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King of Jews

Days after accusing U.S. Jews who vote for Democrats of “great disloyalty,” President Donald Trump tweeted about how rightwing conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root called him “the best President for Israel in the history of the world,” adding that “the Jewish people in Israel love him like he’s the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God.” Jews don’t believe in a second coming, but Trump was nonetheless impressed. “Wow!” he commented. 

Paid to Praise

Thousands of workers employed by contractors were paid time-and-a-half to greet President Trump during his August 12 visit to a petroleum refinery in Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Their alternative was to lose a day of work with no pay. The workers were also told, “No yelling, shouting, protesting, or anything viewed as resistance will be tolerated at the event.”

The End of Ignorance

In a letter to the editor in the Wisconsin State Journal, Middleton, Wisconsin, resident Pete Zenz lamented that “the mainstream media and leftist politicians” have made Americans ignorant as to the causes of gun violence. “Many factors contribute to gun violence,” he wrote, “but these factors don’t include President Trump, the National Rifle Association, or guns.”

It Takes a Village

GateHouse Media, a media chain owned by New Media Investment Group, which is managed by Fortress Investment Group, an entity owned by Japanese tech giant SoftBank, recently announced that it has obtained a $1.8 billion loan from Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm, to merge with the Gannett newspaper chain, which owns USA Today, to create the nation’s largest newspaper company, with 260 daily papers and more than 300 weeklies.

And You’ll Know They Are Christians by Their Love

Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School in Monona, Wisconsin, terminated the employment contract of a newly hired second-grade teacher after it came to light that she had posted LGBTQ pride rainbow photos on her Facebook profile. The teacher removed the photos at the school’s request but still lost her job. The school, in a statement, stood by its decision, saying the teacher “publicly held positions contrary to Church teachings.”

Frontiers of School Safety

Fruitport High School in Michigan is undergoing a $48 million redesign to make a mass shooting in the building more difficult. “If . . . I want to be an active shooter,” explained school Superintendent Bob Szymoniak, “I’m going in knowing I have reduced sight lines.”

Slavery? Don’t Be Harshing My Mellow

Some white visitors to former slave plantations in the South have complained in online comments about being, as one put it, “subjected to a lecture aimed to instill guilt.” Another opined, “We didn’t come [here] to hear [about] how the white people treated slaves.”