Policy

President Donald Trump has made a new move, which is simply NOT to move in pressing new sanctions against the Russian Federation in regards to their support of the Syrian regime under President Bashar al-Assad. This move came as a surprise, because only hours before the US envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, was presenting the move for such new and severe sanctions against Russia.
Sputnik News reports that White House Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders announced that the imposition of new sanctions was being placed on hold.
This naturally produced a media firestorm.

“Love saves lives.” – This is the slogan for the 2018 March for Life in Washington D.C.
This statement is simple and utterly profound. When spoken by the President of the United States it is even more profound, and to top it all off, when spoken by the first US President ever to make a public appearance at a pro-life rally – THE pro-life rally, the 2018 March for Life.
President Donald Trump took to the podium to speak to America and to the world about the sanctity of life.

The change between the time of President Obama and President Trump is drastic.  For that matter the change between George W Bush and President Trump is ALSO drastic.  Or to Bill Clinton or George HW Bush… even in some ways, compared to “Ronaldus Magnus” as some of us like to call Ronald Reagan, the conservatives’ usual modern ideal.

by Judith Curry
In private, climate scientists are much less certain than they tell the public. – Rupert Darwall

by Judith Curry
National security implications of the rapidly changing global population dynamic.

by Judith Curry
There is an opportunity to steer the proposed red team exercise in a useful direction.  The first step is to frame the problem to be addressed.

The climate red team continues to be discussed in the media and by scientists, a few examples:

The initiative seeks to penalize retailers and requires stores to “interrogate adult consumers” over the intended use of the device, forcing parents to lie about who is using the device. Overnight, voluntary transactions are turned criminal. A parent giving a smartphone to a child to call if in trouble or a tablet given to a cranky kid at a nice restaurant could all be criminal acts under the auspices of Initiative 29.

by Judith Curry
Last week, Scott Pruitt, EPA Administrator, stated he intended to form a ‘red team’ to debate climate science.  What exactly is ‘red teaming’, and how can this be implemented in a way that is useful for climate science and for policy makers?

Reactions to proposed climate red team
Some analyses of Pruitt’s proposal from the media:

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, it’s not a cut if spending rises from $393 billion to $464 billion.
Federal outlays on the program will climb by about 2 percent annually.

Seattle city government is out with a new NBER paper evaluating Seattle’s minimum wage increase to $13 an hour and it finds significant disemployment effects that on net reduce the incomes of minimum wage workers.