Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

In 1991, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islam Karimov was elected Uzbekistan’s first – and heretofore only – president. His transition to the presidency was seamless: Karimov, a long-time communist apparatchik, had served as first secretary of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic since 1989, and the 1991 election, like every election that would follow, was a rigged process that forbade the meaningful participation of opposing parties.

Backed by military might and a vast surveillance system inherited from the Soviet KGB, Karimov maintained dominance as Uzbekistan transitioned from communism to “democracy,” from enforced atheism to a narrow but heavily promoted vision of Muslim cultural identity. The repressive Soviet power structure, glossed with a nationalist sheen, was easy to preserve. More difficult was making Uzbeks believe in the legitimacy of the new nation and assuring them that the chaos they had endured would have a happy ending. By 1992, Karimov had found it: a slogan, ubiquitous, recited in schools and plastered on billboards throughout the country:

“O’zbekiston – kelajagi buyuk davlat!” “Uzbekistan – a state with a great future!”

In other words, Karimov was making Uzbekistan great again.

The rise of Donald Trump has spurred a resurgence of the study of comparative dictatorship. Most comparisons emphasize the West’s famed fascists: Adolf Hilter, whose command of the crowd and proposed persecution of ethnic minorities prompt obvious parallels with Trump (with cable news taking on the role of propagandist Leni Riefenstahl); and Benito Mussolini, whom Trump approvingly cited in a retweet of a Gawker-run Mussolini fan account, “IlDuce2016.” Others have noted parallels between Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who similarly capitalized on ethnic tension; Russian leader Vladimir Putin, for whom Trump has expressed admiration, and the authoritarian dictators of the Middle East.

Left out – as always – have been the dictatorships of former Soviet Central Asia: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and (to a lesser degree) Kyrgyzstan.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

PARADING FOR MR. BONE SPURS
https://claytoonz.com/2018/02/07/parading-for-mr-bone-spurs/

Question: How in the hell can we hold a military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to show the world the might of our armed forces when our military is depleted like Donald Trump claims Obama left it?

Trump plans to increase military spending and reignite the Cold War by building up our nuclear arsenal. Apparently, nuclear weapons aren’t Twinkies and they have expiration dates.

Now, he wants to spend millions of dollars on a military parade in Washington, D.C. He says it’s a great way to honor the troops. I think a better way would be to spend that money on healthcare for our troops, higher wages, and impeaching Trump so he’s not the one making military decisions.

Trump has had a chubby for the military ever since he found out he wouldn’t actually have to serve in it himself. That’s OK because he did sacrifice for our nation by making himself rich and not paying people who work for him.

French President Emmanuel Macron made things even worse by inviting Trump to his nation’s Bastille Day Parade. This parade is a huge tradition in France going all the way back to 1880 and their military is a large part of it. There are tanks, jets, soldiers, and horses on full display celebrating all the times France didn’t surrender. When Germany occupied France in World War II, they held a military parade on the same route. That’s a little insulting.

Ever since Trump saw the display of France’s military in a parade, he hasn’t been able to shut up about it. If I went to France, I’d probably still be thinking about the cheese. But for Trump, it’s been nothing but “French parade this, French parade that, no collusion, bigly” on a constant stream. It’s one of a thousand reasons Melania has her own bedroom (it’s not just the cheeseburgers).

The idea of a military parade isn’t very popular with people who don’t take a fancy to fascism. Hitler and Mussolini threw big military parades. The Soviet Union was quite fond of them. North Korea has them all the time so their people can see what the government spends money on and why they can’t eat.

Other than being totalitarian nations, each of those countries has one thing in common. Their military is their greatest strength. Our military is wonderful. The people who serve in it are awesome. But, our armed forces are not our greatest asset. It’s our people, our freedom, our Constitution, and our diversity. World leaders may look at our country and want to emulate our army, but their people want to copy our freedom. Nationalism has never made a nation great.

Nationalism is for small-brained people who have to accentuate and lie about things being bigger than they actually are so they can feel good about themselves.

We don’t need a parade of 70-ton tanks chewing up Pennsylvania Avenue to show the world we’re the biggest kid on the block. They already know it.

Trump has been hankering for a military parade since before his inauguration. In fact, he wanted tanks for his inaugural parade. Instead, he had to settle for tractors and Three Doors Down. Since he can’t order Pearl Jam to play for him, he’s ordering the military to put on a show. Why can’t he be happy being the baby with two scoops of ice cream while everyone else only has one?

I’m sure Trump can’t wait to show Kim Jong Un that he too can wave at passing tanks and missiles from a podium. Maybe, instead of firing missiles at each other, Kim and the dotard can just have competing parades.

Senator Tammy Duckworth, a combat veteran who lost both of her legs in Iraq, called Trump “Cadet Bone Spurs” after he accused Democrats of being un-American and traitors for not clapping for him. Maybe if Trump had actually served in the military, he would be going all Call Of Duty in the streets of our nation’s capital.

But, hey…let’s waste millions of dollars throwing a military parade for the guy who said P.O.W.s are not heroes and insults Gold Star Families.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

(CNN)Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who recused himself from the Russia investigation in April after investigators were asked to look into whether he revealed classified information -- has demonstrated over the past year he cannot be counted on to perform his critical duty within the committee. And now, by voting to release a politically motivated, recklessly drafted memo, House Republicans on the committee have demonstrated they are not reliable defenders of our nation's security.

As former intelligence analysts with the CIA, we were trained from our very first days on the job to understand that intelligence work is not a game. We received training throughout our careers on how to recognize our own personal biases, including how to ensure that our private political views did not color our analysis. When it comes to protecting lives, including the lives and the programs behind our sources and methods, we each became fierce defenders, and we expect our elected representatives on the both congressional intelligence oversight committees to do the same.
While each of us can tell stories about individual members of Congress trying to use intelligence for political purposes, this series of events is wholly different. The intelligence community relies on the congressional oversight committees to hold the community accountable in mission, spending and legal authority. We know that both political parties will have different views on each of these things, but we expect the members to find a compromise that puts our national security first, rather than their political agendas, for the sake of protecting American lives. The precedent the Nunes memo has already set degrades the House Intelligence Committee's effectiveness as an oversight body.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Last March, the Pentagon’s top general for Africa made a rare trip to Capitol Hill, bearing a sobering double-barreled warning.

“The instability in Libya and North Africa may be the most significant near-term threat to U.S. and allies’ interests on the continent,” the general, Thomas D. Waldhauser, told lawmakers.

But perhaps just as concerning, he indicated, were intelligence reports that Russia was helping a former Libyan general turned military strongman in a fight for control over the country’s government and vast oil resources. In fact, just two months earlier, in a brazen assertion of the Kremlin’s growing Middle East ambitions, Russia’s only aircraft carrier had entered Libyan waters and, with great fanfare, welcomed aboard the militia leader, Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

During his campaign for president, Donald J. Trump made the United States-backed NATO operation that toppled Libya’s dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, a cornerstone of his critique of President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy. The 2011 intervention left Libya with dueling governments — one recognized by the United States and the international community, the other aligned with General Haftar. In the chaos, Libya also became a safe haven for the Islamic State.

But despite a terrorist attack in Britain last spring whose Libyan roots offered a gruesome reminder that the Islamic State in Libya remains a deadly threat, the Trump administration has yet to arrive at a coherent policy for the country. On one hand, the president has said he sees no role for the United States in Libya; on the other, he has said the United States must fight the Islamic State there. The resulting policy vacuum, according to Libyan officials, American military commanders and intelligence analysts, has helped Russia spread its growing influence in one of the most dangerous parts of the world.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Retired Major General Paul Eaton says @realDonaldTrump's parade idea underscores his authoritarian tendencies, and that our military is not there to be "used and abused" to prop up his image.

This response to Trump’s military parade request from Fmr US Army General Paul Eaton is everything: "The military is not Donald Trump's to use & abuse this way. Our military is the very best in the world, they are not to be reduced to stagecraft to prop up Donald Trump's image"

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Last Friday, at the end of one of those frenetic weeks of news that now happen every week, President Trump boarded Air Force One. The wind whipped across the tarmac with unusual force. Trump, who normally has a MAGA hat for such occasions, was unusually unprepared. As he ascended the stairs, cameras had a rear-facing view of the president’s scalp as the howling gusts lifted his combed-over strands straight into the air, and the long-concealed bare scalp below was briefly exposed to the daytime cable audience and to Ashley Feinberg, who spotted the big reveal. It was horrific:

It was the worst hair day of what has been a bad hair life. And it may seem cheap and low to mock Trump’s absurd efforts to conceal his hair loss. But Trump is a man obsessed with image in ways that go beyond the normal human concern with looking presentable. Image is Trump’s moral code. He dismisses his political rivals for being short. He sees his succession of wives as visual testament to his own status. He selects his Cabinet on the basis of their looking the part. He conscripts the military as a prop to bathe himself in an aura of presidential grandeur.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

But in Europe, defense scholars immediately raised questions about whether Trump’s desired military parade would really fall into the same category as France’s Bastille Day parade, which is held annually and is deeply rooted in the country’s history and values. Although Trump's parade, like the French one, would feature the nation’s military might, it might send a very different message, some European defense analysts and columnists said.

...

But a military parade in Washington would likely be perceived as a more timely political message from a single individual to the nation and, indeed, to the world, along the lines of: Look at how strong we (and I) are.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The Pentagon has turned down Donald J. Trump’s request for a grand military parade in Washington, D.C., citing a sudden outbreak of bone spurs that would prevent men and women in uniform from participating.

Harland Dorrinson, a Pentagon spokesman, said that, within an hour of Trump’s request, more than a hundred thousand military personnel complained that they were suffering from acute cases of bone spurs that would make marching in such a parade a painful ordeal.

“In the history of the U.S. military, we have never experienced a bone-spur epidemic of this magnitude,” the spokesman said. “Regrettably, however, we have no choice but to issue thousands of deferments.”

A statement from the bone-spur sufferers said that they would continue to valiantly serve their country around the world in a non-marching capacity, and offered an alternative to their participation in Trump’s proposed pageant.

“President Trump is welcome to march in the parade all by himself if he would finally like to enlist,” the statement read.