Deregulatin’

The Trump administration has taken two major steps towards deregulating the industry this week, siding with businesses on many issues.

• Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that businesses can stop employees from banding together in disputes over pay and conditions in the workplace, a decision that affects an estimated 25 million non-unionized employees. So these workers would have to use private arbitrators instead of courts (so these cases are expected to be more costly and less publicized, which critics say could be harmful in disputes of racial and pay discrimination). Lawyers representing management said the decision protects businesses from endless, costly litigation. Four dissenting liberal justices said the decision will hit low-wage, vulnerable workers especially hard.
• Tuesday, the House approved a bill to roll back Dodd-Frank. Dodd-Frank was a 2010 Obama admin law passed in response to the 2008 financial crisis that placed extra regulations on big banks. Now, the Congress is raising the standards for how big the banks need to be (so less than a dozen of banks will fall under the law). Some Reps & Dems approve of the law, saying this will give little banks more room to grow. Critics say that this deregulation trend might cause another financial crisis in the future.

Pullin’ out

Thursday, Donald Trump announced his withdrawal from the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

This month, NK showed willingness to leave its isolationist cuccoon and limit its nuclear program. Talks were held between North and South Korea, and negotiations were planned between the US and NK for June. But then NK said that the talks were going to be “one-sided” and threatened to cancel them. So now Trump is cancelling the talks because of NK’s “ tremendous anger and open hostility”.

But Trump added that it was still possible the summit could be held later. And NK said Kim is still willing to meet Donald Trump “at any time, at any format”. No more playing hard to get?

Also, amidst all this, NK and SK held a surprise meeting last week to discuss how to hold peaceful and ordered talks between North Korea and the United States.

Counting of votes begins in the Irish referendum on the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution, in Dublin, Ireland, Saturday, May 26, 2018. Image courtesy of the Associated Press.

Votin’

Friday, Ireland has voted by a landslide to repeal one of the world’s strictest abortion laws, straying away from its traditional conservative Roman Catholic patriarchy. The result of the Saturday vote was a two-thirds majority: 66.4% yes to 33.6% no.

The repealed Eighth Amendment recognized the “right to life of the unborn” – making abortion almost entirely illegal, even in cases of rape, incest, and deadly fetal abnormalities.

The vote comes a few years after a pregnant woman died because of a miscarriage, which some say could be prevented if she had gotten an abortion. Ireland later passed a law to allow abortions if the mom’s life is at risk, but many thought that didn’t go nearly far enough.
In the past three years alone, Ireland has installed a gay man as prime minister and has voted in another referendum to allow same-sex marriage.