March for Our Lives, Pittsfield, MA, Saturday, 24 March 2018
Keeping Track (of some things), Staying Outraged (it is possible), and Resisting (it’s essential)
Passages in bold in the body of the texts below are my emphasis. This is an ongoing project, and I update the site frequently. Because I try to stay focused on what has actually happened, I usually let the news ‘settle’ a day or so before posting. I hope readers will peruse the articles in full for a better understanding of the issues and their context; our democracy and our future depend on citizens who can distinguish between facts and falsehoods and who are engaged in the political process.
Friday, 27 April 2018, Day 463:
North and South Korea Set Bold Goals: A Final Peace and No Nuclear Arms, The New York Times, Choe Sang-Hun, Friday, 27 April 2018: “The leaders of North and South Korea agreed on Friday to work to remove all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and, within the year, pursue talks with the United States to declare an official end to the Korean War, which ravaged the peninsula from 1950 to 1953. At a historic summit meeting, the first time a North Korean leader had ever set foot in the South, the leaders vowed to negotiate a treaty to replace a truce that has kept an uneasy peace on the divided Korean Peninsula for more than six decades. A peace treaty has been one of the incentives North Korea has demanded in return for dismantling its nuclear program.” See also, Trump Renews Attacks on James Comey Before Turning to Praise of Korean Talks, The New York Times, Eileen Sullivan, Friday, 27 April 2018: “President Trump on Friday renewed his attacks on the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, kicking off a morning Twitter barrage by once again accusing Mr. Comey of leaking classified information and lying to cover it up, even as the leaders of North and South Korea held a historic meeting hours earlier. In a tweet, Mr. Trump called Mr. Comey ‘either very sick or very dumb,’ saying his fired F.B.I. chief did not understand the severity of his actions in having details about his interactions with the president provided to a reporter.” See also, The historic Kim-Moon meeting as it unfolded, The Washington Post, Rick Noack and Joyce Lee, Friday, 27 April 2018: “In 2016, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to strike the residence of South Korea’s president with missiles, foreshadowing mounting tensions that have kept the world on alert ever since. So, when Kim stretched out his hand and smiled at South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday, the scene could hardly have been more surreal. The historic moment was the result of months of negotiations and pressure by both China and the United States, even though it remains unclear how far North Korea is willing to give in. North Korea is also still responsible for horrifying crimes against its own population, including labor camps and torture — something that wasn’t addressed in a statement the two leaders released Friday. In their release, Kim and Moon announced their ‘common goal’ of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, which was the clearest such commitment ever agreed to by the two nations. Curiously, North Korea’s pledge to denuclearize comes after a year in which Kim made major advances in developing and testing nuclear weapons.”
Environmental Protection Agency Readies Plan to Weaken Rules That Require Cars to Be Cleaner, The New York Times, Niroko Tabuchi, Brad Plumer, and Coral Davenport, Friday, 27 April 2018: “The Trump administration has drafted a new set of regulations on planet-warming emissions from cars and light trucks that would dramatically weaken Obama-era standards. The proposal, if implemented, would also set up a legal clash between the federal government and California by challenging the state’s authority to set its own, stricter, air pollution rules. Details of the proposal, which is being jointly drafted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department and is expected to be sent to the White House for approval in coming days, were described to The New York Times by a federal official who had seen them but was not authorized to discuss the matter. The proposal follows an announcement this month by the E.P.A. administrator, Scott Pruitt, that the Trump administration intended to weaken the stringent vehicle fuel economy standards set by the Obama administration that aimed to roughly double the average fuel economy of new cars, S.U.V.s and light trucks by 2025.” See also, Trump administration drafts plan to unravel Obama-era fuel-efficiency rules and to challenge California’s ability to set its own fuel-efficiency rules, The Washington Post, Chris Mooney, Dino Grandoni, and Juliet Eilperin, Friday, 27 April 2018: “The Trump administration has drafted a proposal that would freeze fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles starting in 2021 and challenge California’s ability to set its own fuel-efficiency rules, changes that would hobble one of the Obama administration’s most significant initiatives to curb climate change. The draft document, while not final, suggests the Trump administration is poised to make significant changes to planned auto standards over the next decade. A federal official who has reviewed the document described it in detail to The Washington Post.”
House Intelligence Committee Republicans release final Russia report, The Washington Post, Matt Zapotosky, Karoun Demirjian, and Greg Miller, Friday, 27 April 2018: “House Intelligence Committee Republicans on Friday released a redacted version of their final report from a year-long probe of Russia’s ‘multifaceted’ influence operation, generally clearing President Trump and his associates of wrongdoing while accusing the intelligence community and the FBI of failures in how they assessed and responded to the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election. The report charges the intelligence community with ‘significant intelligence tradecraft failings,’ suggesting, without saying explicitly, that Russia’s main goal was to sow discord in the United States and not to help Trump win the election. It says investigators found ‘no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government,’ even as it details contacts between campaign officials and Russians or Russian intermediaries. Though the report — and a rebuttal from Democrats — offers little in the way of new information, the dueling documents give each side of the aisle ammunition to support its long-held arguments about how and why Russia interfered in the 2016 election. They come at a moment when the investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who has already secured guilty pleas from a number of Trump associates, has largely overtaken the probes in Congress. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also pursuing its own investigation.” See also, Republicans on House Intelligence Committee Absolve Trump Campaign in Russian Meddling, The New York Times, Nicholas Fandos and Sharon LaFraniere, Friday, 27 April 2018: “In a nearly 100-page dissenting document, Democrats on the Intelligence Committee described the Republicans’ report as little more than a whitewash. The eagerness of Trump campaign aides to accept offers of Russian assistance, they said, suggests ‘a consciousness of wrongfulness, if not illegality.’ The Democrats complained that the committee failed to pursue obvious leads, interview important witnesses or investigate crucial lines of inquiry.” See also, The House Intelligence Committee report released by the Republican majority on the committee is full of bizarre redactions, The Washington Post, Philip Bump, Friday, 27 April 2018. See also, 5 Takeaways From the House Intelligence Committee Report on Russian Election Meddling, The New York Times, Charlie Savage and Matthew Rosenberg, Friday, 27 April 2018.
Continue reading Week 67, Friday, 27 April – Thursday, 3 May 2018 (Days 463-469)
