Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

...

 

[Senorman]

11) and the Deutsche Bank thing.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

On Friday, a friend and I watched as the President of the United States sat in the Oval Office and praised the work of my ex-husband, Rob Porter, and wished him future success. I can’t say I was surprised. But when Donald Trump repeated twice that Rob declared his innocence, I was floored. What was his intent in emphasizing that point? My friend turned to me and said, “The President of the United States just called you a liar.”

Yes. And so he did.

On Saturday morning, following the overnight resignation of another White House staffer after his ex-wife came forward with her story of abuse.

There it is again. The words “mere allegation” and “falsely accused” meant to imply that I am a liar. That Colbie Holderness is a liar. That the work Rob was doing in the White House was of higher value than our mental, emotional or physical wellbeing. That his professional contributions are worth more than the truth. That abuse is something to be questioned and doubted.

Everyone wants to talk about how the White House and former colleagues defended Rob. Of course they did! They valued and respected him. The truth would be dissonant to everything they believed to be true about the man they knew. The truth would be devastating. And denial is easier than devastation.

Everyone wants to talk about how Trump implied I am a not to be believed. As if Trump is the model of kindness and forgiveness. As if he readily acknowledges his own shortcomings and shows empathy and concern for others. I forgive him. Thankfully, my strength and worth are not dependent on outside belief — the truth exists whether the President accepts it or not.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

I am the very model of a New York Times contrarian,
My intellect is polished but my soul’s authoritarian,
From Allen down to Exxon, bullies’ water I am carrying,
Except for Donald Trump’s, because I find him a vulgarian.
I’m very well acquainted, too, with arguments political,
I love to mount defenses for the vile and hypocritical,
I filigree each sentence till its meaning I am burying,
My job is to distract you from the rising smell of carrion.

My eagerness to stand up for the powerful is frightening,
I’m always showing up when a sepulcher needs some whitening,
In short, with polished intellect and soul authoritarian,
I am the very model of a New York Times contrarian!

There’s nothing that I relish more than playing Devil’s advocate,
My beat is moral virtue comma complete, total lack of it,
I’ll only call you “victim” if it’s clear that you’re a predator,
I’m lucky to have landed with a sympathetic editor.
Hate-reading makes my columns all go viral like canarypox,
Present me with the truth and I will turn it to a paradox,
I’ll spew undoubted bullshit till you’ll swear that it’s veracity,
Sometimes vocabulary gets confused for perspicacity.

I’ll never have to worry about financial adversity,
My sinecure’s secured by “intellectual diversity,”
In short, with polished sentences and soul authoritarian,
I am the very model of a New York Times contrarian!

I introduce myself in verse based on a comic opera,
Even though tragedy might strike my critics as more proper-a,
But manic, frantic forms can help obscure a darkness visible,
And keep people from noticing my arguments are risible.
I’m confident that confidence is all I need to dominate,
I’ll gladly share my theories with your business or conglomerate,
For money I will tell you money’s good for the environment,
Or argue that a safety net is nothing but entitlement!

The best people all know me and my pedigree’s immaculate,
That’s good, because my takes are generally quite inaccurate,
But still, with polished intellect and soul authoritarian,
I am the very model of a New York Times contrarian!

 

[Michael Scally MD]

WASHINGTON — Charles C. Johnson, one of the country’s most notorious Internet trolls, sank into a plush couch in the lobby of the soaring Trump Hotel here on a recent afternoon, sipping a jasmine green tea while chatting with a top staffer at a pro-Trump super PAC.

He’d just attended the State of the Union address as the guest of a congressman from Florida, garnering national attention, and was squeezing in some meetings at Washington’s new clubhouse for the powerful before heading back to Los Angeles to spend time with his wife and infant daughter.

It’s a stunning scene given that, during any normal era in American politics, Johnson, a 29-year-old Massachusetts native, would be radioactive — the kind of person who could end a political career by just appearing in a photo with an aspiring lawmaker.

He’s argued that black people are “dumber” than white people, questioned whether 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust, was banned from Twitter for threatening a Black Lives Matter activist, and posed making a white power sign while standing next to white supremacist leader Richard Spencer.

But now he’s managed to secure himself a foothold not far from the center of influence in Washington, taking advantage of the new anything-goes environment to win sit-downs with political leaders. Johnson’s rise to prominence is a case study in the empowerment of the so-called alt-right, the white nationalist movement that has gained mainstream currency in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election.

He’s met with Trump’s interior secretary to discuss a border wall, huddled with Julian Assangeand a Republican congressman on a jaunt to London, and written an article on his conspiracy-focused website, GotNews.com, that has landed on the president’s desk.

What’s also surprising is how he traces his extreme views, and his knack for grabbing headlines, to his education at Milton Academy, the exclusive prep school outside Boston, where he was a lonely conservative voice known for provoking outrage online and in person.

Like the influential Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who says his far-right worldview stemmed from being an outcast at liberal Santa Monica High School, Johnson says his views were shaped in opposition to wealthy, liberal Milton — a place where he sought acceptance but felt rejection.

In Trump, Johnson says he has found a leader he respects and wants to emulate, someone he might have looked up to when he was a downcast teen at Milton.

“He’s very aggressive and he’s very alpha male. But he’s also having fun,” Johnson said in a recent interview. “Trump is the kind of person I’d want to be. He goes in front of crowds with tens of thousands of people. Jokes around and has a good time.”

And with Trump in power, Johnson feels included.

“He enlists people in this cause,” Johnson said. “It’s very deliberate. He has a way of inviting people to join him.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

DUE PROCESS
https://claytoonz.com/2018/02/12/due-process/

No one expects Donald Trump to be a bleeding heart. The man doesn’t possess a trace of compassion or empathy, at least not for those who need it. At this point, we should all give up on the guy being any sort of decent human.

When it comes to violence against women, he doesn’t care. His first instinct is to defend the man who has been accused. When he has gone after men for sexual harassment, it wasn’t out of a concern for justice as much as it was an opportunity to hit a liberal and score political points. His criticism of Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein, and Al Franken were just opportunities to hit Democrats.

He even defended Clinton back in the 90s, before he jumped into politics. He said Clinton was the “real victim” and that his accusers were “terrible” and “unattractive.” When asked if it’d be different if the accusers were supermodels, Trump said, “I think at least it would be more pleasant to watch.”

What is not pleasant to watch is a man destroying the dignity of the presidency, but at least 100,000 repugnant Trump followers disagree with me. That’s at least how many “liked” Trump’s latest tweet defending the accused and trashing the victims.

Saturday morning, Trump tweeted, for no apparent reason, “Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused––life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?” Still burned by the women’s march, which had a much larger crowd than his inauguration, he’s taking on the #MeToo movement.

Maybe Trump feels if he can convince people the men are innocent, then people will believe he’s innocent from the accusations from at least 19 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct (even though he’s bragged about that conduct on more than one occasion).

Sarah Huckabee Sanders used his denial as a defense that his situation wasn’t comparable to Al Franken’s, because Trump denied it. It’s as though the denial itself is proof of innocence.

When defending now-resigned White House secretary Rob Porter, Trump focused on the denial. He never once mentioned sympathy or compassion for victims of domestic violence. It didn’t matter that the stories came with corroboration, a restraining order, and a photo of a victim with a black eye. His empathy was in his statement “he’s very sad now.”

While endorsing Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, Trump brought up the denial. He said, “he totally denies it. He says it didn’t happen. You have to listen to him, also.” Trump has never listened to the accusers.

Trump defended Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes. He described O’Reilly as a “very good person” and said he shouldn’t have settled with his accusers. He defended Ailes by criticizing his accusers. “I can tell you that some of the women that are complaining, I know how much he’s helped them. And now all of a sudden they’re saying these horrible things about him. It’s very sad. Because he’s a very good person.” The men are always sad and good.

While defending former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski against a battery charge when he grabbed a female reporter, Trump said, “How do you know those bruises weren’t there before?”

There have been five men associated with the Trump administration and campaign of assaulting women. I’m sure they’re all “good and sad.” Trump even argued that Mike Tyson shouldn’t have gone to prison for a rape conviction.

Trump hasn’t always been a believer in “due process” or worried about accusations ruining people’s lives.

He accused Ted Cruz of having an affair and his father of being involved in the JFK assassination, based on nothing more solid than stories in the National Enquirer. I can’t decide which accusation is more far-fetched. The involvement in the Kennedy assassination, or someone wanting to sleep with Ted Cruz.

In perhaps the most famous incident of Trump ignoring due process, he called for the execution of the Central Park Five, the black and Latino teenagers who were convicted of raping and assaulting a white woman in Central Park in 1989. He bought newspaper ads campaigning for their executions. They were later exonerated in 2002, but Trump was still arguing in 2016 that they had admitted their guilt.

There are instances of false accusations and they’re terrible. But that isn’t just the first concern from Trump. It’s the only concern, unless they’re black or a Democrat (when he defended Tyson, he was making millions off the boxer in his casinos. Probably the only black person who didn’t face discrimination as an employee in one of Trump’s casinos). At some point while discussing violence against women, a decent person would actually discuss the violence against women.

This year, 390 women are planning to run for the House of Representatives. Many more will be running for lower seats in state legislatures and city councils. Trump’s continued attacks against women and the #MeToo movement will surely make the number of women running increase.

If there is truly a “due process,” we’ll have fewer Trump sycophants and enablers in Washington in 2019. And maybe, we won’t have Trump.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

As public scrutiny exposes deep flaws in the memo from the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, about alleged F.B.I. surveillance abuses, the committee’s Republicans are increasingly https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/priebus-denies-that-trump-wanted-to-fire-mueller/2018/02/04/df0ac7d4-09c2-11e8-8890-372e2047c935_story.html?utm_term=.3b6417b37bbe (downplaying its significance). Mr. Nunes’s colleagues are right to seek some distance from this caper — not to mention other similar memos he has hinted at releasing. That’s because by writing and releasing the memo, the chairman may just have landed himself, and his staff members, in the middle of Robert Mueller’s obstruction of justice investigation.

This risk emerged when Repesentative Mike Quigley, a Democrat on the committee, asked Mr. Nunes whether he or his staff coordinated the memo with the White House. Mr. Nunes said he had not — but refused to answer the same question about his staff. Facing a second round of questions on this issue during a committee meeting last week, Mr. Nunes again demurred, except to read a narrow statement that the White House was not involved in the actual drafting.

In additional comments to the press, the committee staff director noted the memo was a “‘team effort’ that involved investigators who had access to source material.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

[Plutocrats = Oligarchs] Oligarchic rule, as Aristotle pointed out, is a deviant form of government. Oligarchs care nothing for competency, intelligence, honesty, rationality, self-sacrifice or the common good. They pervert, deform and dismantle systems of power to serve their immediate interests, squandering the future for short-term personal gain.

“The true forms of government, therefore, are those in which the one, or the few, or the many, govern with a view to the common interest; but governments that rule with a view to the private interest, whether of the one, of the few or of the many, are perversions,” Aristotle wrote.

The classicist Peter L.P. Simpson calls these perversions the “sophistry of oligarchs,” meaning that once oligarchs take power, rational, prudent and thoughtful responses to social, economic and political problems are ignored to feed insatiable greed. The late stage of every civilization is characterized by the sophistry of oligarchs, who ravage the decaying carcass of the state.

These deviant forms of government are defined by common characteristics, most of which Aristotle understood. Oligarchs use power and ruling structures solely for personal advancement.

Oligarchs, though they speak of deconstructing the administrative state, actually increase deficits and the size and power of law enforcement and the military to protect their global business interests and ensure domestic social control. The parts of the state that serve the common good wither in the name of deregulation and austerity. The parts that promote the oligarchs’ power expand in the name of national security, economic growth and law and order.

...

The longer we are ruled by oligarchs, the deadlier our predicament becomes, especially since the oligarchs refuse to address climate change, the greatest existential crisis to humankind. The oligarchs have many mechanisms, including wholesale surveillance, to keep us in check. They will stop at nothing to maintain the sophistry of their rule. History may not repeat itself, but it echoes. And if we don’t recognize these echoes and then revolt, we will be herded into the abattoirs that tyrannies set up at the end of their existence.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Trump’s fantasy of a military parade and Trump’s choice to release or block congressional memos about the Russia investigation were the two big stories of last week. At first glance, they have nothing to do with one another. In fact, they are part of the same story: a grand cover-up of American defeat.

In the past, the United States has organized grand military parades: but always after a victory in war, and always as a way of welcoming soldiers back to civilian life. So it was after the civil war, the first world war and the second world war. Such parades marked a moment and made perfect sense.

The problem today is that the United States has not just won a war, but lost one. Carl von Clausewitz, the great student of war, defined its aim as altering the will of the enemy. In the 21st century, in the age of cyber, this can be achieved without combat.

America lost a cyberwar to Russia in 2016, the result of which was the election of Trump. Defeat is hard to face; but every delay in facing the hard facts makes matters worse. This is no time for parades.

A country that treats defeat as a victory invites calamity. The only serious American response to Russia’s violation of its sovereignty, the Mueller investigation, is now also a target of Russian cyberwar. As reporting by Politicohas shown, the very strange decision to release a highly partisan (and very partial) hit memo against Mueller was in large part a consequence of a cyber campaign in which Russian bots played a major part.

No array of tanks, whether at their bases or on parade in Washington, can protect us against cyberwar. Serious national defense would involve a serious defense against actual threats to sovereignty, rather than costly gestures meant to change the subject. And no amount of presidential or congressional posturing can substitute for an independent investigation of what are, in the end, our own weaknesses and flaws.

We don’t need memos and marches; we need truth and repair.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

In the Netflix science fiction series Altered Carbon, a major plot line involves a ship, hovering thousands of feet above the ground, where the super-rich go to fulfill their most sordid fantasies, involving not just kinky sex but the murder of attractive young women (and the occasional man), the ultimate privilege for a member of the overclass. It's a trope you've probably seen in a dozen films: When a group of people utterly removed from any kind of societal accountability gather to grant license to their desires, those desires turn out to be utterly depraved.

Something analagous is happening right now in American politics. The Republican Party, particularly its members in the Trump administration, are engaged in an ideological bacchanal that goes beyond what we imagined would occur when Donald Trump became president. We knew what a disaster he would be as an individual; his ignorant, insecure, petty, vindictive, authoritarian personality was amply clear to anyone who had paid even marginal attention to the 2016 presidential campaign.

What was far less clear was how his party would take the opportunity of their momentary hold on power to not just move aggressively to advance their agenda, but to do so with a kind of mad desperation that is going far beyond what we, in a more innocent moment—say, any time before two years ago—would have thought possible.

...

The party as a whole has dived in eagerly to the orgy of self-dealing, rule-flouting, and ideological extremism that has characterized the last year. They have decided to defend Trump at all costs, no matter what he does or is revealed to have done (just wait until Robert Mueller's investigation is done; then you'll see the depths to which they'll sink).

So don't think for a moment that any of this happened solely because the president is such a deplorable and incompetent figure. In Trump's Washington, everybody on the right knows that it's now or never. So they're going to milk this moment for all it's worth.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

WTFU ...