Kim Replies With a Threat to U.S. Bases in Guam
Dogs of War. North Korea is threatening to strike areas around Guam with medium- to long-range strategic ballistic missiles. The threat comes just hours after Trump warned that if North Korea continues to threaten the U.S., they would “face fire and fury like the world has never seen.” U.S. B-1B bombers flew out of Guam on Monday and over the Korean peninsula. Guam, 2,000 miles from North Korea, is home to thousands of American service members and their families. U.S. officials believe North Korea now has the capability to put a nuclear weapon on a missile.
No sunshine. Trump is turning to advisory groups stacked with business executives to write government policy. Critics worry the groups’ secrecy is leaving Americans in the dark about what the federal government is doing and who could benefit. These groups include the Strategic and Policy Forum to develop Trump’s economic agenda, the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative to develop and jobs plan and the American Technology Council to upgrade the federal workforce. Food & Water Watch sued Trump over his infrastructure group, saying it wasn’t following the Federal Advisory Committee Act which requires public notice of an advisory panel’s members and meetings. The American Civil Liberties Union said in a separate lawsuit that the commission established by Trump to investigate bogus claims of election fraud also wasn’t following the act. In response, the White House established a public website for the commission.
Weather resilience. The staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been told to avoid using the term climate change. Instead, they are supposed to say “weather extremes.” They also aren’t supposed to say “climate change adaption.” The preferred wording is “resilience to weather extremes.” And “reduce greenhouse gases” is blacklisted in favor of “build soil organic matter, increase nutrient use efficiency.” Trump has repeatedly questioned the accuracy of climate change research and suggested that it is part of an elaborate Chinese hoax.
Voter purge. The Trump Justice Department is supporting Ohio in a Supreme Court case over whether the state can purge people from voter registration rolls if they haven’t voted in six years. The Justice Department has also asked 44 states how they planned to remove the names of ineligible voters. Ohio purged 2 million voters from 2011 to 2016, more than any other state. A federal appeals court ruled Ohio violated the National Voter Registration Act.