I. Clean Economy Optimism
The Paris accord and the Kigali agreement, the global divestment movement the spread of carbon-pricing mechanism, legal cases trying to hold fossil fuel companies liable for the harm they've caused -- climate policy is at its most fundamental core the question of how much we'll leave in the ground." "When the carbon bubble pops, the ability of fossil fuel industries to set political agendas will be deeply compromised." "The clean economy is getting exponentially more competitive. Clean energy and batteries, in particular, are on steep learning curves. As we build more, the price drops; as the price drops, the number of situations in which wind and solar outcompete coal and gas grows." [1]
II. Clean Energy Pessimism
The other side of the coin on clean energy optimism are cautionary notes about the difficulty of holding global warming below two degrees, as called for in the Paris agreement. Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker magazine throws some cold water on the nations in the Paris agreement "pursing efforts" to limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. She cautions that at the current rate of emissions, "the world will have run through the so-called carbon budget for 1.5 degrees within the next decade or so." She worries that "the Supreme Court for its part, appears unlikely to challenge the Administration's baleful reasoning. Last week [in early October], it declined to hear an appeal to a lower court ruling on hydrofluoro- carbons, chemicals that are among the most potent greenhouse gases known. The lower court had struck down an Obama-era rule phasing out HFCs, which are used mostly as refrigerants. The author of the lower-court decision was, by the dystopian logic of our times, Brett Kavanaugh." [2]
"To have a reasonable chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, the I.P.C.C. said, global CO(2) emissions, now running about forty billion tons a year, would need to be halved by 2030 and reduced more or less to zero by 2050." According to the I.P.C.C., between 1.5 and two degrees of warming, the rate of crop loss doubles. So does the decline in marine fisheries, while exposure to extreme heat waves almost triples.
III. The Wilderness and Civilization Debate
[The] divisions over Isle Royale's wolves are emblematic of more-high-stakes debates about how, when, and whether human desires should override the need to keep some places free from civilization." "For some, the wolf is a totem of wildness; for others, it's a menace. Since wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in 1995, these divisions have typically fallen along ideological lines." "Can we resist the temptation to turn every last terrain into a vehicle for human wants?" [3] (Isle Royale is an island in Lake Superior, just off Michigan's Upper Peninsula.)
IV. Protecting Arctic Wildlife
In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower protected nearly 9 million acres as the Arctic National Wildlife Range, later to be expanded and reamed a national Refuge. "Sure, the idea of keeping one last one was nice, but that was never how America had treated the frontiers of the past; frontiers, by American definition, were for developing." "And then last December, in the midst of a chaotic administration, a historically unpopular president signed a major tax bill with a largely overlooked rider. Just like that, after almost 50 years of passionate debate, U.S. law would require oil leasing on the Arctic prairies." [4]
ADDEDUMS:
*"Across both wind and solar, women make up just under 30 percent of the workforce. The percentage of women in administrative and paralegal roles is around 90 percent, but it's rare to see more than one female wind technician on any given site." [5]
*"The borderlands [between the U.S. and Mexico] are home to more than 1,500 native plants, ocelots, antelope, bisons, and wolves." [6]
Footnotes:
[1] Alex Steffen, "The Last Dinosaur," Mother Jones, November/December 2018.
[2] Elizabeth Kolbert, "Global Warming," The New Yorker, October 22, 2018.
[3] Jason Mark, "Let It Be," Sierra, November/December 2018.
[4] Brooke Jarnie, "The Last Stand," Sierra, November/December 2018.
[5] Wendy Becktold, "Wind Beneath Her Wings," Sierra, November/December 2018.
[6] Michael Brune, "Mr. Trump, Tear Down This Wall," Sierra, November/December 2018.
Showing posts with label Paris Agreement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris Agreement. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Friday, July 21, 2017
Diverse Items From My Writer's Notebook
Good News on the Clean-Energy Sector
"Three million Americans now work in the clean-energy sector, more than are employed in the oil, gas, and coal industries combined." Moreover, the Paris Agreement "commits the world's governments to leave behind oil, gas, and coal by mid-century -- a historic shift. It commits them to limit the global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius." Some of the greatest change is underway in China, which is rapidly shutting down coal plants and mines, and adding solar and wind plants. Although conservatives like to portray China as a laggard in addressing global warming, it is actually making its manufacturing sector more efficient, leaving behind the United States, hobbled by a global warming denier as its president. (Source: Mark Hartegaard, Enemy of Humanity," The Nation, July 3/10, 2017).
Daring to Dream
"[In] so many ways, Trump is not a rupture at all, but rather the culmination -- the logical end point -- of a great many dangerous stories our culture has been telling for a long time. That greed is good. That money is what matters in life."
"Trump is a mirror, held up not only to the United States but to the world." "A society with extreme inequality, unmasked neofascist tendencies, and an unraveling climate is sick, and neoliberalism, as one of the major drivers of all of these crises, is grossly inadequate medicine." "In the many domains Trump does not control, we need to aim higher in our ambitions and accomplish more with our actions." (Source: Naomi Klein, "Daring to Dream in the Age of Trump," The Nation, July 3/10, 2017).
British Labour's Revival
"The Labour manifest promised, without apology, to raise taxes one the wealthiest to restore Britain's welfare state, including free college tuition -- a magnet for the young. Labour's crucial insight was that the Brexit vote had less to do with Europe than with the state Britain's in: jobs and dignity lost, communities unraveling, education failing, the National Health Service in tatters, nurses depending on food banks, and homelessness on the rise while the wealthy continue to flourish, oblivious and insulated." (Source: Maria Margaronis, "Labour's Revival," The Nation, July 3/10, 2017).
The Neglected Under-Insured
The Commonwealth Fund found that in 2012 there were 31.7 million insured people under age 65 who were under-insured. Together with the 47.3 million who were uninsured, this meant at least 79 million people were at risk of not being able to afford needed care before the major reforms of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA has reduced high medical care costs, while also covering the uninsured. Both the House and Senate GOP healthcare plans have provisions to reduce coverage guarantees, thereby substantially increasing the number of the under-insured.
A More Confrontational Europe
Jan Techau, the director of the Richard Holbrooke Forum at the American Academy in Berlin, said: "There is now a more openly confrontational language with the United States. The European public is already outspoken about Trump but now there is a more outspoken European leadership that won't paper over these divisions anymore." "Trump has no constraint and will say anything, and now the Europeans feel they can do the same, [and] that means less respect for each other, and less mutual confidence."
Francois Heisbourg, a French security analyst, said: "All reticence has gone away." "On an issue-by-issue basis, there is apparently no penalty for playing hardball with Trump without necessarily affecting security, on climate for example."
Treason, or Bordering on It
Richard Painter, head of the Government Ethics Office under President George W. Bush, has called Donald Trump Jr.'s setting up a meeting with a Russian lawyer and others, "treason," or bordering on treason. He said: "This is an effort to get opposition research on an opponent in an American political campaign from the Russians, who were known to be engaged in spying inside the United States." "We do not get opposition research from spies, we do not collaborate with Russian spies, unless we want to be accused of treason."
Breaking the GOP
Walter Shapiro, writing in "The Guardian," said: "In a sense, Republicans fit Colin Powell's Pottery Barn rule about Iraq: 'you break it, you own it.' Republican leaders, from Paul Ryan to Reince Priebus, allowed Trump to break the Republican Party and now they own the consequences. ... Where have you gone Howard Baker? Our nation lifts its lonely eyes to you."
Macron and Netanyahu Disagree on Mideast Peace
In their most recent meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "The problem is that you're making it more complicated by building more and more in the settlements." Macron told Netanyahu that Trump had told him that there is an opportunity for peace in the Middle East and he supports Trump's efforts. Netanyahu answered: "It will be complicated to move quickly on the American plan." Netanyahu also said that Trump is focusing too much on Abbas, the Palestinian leader, and he needs a parallel process with the Arab states.
"Three million Americans now work in the clean-energy sector, more than are employed in the oil, gas, and coal industries combined." Moreover, the Paris Agreement "commits the world's governments to leave behind oil, gas, and coal by mid-century -- a historic shift. It commits them to limit the global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius." Some of the greatest change is underway in China, which is rapidly shutting down coal plants and mines, and adding solar and wind plants. Although conservatives like to portray China as a laggard in addressing global warming, it is actually making its manufacturing sector more efficient, leaving behind the United States, hobbled by a global warming denier as its president. (Source: Mark Hartegaard, Enemy of Humanity," The Nation, July 3/10, 2017).
Daring to Dream
"[In] so many ways, Trump is not a rupture at all, but rather the culmination -- the logical end point -- of a great many dangerous stories our culture has been telling for a long time. That greed is good. That money is what matters in life."
"Trump is a mirror, held up not only to the United States but to the world." "A society with extreme inequality, unmasked neofascist tendencies, and an unraveling climate is sick, and neoliberalism, as one of the major drivers of all of these crises, is grossly inadequate medicine." "In the many domains Trump does not control, we need to aim higher in our ambitions and accomplish more with our actions." (Source: Naomi Klein, "Daring to Dream in the Age of Trump," The Nation, July 3/10, 2017).
British Labour's Revival
"The Labour manifest promised, without apology, to raise taxes one the wealthiest to restore Britain's welfare state, including free college tuition -- a magnet for the young. Labour's crucial insight was that the Brexit vote had less to do with Europe than with the state Britain's in: jobs and dignity lost, communities unraveling, education failing, the National Health Service in tatters, nurses depending on food banks, and homelessness on the rise while the wealthy continue to flourish, oblivious and insulated." (Source: Maria Margaronis, "Labour's Revival," The Nation, July 3/10, 2017).
The Neglected Under-Insured
The Commonwealth Fund found that in 2012 there were 31.7 million insured people under age 65 who were under-insured. Together with the 47.3 million who were uninsured, this meant at least 79 million people were at risk of not being able to afford needed care before the major reforms of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA has reduced high medical care costs, while also covering the uninsured. Both the House and Senate GOP healthcare plans have provisions to reduce coverage guarantees, thereby substantially increasing the number of the under-insured.
A More Confrontational Europe
Jan Techau, the director of the Richard Holbrooke Forum at the American Academy in Berlin, said: "There is now a more openly confrontational language with the United States. The European public is already outspoken about Trump but now there is a more outspoken European leadership that won't paper over these divisions anymore." "Trump has no constraint and will say anything, and now the Europeans feel they can do the same, [and] that means less respect for each other, and less mutual confidence."
Francois Heisbourg, a French security analyst, said: "All reticence has gone away." "On an issue-by-issue basis, there is apparently no penalty for playing hardball with Trump without necessarily affecting security, on climate for example."
Treason, or Bordering on It
Richard Painter, head of the Government Ethics Office under President George W. Bush, has called Donald Trump Jr.'s setting up a meeting with a Russian lawyer and others, "treason," or bordering on treason. He said: "This is an effort to get opposition research on an opponent in an American political campaign from the Russians, who were known to be engaged in spying inside the United States." "We do not get opposition research from spies, we do not collaborate with Russian spies, unless we want to be accused of treason."
Breaking the GOP
Walter Shapiro, writing in "The Guardian," said: "In a sense, Republicans fit Colin Powell's Pottery Barn rule about Iraq: 'you break it, you own it.' Republican leaders, from Paul Ryan to Reince Priebus, allowed Trump to break the Republican Party and now they own the consequences. ... Where have you gone Howard Baker? Our nation lifts its lonely eyes to you."
Macron and Netanyahu Disagree on Mideast Peace
In their most recent meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "The problem is that you're making it more complicated by building more and more in the settlements." Macron told Netanyahu that Trump had told him that there is an opportunity for peace in the Middle East and he supports Trump's efforts. Netanyahu answered: "It will be complicated to move quickly on the American plan." Netanyahu also said that Trump is focusing too much on Abbas, the Palestinian leader, and he needs a parallel process with the Arab states.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Sakes Alive! Trump Believes in Global Warming!
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has startling news for everybody: "President Trump believes the climate is changing" and that man-made pollutants are partly responsible. Haley added: "Just because the US got out of a club doesn't mean we aren't going to care about the environment."
Long ago, Donald Trump tweeted that global warming -- or climate change -- was a hoax invented by the Chinese to cause U.S. manufacturers to spend more money on pollution-control equipment. During the presidential campaign he told a Miami, Florida newspaper that climate change was a naturally occurring phenomenon and there was no human cause involved. When interviewed after she became Trump's press spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway made it very clear that Trump didn't think there was a human element to the warming of the planet, even if it was taking place.
Why didn't Trump himself announce his change of mind. It may have been because he was surprised by the intensity of the negative reaction to his pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement that he wanted to try to get on the other side of the issue. Also it may be the case that Trump didn't want his die-hard supporters to hear that he had mislead them in the campaign. Thus, it was better for a surrogate to proclaim the position reversal and Nikki Haley may be one of the few Trump surrogates who retains enough credibility to convey the news without being laughed out of town.
President Trump's claim that he will try to renegotiate to get a better deal is just a ploy to create an impression that the U.S. has not really left the deal but will work to get a better one. It is safe to say that there is zero chance that 195 nations will get together to fundamentally change a deal that was very difficult to get in the first place. In addition, how many world leaders trust Trump on deal-making?
Turning now to the evolving reaction to President Trump's nine-day foreign trip starting in Saudi Arabia and including meetings with the G7 and leaders of the NATO nations. It has received generally favorable media coverage and Sen. Corker (R-TN) lavishly praised the trip. Even George Will said the bar for success was very low, he declared that Trump had cleared the bar. Now may be a good time to reflect back on how large swaths of the media went ga-ga over Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress
One promise that Trump made in that speech was that his administration would enhance the quality of the nation's air and water. Trump is dismantling the nation's environmental protections and sharply cutting the EPA budget.
Trump promised comprehensive immigration reform, worked out with Democrats. It now seems evident that Trump dangled the prospect of immigration reform to increase the size of the audience and to cast himself as a moderate. Since Democratic lawmakers will not vote for immigration reform that doesn't include a pathway to citizenship, and Trump will not embrace a legal pathway because it will be a "bridge too far" for many of his supporters, immigration reform is a dead issue.
In his joint session speech, Trump called for everyone to respect one another. This is a cruel jibe from a person who has made disrespect for others a major art of his persona and continues to disrespect those who oppose what he wants to do as president.
President Trump gave five principles for an Affordable Care Act replacement and has largely dispensed with them in his backing of a plan that greatly increases the number of the uninsured, would raise premium costs for many seniors and allow the states to waive two important provisions in the new plan.
Trump promised a giant middle-class tax cut, whereas his plan written in December 2015 would be heavily skewed toward tax savings for the top few percent of tax filers and would actually raise the taxes for millions of middle-class and low-income tax filers.
Trump's tribute to the Navy Seal's wife in the speech to the joint session seems to be the one thing that most persuaded the media and others enraptured by Trump's speech to declare him to be "presidential." Yet, saying that the Seal is very happy in eternity due to the applause generated is akin to contending that the sacrifice of his life was worth it for the applause received at a Trump-controlled event.
Much as I think that the praise for the joint session speech would be seen today as greatly overblown, the overseas trip will receive the same fate with some further reflection. Note the dichotomy between telling the Saudis that he did not come to lecture them and tell them what to do and do just that in speaking to the NATO leaders; failing to pledge U.S. support for the NATO Charter's Article 5, even though his staff was sure he would pledge just that; shoving aside the president of Montenegro to get a better position in a photo op; and riding in a golf cart while the others walked. And perhaps the biggest misstep of the whole trip was in arousing the ire of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is probably the most influential leader in the world today.
Long ago, Donald Trump tweeted that global warming -- or climate change -- was a hoax invented by the Chinese to cause U.S. manufacturers to spend more money on pollution-control equipment. During the presidential campaign he told a Miami, Florida newspaper that climate change was a naturally occurring phenomenon and there was no human cause involved. When interviewed after she became Trump's press spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway made it very clear that Trump didn't think there was a human element to the warming of the planet, even if it was taking place.
Why didn't Trump himself announce his change of mind. It may have been because he was surprised by the intensity of the negative reaction to his pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement that he wanted to try to get on the other side of the issue. Also it may be the case that Trump didn't want his die-hard supporters to hear that he had mislead them in the campaign. Thus, it was better for a surrogate to proclaim the position reversal and Nikki Haley may be one of the few Trump surrogates who retains enough credibility to convey the news without being laughed out of town.
President Trump's claim that he will try to renegotiate to get a better deal is just a ploy to create an impression that the U.S. has not really left the deal but will work to get a better one. It is safe to say that there is zero chance that 195 nations will get together to fundamentally change a deal that was very difficult to get in the first place. In addition, how many world leaders trust Trump on deal-making?
Turning now to the evolving reaction to President Trump's nine-day foreign trip starting in Saudi Arabia and including meetings with the G7 and leaders of the NATO nations. It has received generally favorable media coverage and Sen. Corker (R-TN) lavishly praised the trip. Even George Will said the bar for success was very low, he declared that Trump had cleared the bar. Now may be a good time to reflect back on how large swaths of the media went ga-ga over Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress
One promise that Trump made in that speech was that his administration would enhance the quality of the nation's air and water. Trump is dismantling the nation's environmental protections and sharply cutting the EPA budget.
Trump promised comprehensive immigration reform, worked out with Democrats. It now seems evident that Trump dangled the prospect of immigration reform to increase the size of the audience and to cast himself as a moderate. Since Democratic lawmakers will not vote for immigration reform that doesn't include a pathway to citizenship, and Trump will not embrace a legal pathway because it will be a "bridge too far" for many of his supporters, immigration reform is a dead issue.
In his joint session speech, Trump called for everyone to respect one another. This is a cruel jibe from a person who has made disrespect for others a major art of his persona and continues to disrespect those who oppose what he wants to do as president.
President Trump gave five principles for an Affordable Care Act replacement and has largely dispensed with them in his backing of a plan that greatly increases the number of the uninsured, would raise premium costs for many seniors and allow the states to waive two important provisions in the new plan.
Trump promised a giant middle-class tax cut, whereas his plan written in December 2015 would be heavily skewed toward tax savings for the top few percent of tax filers and would actually raise the taxes for millions of middle-class and low-income tax filers.
Trump's tribute to the Navy Seal's wife in the speech to the joint session seems to be the one thing that most persuaded the media and others enraptured by Trump's speech to declare him to be "presidential." Yet, saying that the Seal is very happy in eternity due to the applause generated is akin to contending that the sacrifice of his life was worth it for the applause received at a Trump-controlled event.
Much as I think that the praise for the joint session speech would be seen today as greatly overblown, the overseas trip will receive the same fate with some further reflection. Note the dichotomy between telling the Saudis that he did not come to lecture them and tell them what to do and do just that in speaking to the NATO leaders; failing to pledge U.S. support for the NATO Charter's Article 5, even though his staff was sure he would pledge just that; shoving aside the president of Montenegro to get a better position in a photo op; and riding in a golf cart while the others walked. And perhaps the biggest misstep of the whole trip was in arousing the ire of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is probably the most influential leader in the world today.
Friday, June 2, 2017
Platforms for Trump Trolls
MSNBC's Greta van Sustran brought in the old relic, Donald Rumsfeld, to pontificate. Greta must have known that Rumsfeld was going to be totally uncritical of President Trump's leadership. Thus, she was trolling for Trump.
Rumsfeld praised the Trump Cabinet but spent his time on it by talking exclusively about the National Security team. He doesn't seem to have been bothered by the fact of McMasters, the National Security head, has allowed himself to be used to bail out his boss from his Russian investigation problems and try to preserve the skin of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, by arguing that setting up back channel communications is a legitimate diplomatic activity. Kushner, however, tried to set up the channel while he was a private citizen, with no government portfolio. We don't know what the purpose would be for setting up a communications channel that would bypass the existing communications channels.
Rumsfeld does not have any scholarly diplomatic credentials, nor any diplomatic experience. He is best known for insisting on too lean a military force to invade Iraq and then participating in decisions that dismantled the Iraqi armed forces, and may have played a role in getting the Baath Party banned, stripping the government of much of its administrative personnel. Yet given Rumsfeld's scant diplomatic expertise and his massive failures in Iraq, Greta asked him to comment on President Trump's performance with his NATO allies on his recent European trip. Rumsfeld said that Trump handled it the same way he, Rumsfeld, would have handled it; however, when Trump went to Saudi Arabia he said he would not lecture, nor tell the Saudis what to do, while in his NATO speech, Trump lectured the NATO nations on their financial obligations. Also, Trump's staff was reportedly convinced that their boss would pledge U.S. adherence to Article 5 in the NATO Charter, which pledges all member nations to come to the aid of a member that has been militarily attacked. Trump made no mention of it.
Not mentioned in the exchange between van Sustran and Rumsfeld was the reiteration among six of the G7 nations of their support for the Paris Agreement with Trump lone person out.
Jim Bohannon has used his commentary space on "America in the Morning" to troll for Trump. On at least two occasions during the few months I have listened to the program, Bohannon has had top advisers to Trump and he has not challenged them in any way. When one of them went on a rant about Hillary Clinton, Bohannon let him rattle on without bringing him back to that subject at hand. Bohannon has tried to explain why Jeff Sessions lying under oath was not perjury, he has said of Russian/Trump collusion that "there is no there there"; he has dismissed any claim that any of Trump's actions have risen to the level of obstruction of justice; and yesterday he had Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) on, an ardent opponent of the Paris Agreement. Bohannon and Lee spent about equal air time trashing the Agreement.
It may be nit-picking on my part, but when the media says Trump was carrying out a campaign promise in withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, his specific promise was that he would tear up the Agreement as one of his first acts as president. He tried to have it two ways yesterday, as he said he would renegotiate the pact among some 195 nations. There is zero chance that this will happen.
Vladimir Putin may not be a Trump troll, and, instead, Trump may be his puppet; however, in an interview with a U.S. media reporter, Putin acknowledged that "patriotic" Russian hackers may have intervened in the U.S. presidential campaign. The fact that Putin called them "patriotic" strongly suggests that they did it in furtherance of Russian interests.
ADDENDUM:
*President Trump called Greg Gianforte to congratulate him on his election to Montana's single seat in the U.S. House. When a reporter asked press secretary Sean Spicer if Trump has made any reference to Gianforte's assault on a reporter, Spicer did not know of any. Shortly after the assault took place, reporters were asking if there was a direct connection between Trump's calling the media an enemy of the people and the physical assault. Such a connection would be difficult to prove, but a more plausible connection might be that Trump's condemnation of a "fake news" media, coupled with his encouragement of campaign rally attendees to beat up on protesters, may have create the climate for "normalizing" violence against reporters.
Rumsfeld praised the Trump Cabinet but spent his time on it by talking exclusively about the National Security team. He doesn't seem to have been bothered by the fact of McMasters, the National Security head, has allowed himself to be used to bail out his boss from his Russian investigation problems and try to preserve the skin of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, by arguing that setting up back channel communications is a legitimate diplomatic activity. Kushner, however, tried to set up the channel while he was a private citizen, with no government portfolio. We don't know what the purpose would be for setting up a communications channel that would bypass the existing communications channels.
Rumsfeld does not have any scholarly diplomatic credentials, nor any diplomatic experience. He is best known for insisting on too lean a military force to invade Iraq and then participating in decisions that dismantled the Iraqi armed forces, and may have played a role in getting the Baath Party banned, stripping the government of much of its administrative personnel. Yet given Rumsfeld's scant diplomatic expertise and his massive failures in Iraq, Greta asked him to comment on President Trump's performance with his NATO allies on his recent European trip. Rumsfeld said that Trump handled it the same way he, Rumsfeld, would have handled it; however, when Trump went to Saudi Arabia he said he would not lecture, nor tell the Saudis what to do, while in his NATO speech, Trump lectured the NATO nations on their financial obligations. Also, Trump's staff was reportedly convinced that their boss would pledge U.S. adherence to Article 5 in the NATO Charter, which pledges all member nations to come to the aid of a member that has been militarily attacked. Trump made no mention of it.
Not mentioned in the exchange between van Sustran and Rumsfeld was the reiteration among six of the G7 nations of their support for the Paris Agreement with Trump lone person out.
Jim Bohannon has used his commentary space on "America in the Morning" to troll for Trump. On at least two occasions during the few months I have listened to the program, Bohannon has had top advisers to Trump and he has not challenged them in any way. When one of them went on a rant about Hillary Clinton, Bohannon let him rattle on without bringing him back to that subject at hand. Bohannon has tried to explain why Jeff Sessions lying under oath was not perjury, he has said of Russian/Trump collusion that "there is no there there"; he has dismissed any claim that any of Trump's actions have risen to the level of obstruction of justice; and yesterday he had Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) on, an ardent opponent of the Paris Agreement. Bohannon and Lee spent about equal air time trashing the Agreement.
It may be nit-picking on my part, but when the media says Trump was carrying out a campaign promise in withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, his specific promise was that he would tear up the Agreement as one of his first acts as president. He tried to have it two ways yesterday, as he said he would renegotiate the pact among some 195 nations. There is zero chance that this will happen.
Vladimir Putin may not be a Trump troll, and, instead, Trump may be his puppet; however, in an interview with a U.S. media reporter, Putin acknowledged that "patriotic" Russian hackers may have intervened in the U.S. presidential campaign. The fact that Putin called them "patriotic" strongly suggests that they did it in furtherance of Russian interests.
ADDENDUM:
*President Trump called Greg Gianforte to congratulate him on his election to Montana's single seat in the U.S. House. When a reporter asked press secretary Sean Spicer if Trump has made any reference to Gianforte's assault on a reporter, Spicer did not know of any. Shortly after the assault took place, reporters were asking if there was a direct connection between Trump's calling the media an enemy of the people and the physical assault. Such a connection would be difficult to prove, but a more plausible connection might be that Trump's condemnation of a "fake news" media, coupled with his encouragement of campaign rally attendees to beat up on protesters, may have create the climate for "normalizing" violence against reporters.
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