Remarks at the UN Security Council Ministerial Meeting on D.P.R.K.
US STATE DEPT. PRESS RELEASE issued on 12/ 15/ 17SECRETARY TILLERSON: Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. On behalf of the United States, I thank Japan and Foreign Minister Kono for convening this ministerial session on the growing threat from North Korea.
Upon taking office, President Trump identified North Korea as the United States’s greatest national security threat. That judgment remains the same today.
After its ICBM launch on November the 29th, the North Korean Government claimed that it now possessed the capability to strike any location in the continental United States. North Korea’s growing capabilities reflect a direct threat to our security and the security of the entire world. We do not regard this claim as an empty threat.
The North Korean regime’s continuing unlawful missile launches and testing activities signal its contempt for the United States, its neighbors in Asia, and all members of the United Nations.
In face of such a threat, inaction is unacceptable for any nation. Through a series of robust Security Council resolutions, this body has taken a leading role in condemning North Korea’s unlawful nuclear and missile programs and imposing consequences. The international community remains firm in our determination that we will not accept a nuclear North Korea.
Each UN member state must fully implement all existing UN Security Council resolutions. For those nations who have not done so, or who have been slow to enforce Security Council resolutions, your hesitation calls into question whether your vote is a commitment to words only, but not actions. For countries who have not taken action, I urge you to consider your interests, your allegiances, and your values in the face of this grave and global threat.
We believe that more can and must be done beyond enforcing the minimum requirements of the Security Council resolutions directed at the DPRK. Last spring, the United States initiated a peaceful pressure campaign of economic and diplomatic sanctions against North Korea, with the intent of setting conditions for North Korea to engage in serious negotiations toward the complete, verifiable, and irreversible abandonment of its nuclear weapons programs. Our resolve to continue this campaign is even greater today. Over the past year, many allies and partners of the United States have joined our campaign, going beyond mere compliance with the Security Council resolutions. We ask these nations to continue to increase pressure through unilateral action. Doing so will further isolate North Korea politically and economically, cutting off support and funds for its unlawful nuclear and missile programs.
We particularly call on Russia and China to increase pressure, including going beyond full implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions. Continuing to allow North Korean laborers to toil in slave-like conditions inside Russia in exchange for wages used to fund nuclear weapons programs calls into question Russia’s dedication as a partner for peace. Similarly, as Chinese crude oil flows to North Korean refineries, the United States questions China’s commitment to solving an issue that has serious implications for the security of its own citizens.
Recently the North Korean regime has sought to portray UN sanctions as harmful to women and children. But this is a regime that hypocritically spends billions on nuclear and ballistic missile programs while its own people suffer great poverty. The regime could feed and care for women, children, and ordinary people of North Korea if it chose the welfare of its people over weapons development. The DPRK has a choice: It can reverse course, give up its unlawful nuclear weapons program, and join the community of nations, or it can continue to condemn its people to poverty and isolation. The regime in Pyongyang bears the ultimate responsibility for the well-being of its people.
North Korea claims to undertake its nuclear weapons program as an essential step for the survival of its regime. In making this choice, North Korea has made itself less secure, and its economy has become further isolated and disconnected from the global economy.
We have been clear that all options remain on the table in the defense of our nation, but we do not seek, nor do we want, war with North Korea. The United States will use all necessary measures to defend itself against North Korean aggression, but our hope remains that diplomacy will produce a resolution. As I said earlier this week, a sustained cessation of North Korea’s threatening behavior must occur before talks can begin. North Korea must earn its way back to the table. The pressure campaign must, and will, continue until denuclearization is achieved. We will, in the meantime, keep our channels of communication open.
Our message today is one that this body has heard before, and one that we will continue to repeat: The United States will not allow the regime in Pyongyang to hold the world hostage. We will continue to hold North Korea accountable for its reckless and threatening behavior today and in the future. We ask every nation here to join us in exerting sovereignty to protect all of our people. We ask all to join a unified effort to achieve a complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
PAGE 2: Remarks by President Trump on Deregulation
WH PRESS RELEASE ISSUED 12/ 14/ 17THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Regulations — oh, boy. It’s a lot of regulations. Thank you, Vice President Pence, Secretary Chao, Secretary Zinke, and Chris Liddell. Done an incredible job.
We’re here today for one single reason: to cut the red tape of regulation. For many decades, an ever-growing maze of regulations, rules, restrictions has cost our country trillions and trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, countless American factories, and devastated many industries. But all that has changed the day I took the oath of office, and it’s changed rapidly. You’ve seen what’s happened.
We’ve begun the most far-reaching regulatory reform in American history. We’ve approved long-stalled projects like the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipelines. We’re cutting years of wasted time and money out of the permitting process for vital infrastructure projects. We’re scrapping and really doing a job in getting rid of the job-killing regulations that threatened our autoworkers and have devastated their jobs over the years. But they’re all moving back. They’re moving back into our country. Those companies are coming back and they’re coming back fast.
We’re lifting restrictions on American energy and we’ve ended the war on coal. We have clean coal — beautiful, clean coal, another source of energy.
One of the very first actions of my administration was to impose a two-for-one rule on new federal regulations. We ordered that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated. The people in the media heard me say that during the campaign many, many times. As a result, the never-ending growth of red tape in America has come to a sudden screeching and beautiful halt.
Earlier this year, we set a target of adding zero new regulatory costs onto the American economy. Today, I’m proud to announce that we beat our goal by a lot. Instead of adding costs, as so many others have done — and other countries, frankly, are doing, in many cases, and it’s hurting them — for the first time in decades, we achieved regulatory savings. Hasn’t happened in many decades. We blew our target out of the water.
Within our first 11 months, we cancelled or delayed over 1,500 planned regulatory actions — more than any previous President by far. And you see the results when you look at the stock market, when you look at the results of companies, and when you see companies coming back into our country.
And instead of eliminating two old regulations, for every one new regulation we have eliminated 22 — 22 — that’s a big difference. We aimed for two for one, and, in 2017, we hit twenty-two for one.
And, by the way, those regulations that are in place do the job better than all of the other regulations, and they allow us to build and create jobs and do what we have to do. We are now reducing the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations for the first time in decades, and we are already seeing the incredible results.
Because of our regulatory and other reforms, the stock market is soaring to new record levels — 85, not including today. Hopefully, we’ll set another one today. Eighty-five since Election Day, creating $5 trillion of new wealth. And the $5 trillion was as of about three weeks ago, so I assume we probably hit six — $6 trillion, almost.
Unemployment is at a 17-year-low. Wages are rising. Economic growth has topped 3 percent. Two quarters in a row now we’ve had that. And except for the hurricanes, we would have almost hit 4 percent. And you remember how bad we were doing when I first took over — there was a big difference, and we were going down. This country was going economically down. Small business optimism is at its highest point in 34 years, and we are just getting started.
We have decades of excess regulation to remove to help launch the next phase of growth, prosperity, and freedom. I am challenging my Cabinet to find and remove every single outdated, unlawful, and excessive regulation currently on the books. I want every Cabinet Secretary, agency head, and federal worker to push even harder to cut even more regulations in 2018. And that should just about do it. I don’t know if we’ll have any left to cut, but we’ll always find them.
We must liberate our economy from years of federal overreach and intrusion so that we can compete and win on the world stage. And when you look at the stock market and what’s happening — such a high level and it has a long way to go — much of that is because of what we’ve done with regulation.
For example, the current process for permitting infrastructure is unacceptably long. This chart — I love this chart — I showed this chart two months ago. Chris — Chris Liddell — hold that up, Chris. Chris is not tall enough for this chart, neither is anybody else.
This is the process that you had to go through to get permits for a highway, or a roadway. You had to go through this process and it would take many years — many, many years — right, Chris? And you had to go through nine different agencies, make sixteen different decisions, under twenty-nine different laws. It would take from 10 to 20 years — in some cases, longer than that. And by the time you finished, you probably gave up.
And I think it’s — I don’t know, I saw this chart — I held this chart up three months ago and I said, bring out that chart. That was a last-minute decision. But it really explains what a disaster it is.
We want to take that process down to maybe one year. We have it down to two; we maybe bring it down to one year. And, by the way, if the highway or the road is not good, we’re going to reject it. We’re not to going to approve everything. We’re going to reject it. But for the most part — generally speaking, it’s a good thing, not a bad thing.
Cutting through this maze is critical to restoring our nation’s competiveness. That is why, under my administration, a highway that would have taken — and we’re looking at the numbers, but we’re trying to average them out — and people have no idea; they think the number is, in many cases, over 20 years. And we’re bringing that way down.
And beside this, you can see another really vivid illustration of the monumental task we face. In 1960, there were approximately 20,000 pages in the Code of Federal Regulations. Today, there are over 185,000 pages. So you take a look at that and I assume that this is today. This is 1960. look at that, and I assume that this is today. This is 1960. We’re going to cut a ribbon because we’re getting back below the 1960-level, and we’ll be there fairly quickly.
We know that some of the rules contained in these pages have been beneficial to our nation, and we’re going to keep them. We want to protect our workers, our safety, our health. We want to protect our water. We want to protect our air and our country’s natural beauty.
But every unnecessary page in these stacks represents hidden tax and harmful burdens to American workers and to American businesses, and, in many cases, means projects never get off the ground. That’s probably the biggest problem.
According to a survey by the National Small Business Association, the average small business today spends $83,000 to comply with a single regulation in just its first year of existence. Small-business manufacturers also bear an enormous ongoing burden spending an average of nearly $35,000 per employee each year. Incredible.
This excessive regulation does not just threaten our economy, it threatens our entire constitutional system, and it does nothing. Other than delay and cost much more, it does nothing.
Congress has abandoned much of its responsibility to legislate, and has instead given unelected regulators and — regulators extraordinary power to control the lives of others. The courts have let this massive power grab go almost completely unchecked and have almost always ruled in favor of big government.
With billions and billions of dollars wasted, regulation is a stealth taxation. So many of these enormous regulatory burdens were imposed on our citizens with no vote, no debate, and no accountability. Now there is accountability.
By ending excessive regulation, we are defending democracy and draining the swamp. Truly, we are draining the swamp. Unchecked regulation undermines our freedoms and saps our national spirit, destroys our company. We have so many companies that are destroyed by regulation — and destroys obviously jobs.
Today’s call to action is about regaining our independence, reclaiming our heritage, and rediscovering what we can achieve when our citizens are free to follow their hearts and chase their dreams.
When Americans are free to thrive, innovate, and prosper, there is no challenge too great, no task too large, and no goal beyond our reach. We are a nation of explorers and pioneers and innovators and inventors, and regulations have been hurting that and hurting it badly. We are a nation of people who work hard, dream big, and who never, ever give up. We are Americans, and the future belongs to us.
So together, let’s cut the red tape. Let’s set free our dreams. And, yes, let’s make America great again.
And one of the ways we’re going to do that is by getting rid of a lot of unnecessary regulation. Thank you very much. (Read more from link source)
PAGE 3: Inslee releases supplemental budget proposal including full funding of basic education by 2018 school year
From the Governor's blog page 12/ 14/ 17Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday released his 2018 supplemental budget, which adds nearly $1 billion to fully fund basic education in time for the 2018 school year and makes modest new investments for emerging and urgent needs such as tools to combat the opioid crisis, emergency preparedness, protection for endangered orcas and mental health.
“Let’s fund the final step of McCleary this year,” Inslee said. “The Legislature has invested billions of dollars in our schools over the past five years, including in a bipartisan effort to tackle the heaviest and most complicated part of the plan this past session related to local levies and compensation for educators. Our students and their teachers are counting on us to deliver the full funding they need — and we can deliver that full funding now.”
For decades, inadequate state funding has forced school districts to rely heavily on local property taxes to fully fund K-12 education. The state has been under court order since 2010 to fully fund basic education to end the over-reliance on local levies.
The state has made significant progress since 2013, adding more than $5.6 billion in new K-12 spending.
The state Supreme Court ruled recently that, under legislation approved earlier this year, the state would eventually meet its school funding obligations. But the court also said the Legislature fell short because it did not fully fund higher salaries for teachers and other school staff until the 2019–20 school year, a year later than the Legislature’s self-imposed and court-mandated deadline.
As he did a year ago, Inslee is proposing to fully fund the salary increases in the 2018–19 school year.
Besides additional funding for schools, Inslee is proposing modest increases to combat opioid addiction, boost earthquake and tsunami preparedness, and launch an initiative to protect Puget Sound’s struggling Southern Resident orca population.
The governor’s supplemental budget also includes nearly $162 million to cover anticipated shortfalls in the state’s Medicaid program, which provides health care to more than 1.8 million Washingtonians. The bulk of this amount is due to savings assumptions in the underlying budget that are not likely to be met and cannot be absorbed in the current budget without having to make significant cuts to services.
The budget also includes about $113 million to cover higher operating costs at the state’s psychiatric hospitals and to make changes to maintain federal funding for Western State Hospital. With that extra funding, 90 hospital staff will be hired to improve the quality of care. In addition, nearly 15 general maintenance staff will be hired to ensure the facility is safe and secure. The budget also dedicates $10 million for 45 new forensic beds at Western State Hospital. These are in addition to the 30 forensic beds that were funded in last year’s budget.
Meanwhile, the state’s costs for fighting wildfires this year totaled nearly $67 million — about $42 million more than was provided in the underlying budget. The governor’s budget would cover that shortfall.
The governor also again urged the Legislature to enact the 2017–19 capital budget so state and local entities can get started on hundreds of projects that have been on hold since lawmakers adjourned in July without passing one. It was the first time in modern history the Legislature adjourned without passing a biennial capital budget.
“Passing the capital budget should be the first order of business when the Legislature convenes in January,” Inslee said. “We need to move these important projects forward and realize the thousands of jobs they will support.”
Among other items, the capital budget includes about $1 billion for more than 100 school construction and repair costs statewide. It also provides about $111 million to expand community-based mental health treatment services and make improvements at the state’s psychiatric hospitals. And it provides more funding to clean up toxic sites, award grants for local water supply and stormwater improvements, and build housing to alleviate homelessness.
PAGE 4: OUR HEALTH DIGEST
Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on new FDA efforts to support more efficient development of targeted therapies
Press release issued 12/ 15/ 17In recent years, the medical community has experienced a shift in the way health care is practiced. Rather than focusing solely on how to treat an overall disease type, medical innovators are now exploring how to tailor treatments that target unique characteristics of an individual’s disease, such as the genetic profile of a person's tumor. Innovation in this modern, targeted approach to medicine has already led to new more targeted medicines and, in some cases, therapies that are tailored to individual patients.
The FDA has an important role to play in advancing this targeted approach to treating disease by building a modern framework that ensures we’re providing the guidance and resources needed to efficiently develop these novel products using new technology. In particular, the FDA needs to clarify and expand an existing pathway that allows innovators to develop products based on the molecular markers that the drug targets, rather than the more traditional approach to drug development, where new medicines were developed based on the disease phenotype that they targeted. In many cases, science is revealing that the driver of disease is really a molecular change in the body. New drugs are being developed based solely on their ability to target these underlying molecular subtypes. Moreover, this same molecular change may be present as the driving factor of many different disease phenotypes. When drugs successfully target these molecular mistakes to reverse the effects of different diseases, we need a development pathway that allows the new drug to pursue approval in each of these novel settings on the basis of the molecular marker that the drug targets. In the setting of oncology, this is often referred to as tissue agnostic drug development.
By providing clear guidance on the regulatory and scientific frameworks for product developers, safe and effective targeted treatments can be identified with scientifically valid tests and ultimately, made available to patients faster. That’s why today we are issuing two draft guidances that will provide medical product developers with greater clarity on the FDA’s recommendations for researching and developing the next generation of individualized therapies.
The first draft guidance, “Developing Targeted Therapies in Low-Frequency Molecular Subsets of a Disease,” addresses the important topic of finding treatments that address the underlying molecular changes (e.g., genetic mutations) that often cause or contribute to diseases, including uncommon molecular changes that are present in a small subset of patients. This draft guidance (which is also in a more concise, streamlined format) proposes an approach for drug developers to enroll patients based on the identification of rare mutations into clinical trials for targeted therapies when reasonable scientific evidence suggests the drug could be effective in patients with these genomic findings. The guidance discusses the evidence needed to demonstrate effectiveness for a variety of molecular subsets within a particular disease, which could lead to more consistent development and approval of targeted therapies for patients who are likely to benefit from them. These scientific principles described in the guidance could also be applied to supporting “tissue agnostic” drug development. This relates to how drugs may be able to gain regulatory approval on the basis of targeting a molecular subtype that is common across different phenotypes, rather than solely on the individual disease states. We think both approaches have the potential to increase the likelihood of finding viable treatment options for those with less common mutations. When finalized, this draft guidance will represent the FDA’s current thinking. The FDA also plans to publish a manuscript early next year that provides a detailed, comprehensive look at this issue.
The second draft guidance, “Investigational IVD Devices Used in Clinical Investigations of Therapeutic Products,” seeks to provide those running clinical trials with a clear framework to reference when determining if an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) device used in a therapeutic product study must undergo its own FDA review, distinct from the drug being studied. To develop new targeted therapies that are safe and effective, clinical trials often use investigational, or unapproved, IVDs to assess biomarkers and guide the selection of therapeutic products or care strategies that are applied to study participants.
When final, this draft guidance will clarify the appropriate regulatory pathway for investigational IVDs used in clinical trials for therapeutic products, which is significant so that trial results for a novel targeted therapy are not undermined just because the diagnostic test to determine a specific biomarker did not meet appropriate regulatory criteria. The aim is to make the process for developing more targeted “drug and diagnostics systems” more efficient and to simplify the proper development of these approaches.
Building on the IVD draft guidance issued today, we are also considering ways to streamline the review of oncology therapeutic products and the IVDs used with these products, and plan to issue draft guidance on this in the near future. The goal is to reduce the burden on sponsors for the development of certain cancer drugs, and on FDA staff as well.
These draft guidances are just a few examples of the FDA’s ongoing efforts to advance the development of innovative, targeted drugs and foster the availability of individualized treatment approaches. For example, earlier this month, the FDA issued draft guidance that describes a potential new approach for companies to collaborate and test multiple drug products in the same clinical trials for rare pediatric diseases, thereby reducing the number of patients treated with placebo. We also outlined how modeling and simulation can be used to reduce the reliance on placebo arms in these rare pediatric settings. Finally, we specifically addressed a more efficient pathway for developing drugs targeted to the rare pediatric disorder Gaucher Disease. We also recently authorized three, novel next generation sequencing-based devices for the detection of multiple cancer markers with the run of a single test – enabling the development of evidence to drive more individualized care management decisions.
By proposing streamlined approaches for our colleagues in the research and development communities, the FDA hopes to enable more efficient access to safe and effective, novel targeted therapies for the patients who need them. We look forward to receiving feedback on the draft guidances issued today and remain committed to assisting the medical community as it further modernizes and individualizes approaches to care, to increase the public health benefit offered by new medical technologies.
PAGE 5: OUR SCHOOL'S REPORT CARD
Secretary DeVos Announces Rethink School Summits to Highlight Innovation in K-12, Higher Ed
Press release issued 12/ 13/ 17Washington — U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos today announced the Department will host two Rethink School Summits in the coming weeks—the first focused on higher education and the second on K-12. These summits will bring together education leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs from around the country who are demonstrating student-centric models can improve student achievement.
"There is exciting work being done across the country by those who are willing to rethink the traditional ways in which we have educated students," said Secretary DeVos. "They are unafraid to embrace new technology and utilize data to customize education in a way that is focused on unlocking the unlimited potential of every student. It's thrilling to have so many brilliant minds join us for this summit to have an open dialogue on how best to highlight new innovations, remove structural barriers and expand opportunities for our nation's students throughout their education journey."
The Rethink Higher Education Summit will take place on Thursday, December 14 from 8:30 a.m. until 12 p.m. at the Department of Education's Barnard Auditorium.
Rethink Higher Education Summit
Session One: Beyond Seat Time— Exploring higher education innovations utilizing technology focused on competency based progression
Session Two: Job Ready—Partnering with industry to prepare today's students for tomorrow's jobs
Session Three: Breaking the Mold—Traditional Institutions of Higher Education Responding in Non-Traditional Ways
The Rethink K-12 Summit will take place on Tuesday, December 19 from 8:30 a.m. until 12 p.m. at the Department of Education's Barnard Auditorium. Additional details will be made available in the coming days.
NEWS STORY COMMENTARY
Donald Trump Seems Confused About JerusalemDo you maybe find Middle East politics a bit confusing? Hard to tell all those claims and counterclaims apart, to sort out just who deserves to govern which piece of land?---From the New York Times
Alabama Stupidity
Democrats can dream all they want. They and their soulmates in the liberal media can celebrate the victory by Doug Jones in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race until next fall.---From the Patriot Post
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OUR WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY
Jesus and the Cleansing of the Temple
A Study in Unauthorized Church Activities
The cleansing of the temple is recorded in Matt. 21:12-16; Mark 11:15-18; cf. John 2:13-16. Having entered the city, Jesus went to the temple and removed from it those who were using it for personal business profit. The various accounts show that people were buying and selling, changing money and selling doves (Matt. 21:12; Mark 11:15). Jesus had cleansed the temple similarly on an earlier but different occasion (John 2:13-17). After that first cleansing, apparently the men had returned after Jesus left. It would seem that the rulers, who ought to have kept them out, did not oppose the activity.---Gospel Way
https://www.gospelway.com/topics/church/cleansing-temple.php
