* This is all the proof anyone should need that Trump embarrassed this country when he pulled out of the Paris Climate accord.
Nicaragua is set to join the Paris climate agreement, according to an official statement and comments from Vice President Rosario Murillo on Monday, in a move that leaves the United States and Syria as the only nations outside the global pact…
U.S. President Donald Trump said in June he would withdraw the United States from the accord, and Nicaragua’s decision to enter the pact means only two countries will now be outside it – the world’s No. 1 economy and war-torn Syria.
Actually, I doubt that even Syria agrees with Trump about the Paris Climate accord. It’s probably more about the fact that being in the midst of a civil war has kept them from putting together a plan to reduce carbon emissions.
* EPA chief Scott Pruitt has said and done some amazingly ignorant things. But this statement is positively Orwellian.
You might think that the job of the EPA is to protect the environment — our clean air, clean water, and livable climate. But Trump’s EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has a completely different definition of the environment.
“True environmentalism, from my perspective, is using natural resources that God has blessed us with,” Pruitt told the Heritage Foundation last week.
* Here are some disturbing numbers:
Nearly one in four troops polled say they have seen examples of white nationalism among their fellow service members, and troops rate it as a larger national security threat than Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new Military Times poll.
* Callum Borchers writes that “In Trump’s White House, there is no right or wrong. There is only winning or losing.”
It is not really accurate to say that the White House responded on Tuesday to the harsh criticisms leveled against President Trump by retiring Republican Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.). During an afternoon media briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn’t even attempt to engage with the substance of what either man said.
Instead, she offered a retort that can be summarized like this: Trump is a winner. Corker and Flake are losers.
* Some Democrats seem addicted to the idea of clutching their pearls over problems in their party. But this seems to be a much more significant development:
Truly remarkable: The Republican Party in 2017 controls the White House, Senate and House — and it’s the one convulsing in a civil war.
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 24, 2017
* Finally, how about we end the day with a little touch of humor?
