides he would like to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the November election, according to a report. The summit would be focused on promoting the two nations’ progress toward reaching a new nuclear arms control accord, NBC News reported Sunday. Four people familiar with talks on the potential meeting told the network that various times and locations were being considered, including one option next month in New York City. At the reported summit, the two leaders would sign a general blueprint outlining how they would move forward on a new arms treaty, also known as New START.

________

from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________


No comments:

Post a Comment