Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Where does Donald Trump rank on the list of American presidents?

We surveyed presidential politics experts to sketch out a http://sps.boisestate.edu/politicalscience/files/2018/02/Greatness.pdf (first draft of Trump’s place) in presidential history.

Since our previous survey in 2014, some presidential legacies have soared (Barack Obama’s stock has climbed into the Top 10), while others have fallen (Andrew Jackson toppled to 15, out of the Top 10).

And President Trump? Let’s say that, according to the 170 members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section who filled out our survey, he has at least three years to improve on an ignominious debut.

James Buchanan, who was at the helm as the United States careened into civil war, was dislodged from his position as our nation’s worst president by our current president, Trump.

His Oval Office predecessor, Barack Obama, shot into the Top 10, up from 18th in the previous survey. Ulysses S. Grant also got a bump, up seven places from 2014, perhaps owing to a strong assist from Ron Chernow’s recent masterpiece.

Trump doesn't get much of a lift from Republican-only vote: Even in their eyes, he’s a bottom-five president.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

In announcing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russian nationals, whose efforts to subvert the 2016 election entailed conspiring to defraud the United States, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein included the conspicuous caveat that the charging documents contain “no allegation” that Russian interference “altered the outcome of the 2016 election.”

The White House seized on this strange admonition as a vindicating fact, as if Mueller were investigating the convincingness of Donald Trump’s victory. Trump has been reminded ad nauseam since Friday that the value of Mueller’s findings isn’t in their effect on White House public relations, but in their power help the country secure the integrity of its democracy.

That rejoinder, while correct to an extent, risks making political accountability the victim of high-mindedness. Whether it was his intention or not, Mueller has given legal weight to the https://crooked.com/article/grappling-legitimacy-crisis/. Specifically, he has given us proper cause to question the freeness and fairness of the election that made Trump president, which means we have to grapple not just with the vulnerability of American democracy, or with how to punish Trump and others for exploiting those vulnerabilities, but with the possibility that all of the GOP’s substantive gains of the past year are ill-gotten and deserve to be erased.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The point is not "both sides." The point is that one is satirical quote from a comedian being outrageous and one is an actual quote from an actual official.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Lawrence Ferlinghetti decades ago wrote:

“Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.

Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.

Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.

Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.

My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

(CNN) Special counsel Robert Mueller's interest in Jared Kushner has expanded beyond his contacts with Russia and now includes his efforts to secure financing for his company from foreign investors during the presidential transition, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

This is the first indication that Mueller is exploring Kushner's discussions with potential non-Russian foreign investors, including in China.

US officials briefed on the probe had told CNN in May that points of focus related to Kushner, the White House senior adviser and son-in-law of President Donald Trump, included the Trump campaign's 2016 data analytics operation, his relationship with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Kushner's own contacts with Russians.

Mueller's investigators have been asking questions, including during interviews in January and February, about Kushner's conversations during the transition to shore up financing for 666 Fifth Avenue, a Kushner Companies-backed New York City office building reeling from financial troubles, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation.

It's not clear what's behind Mueller's specific interest in the financing discussions. Mueller's team has not contacted Kushner Companies for information or requested interviews with its executives, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Federal law enforcement officials have identified more than $40 million in “suspicious” financial transactions to and from companies controlled by President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort — a much larger sum than was cited in his October indictment on money laundering charges.

The vast web of transactions was unraveled mainly in 2014 and 2015 during an FBI operation to fight international kleptocracy that ultimately fizzled. The story of that failed effort — and its resurrection by special counsel Robert Mueller as he investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election — has never been fully told.

But it explains how the special counsel was able to swiftly bring charges against Manafort for complex financial crimes dating as far back as 2008 — and it shows that Mueller could still wield immense leverage as he seeks to compel Manafort to cooperate in the ongoing investigation.

Last week, Mueller’s team told a judge that it had evidence Manafort committed bank fraud, and news organizations have reported that the special counsel may be preparing additional charges.