President Trump released a cloudburst of tweets Wednesday apparently in an attempt to wash away the substance of the 2019 annual national threat assessment, in which his national intelligence team contradicts his much-tweeted views.

Starting early in the day, the president declared as up what intelligence said was down. His touted upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will reveal a “decent change of Denuclearization,” contrary to the intelligence assessment community’s view North Korea will never give up its nukes. Iran, which was party of an Obama-era agreement Trump upended, is a continuing nuclear weapons threat, contrary to his team’s views. “Perhaps intelligence should go back to school,” he concluded.

Washington Democrats, serving on the intelligence committees in the House and the Senate, were aghast. “People risk their lives for the intelligence he just tosses aside on Twitter,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.

What the threat assessment didn’t mention was the president’s proposed border wall. No intelligence available there. Read our editorial on how “Trump turns on his spies.”

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What we’re saying

Don’t let PG&E off the hook: The fate of PG&E, the nation’s largest public utility, took center stage as it filed Tuesday for bankruptcy (its second, and an exceedingly rare event for regulated corporations, quest for protection from creditors). The state has a duty to keep the lights on and the rates affordable and maintain progress toward California’s climate goals. It does mean a taxpayer bailout, as we noted in “PG&E isn’t to blame for the Tubbs Fire, but Sacramento can’t let the company off the hook,” and “PG&E enters bankruptcy and uncertainty about its future.”

Governor acts swiftly on housing crisis: Just three weeks into its tenure, the Newsom administration sued an affluent Orange County city for ignoring state-mandated housing requirements. Huntington Beach is certainly not the only scofflaw but the point is made: Our state can’t resolve the crisis if local communities remain hostile to building housing. Read our editorial on “Newsom’s line in the sand on housing.”

17 years later: America’s longest war, with 2,400 U.S. troops killed and 20,000 wounded, is winding down. The Trump administration announced this week we are ending our involvement. But the war will go on. Read our editorial, “An end to the Afghanistan War is in sight, but no victory.” We can regret the trillions of dollars spent and the trillions of dollars we have yet to spend on veterans’ care, but we can at least say soon we brought our troops home.

Don’t charge a toll: We understand residents of San Francisco’s famous and much-photographed winding street are fed up with the hordes of tourists seeking to drive down Lombard. But it’s a terrible precedent to charge a toll and control access to a public street. Read our editorial about the fate of this unique corner of San Francisco that will be in the news this week.

More democracy is better: In an arrangement made in the wake of a lawsuit, California Secretary of State agree to a plan to purge voters’ names from the rolls if they haven’t voted in two consecutive federal elections. The logic of encouraging voters to vote by blocking access to the ballot box escapes us. Read our editorial and see what you think.

Shutdown aftermath

While America breathed a sigh of relief when President Trump announced the federal government would reopen after a 35-day shutdown, the aftermath (years worth of damage to the national parks, government workers pushed to the financial brink, food safety compromised and the loss of momentum to bring initial public offerings to the capital markets) remains. Republican lawmakers know one of their favorite tactics is no longer useful, leading GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to propose a permanent end to shutdowns. Republicans and Democrats want to avoid another shutdown, and both sides have proposed border security deals. President Trump again seeks border wall funds; Democrats’ opening bid is nada for a wall.

Who we’re seeing

The editorial board calendar was clear this week as Chronicle Editorial Page Editor John Diaz took vacation and the entire Chronicle staff geared up to plan our work for the coming year in evolving our 150-plus year institution as a pioneering news organization.

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Letters of the Week

Suzanne Petersen-Reed of Santa Rosa (clearly a coffee shop regular) predicts potentially highly caffeinated voters in 2020. “So former Starbucks CEO and billionaire Howard Schultz is considering a run for the White House next year? Back in 1928, a pamphlet for Republican presidential candidate and former President Herbert Hoover promised there would be a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. Would a campaign for Schultz promise voters a Caffè Mocha or Caramel Macchiato in every coffee mug and a chocolate croissant on every small plate?

And Rob Lefkowitz of Danville thinks it is odd the Trump administration waited on building a border wall. “If this border wall is so important to our national security, why didn’t President Trump and the Republicans vote to erect a wall on our southern border when they had control of both the House and Senate? It seems rather odd to have waited. Is there some dissension in the ranks?”

And please check out our other letters of the day responding to this and other matters. You can send us a letter via this form.

Just a reminder

The Chronicle’s editorials represent the collective judgment of our Editorial Board, which includes the publisher as well as the writers and editors from the opinion team. Our editors and reporters on the news side are not involved in those decisions (including election endorsements). They are charged with reporting fairly and objectively without regard to our editorial positions. It is one of the core values here at Fifth and Mission streets.

Opinion Central is a thrice-weekly newsletter from John Diaz, The Chronicle’s editorial page editor, and the rest of the Editorial Board. Follow along on Twitter: @sfc_opinions