October 3, 2017

Seth Meyers Responds to the Las Vegas Mass Shooting

Seth Meyers addresses the shooting in Las Vegas and Congress' inaction on gun control legislation.

October 2, 2017

K&R for my senator and former congresswoman!

She continues to make us proud in NY-20!

October 2, 2017

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO): Forensic Science

Forensic science used in criminal trials can be surprisingly unscientific. Maybe a new television procedural could help change the public perception.

October 1, 2017

Time for Jimmy Carter to Go Back to North Korea

The United States should remember how it solved the last major North Korea crisis: with face-to-face diplomacy.

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Former President Jimmy Carter, an experienced negotiator and mediator, having successfully crafted the Camp David Accords 15 years earlier, offered his services to the Clinton administration. Although Clinton was uncomfortable with Carter’s mission to Pyongyang, he approved it. Carter’s interlocutor was the father of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung. Marion Creekmore, Jr., who accompanied Carter on his mission, wrote in his 2006 book, A Moment of Crisis, that Kim told Carter, “The central problem is that we lack trust, and creating trust is our most important task. The distrust comes from the lack of contacts between us.”

Carter was able, through two face-to-face meetings, to both understand Kim’s intentions and develop interpersonal trust with a leader who was ideologically the antithesis of everything Carter stood for. As a result, Carter secured Kim’s agreement that there would be no reprocessing of plutonium at the Yongbyon facility and a freeze on the major elements of the nuclear program whilst a new round of talks proceeded. The North Koreans also agreed that the IAEA inspections could continue. In return, Carter secured Clinton’s agreement to Kim’s request that the United States support the sale of two light water proliferation-resistant reactors. Kim had told Carter, according to Creekmore’s account, that “if a commitment is made to furnish us a light water reactor, then we will immediately freeze all our nuclear activities.”

The Carter mission to Pyongyang was successful because he and Kim were able to better understand one another by sitting down face-to-face. They developed, during these personal meetings, a bond of trust that helped to bridge the distrust between their two nations. As we argue in our new books, this is not a one-off example. Face-to-face diplomacy has long allowed leaders and policymakers to both better understand each other’s intentions and develop trust in one another that they will live up to commitments. Crucially, by meeting for face-to-face negotiations, leaders, or their representatives in the case of Carter, can often find ways to meet the interests of both sides without resorting to military action.

In short, it may be time to send Carter, or a similar surrogate more amenable to the president, back to Pyongyang. A crisis that threatened to engulf the region over two decades ago was defused by face-to-face diplomacy and it is time to explore whether the current crisis can similarly be de-escalated.

<snip>

http://thediplomat.com/2017/05/time-for-jimmy-carter-to-go-back-to-north-korea/

October 1, 2017

Sharpton on Trump Ingrates Comment: Can You Imagine Him Saying That to Whites in Florida?

On MSNBC this morning, Rev Al Sharpton slammed President Trump over his choice of words in slamming the people criticizing the administration’s Puerto Rico response.

October 1, 2017

Ted Lieu demands feds revoke Jared Kushner security clearance Being stupid is a danger to America

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/ted-lieu-demands-feds-revoke-jared-kushners-security-clearance-being-stupid-is-a-danger-to-america/

Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA) on Sunday once again took up the fight to have White House adviser Jared Kushner’s national security clearance pulled, saying Trump’s son-in-law is too “stupid” to be trusted with the nation’s secrets.

Speaking with MSNBC host Alex Witt, Lieu took Kushner to task for using his personal email account while serving in the White House, saying, “Look, I’m not going to be chanting ‘lock him up,’ but I am going to request, again, that Jared Kushner’s security clearance be suspended.”

“I wrote a letter to the White House asking for the suspension of his security clearance because he lied twice on his first two security clearance forms by failing to disclose his Russian contacts,” Lieu explained. “Now, we know that he failed to disclose his personal email account to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee even though they asked about the information and, furthermore, he ignored the NSA’s warnings.”

“He should be suspended because he was misleading people, but he was just being stupid to be doing these actions,” he explained. “He’s a huge risk and they [security officials] believe his personal email and cell phone have likely been compromised, and once a foreign power knows about your e-mails, they can track and learn additional information based on all the e-mails you sent.”