Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

“There were extensive communications between Michael Cohen and Keith Davidson” — Daniels’s attorney at the time of the payment — “in October of 2016, relating to the timing of this payment and the need for the payment to be made prior to the election,” Avenatti said forcefully. “Extensive communications relating to the need for the payment to be made, when it was made and as it related to potential influence on the election. Period.”

He continued: “Everyone involved in this transaction around the time knew the importance of the payment as it related to the election. So any claim that the payment had nothing to do with the election is completely bogus.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

On April 24, French President Emmanuel Macron walked into the Oval Office with one overriding mission: persuade President Trump not to ditch the Iran nuclear deal. It looks as if he failed. Macron later told reporters that Trump repeated his long-standing view that the nuclear agreement — formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — is “the worst deal ever, it’s a nightmare, it was a catastrophe.” According to Macron, Trump indicated that he would probably fulfill his campaign pledge to scrap the deal when U.S. sanctions relief is due to be renewed May 12. This impression has only been strengthened since.

As troubling as that is, something else Macron said about Trump is even more ominous. “His experience with North Korea is that when you are very tough, you make the other side move and you can try to go to a good deal or a better deal,” Macron recounted. “That’s a strategy of increasing tension.” At a critical juncture for U.S. policy, this suggests that Trump is operating under deeply flawed assumptions about both North Korea and Iran.

What Trump seems to have internalized from North Korea is that threats and “maximum pressure” can force his opponents to negotiate away their nuclear programs on American terms. Yet U.S. pressure is probably not the primary driver of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s willingness to bargain, nor is there much reason to believe that Pyongyang is ready to completely dismantle its nuclear infrastructure. Trump’s faulty assumptions and unrealistic expectations could doom prospects for peacefully deescalating one nuclear standoff — and applying these misguided lessons to Iran could manufacture yet another.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

A few short but very long days in the life of the Trump presidency: On Wednesday night, Rudy Giuliani, a newly minted member of the president’s legal team, acknowledged on national television that Mr. Trump had been aware of his personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to an adult film actress on Mr. Trump’s behalf — contradicting the president’s previous claims. Mr. Trump promptly attempted damage control by tweet to ward off speculation that the payment to Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, might have constituted a violation of campaign finance law. Though the president’s tweets seemed to confirm Mr. Giuliani’s account of events, on Friday Mr. Trump hinted that his lawyer needed to “https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/trump-on-giuliani-hell-get-his-facts-straight/2018/05/04/3e5d6adc-4fa7-11e8-85c1-9326c4511033_video.html?utm_term=.02abc78933fb (get his facts straight).”

Mr. Giuliani’s comments came only a few hours after news broke out that another of Mr. Trump’s attorneys would retire from the legal team handling the Russia investigation — the second to depart in six weeks. The previous day, the president’s personal doctor accused Mr. Trump’s former bodyguard and others of “raiding” his office and removing Mr. Trump’s medical records, while Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, deflected questions about a New York Times story listing in detail a range of subjects about which Robert Mueller, the special counsel, is seeking to interview the president. Through it all, Mr. Trump fumed on Twitter over the “Russian witch hunt.”

So goes a normal week in 2018. The push alerts ping. The tweets stack up. Arguments over constitutional law and attorney-client privilege fill the airwaves. The noise roars so loudly and from so many different sources that however much we strain to listen, it’s next to impossible to make sense out of it.

Or to put it another way: Does any of this matter?

Probably. But the unsatisfying answer is that we don’t know — and we really don’t know which parts will end up mattering in the long run. As the litigations and investigations move forward, though, it’s worth taking a step back and considering the various legal fronts on which the president is fighting simultaneously — filtering out as much noise from the signal as we can so the stakes are clear. Think of what follows as a cheat sheet to the legal circus surrounding the White House.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

At the height of Giuliani's acclaim in 2002, he wrote a book simply titled "Leadership," which helps us understand his relationship with the current President.

In a chapter called "Loyalty: The Vital Virtue," he instructs his leader-acolytes to "embrace those who are attacked." He speaks glowingly of Ronald Reagan's resistance to outside pressure to fire staffers for some miscue. Giuliani fondly recalls working within the Reagan Justice Department and recalls that "(Reagan) will take political heat for us, so we'll take political heat for him."

And therein lies the crux behind the Trump-Giuliani political marriage.

Giuliani appears to have become a supplicant, desperately desirous of remaining in good favor with Trump. We know that this President rewards unquestioned loyalty, even when grievous tactical mistakes appear to have been made. Kellyanne Conway, anyone?

Giuliani is simply performing a redux of that "Happy Days" episode in 1977 when Fonzie, adorned in swim trunks and leather biker jacket, donned water skies to jump the shark.
The phrase "jump the shark" has become ubiquitous in American pop culture, referring to something once great that declines in quality and popularity.

That beloved ABC sitcom never survived the jump.

And neither will the once-stellar reputation of America's mayor.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

WASHINGTON — President Trump knew about a six-figure payment that Michael D. Cohen, his personal lawyer, made to a pornographic film actress several months before he denied any knowledge of it to reporters aboard Air Force One in April, according to two people familiar with the arrangement.

How much Mr. Trump knew about the payment to Stephanie Clifford, the actress, and who else was aware of it have been at the center of a swirling controversy for the past 48 hours touched off by a television interview with Rudolph W. Giuliani, a new addition to the president’s legal team. The interview was the first time a lawyer for the president had acknowledged that Mr. Trump had reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payments to Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels.

It was not immediately clear when Mr. Trump learned of the payment, which Mr. Cohen made in October 2016, at a time when news media outlets were poised to pay her for her story about an alleged affair with Mr. Trump in 2006. But three people close to the matter said that Mr. Trump knew that Mr. Cohen had succeeded in keeping the allegations from becoming public at the time the president denied it.

Ms. Clifford signed a nondisclosure agreement, and accepted the payment just days before Mr. Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Trump has denied he had an affair with Ms. Clifford and insisted that the nondisclosure agreement was created to prevent any embarrassment to his family.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

(CNN) The White House announced Friday that President Donald Trump intends to appoint Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, to his council on sport, fitness and nutrition.

Oz is well-known as a host of an eponymous television show on health and medical issues and, before that, for appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." But he has become a lightning rod for controversy for featuring what critics say is unscientific advice on his show.

In 2014, a congressional panel questioned Oz over his promotion of weight-loss products on his television show.

"The scientific community is almost monolithic against you in terms of the efficacy of the three products you called 'miracles,'" Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said during the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee hearing.


The following year, a group of doctors criticized him harshly, saying he manifested "an egregious lack of integrity" in his TV and promotional work and called his faculty position at Columbia University unacceptable.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

BUTT NO COLLUSION
https://claytoonz.com/2018/05/05/butt-no-collusion/

Trump lies. According to one count in the media (yeah, fake news), he averages six and a half lies a day. It’s been said that the one person you don’t lie to is your lawyer. But what happens when you not only lie to your lawyers but you ignore their advice and torpedo your own case?

Some lawyers quit, as John Dowd and Ty Cobb have done. There’s talk that White House Counsel Don McGann wants out and expects the newly hired white-shoe lawyer Emmet Flood to take over. Unfortunately for Mr. Flood, his shoes won’t remain white for long because Trump’s other new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is as much of a lying, corrupt, narcissistic dumbass as the client.

Without any consultation with the other members of his legal team, Trump sent Rudy out to tell Sean Hannity that he knew about the payment to Stormy Daniels. He also changed the reasoning Trump fired James Comey, called the FBI “stormtroopers,” and threw Jared under the bus as being disposable.

They were mopping up the next day and Trump excused Rudy’s performance by saying he just started, he’s learning the subject matter, and he’ll get his facts straight. OK. So if he just started and doesn’t know shit then why did you send him out to talk about the subject matter? And why did you send him out again the next day to vomit-puke on Fox & Friends?

Sure, this entire matter is about a porn star Trump slept with before he was president, but when you lie everyday, revise your story with another lie, deny your past statements which have been recorded, and send your minions and goons like Giuliani and Sarah Huckabee Sanders to lie, then why should anyone ever believe anything coming out of your administration? How are we supposed to have confidence with your ability to do, well, anything?

Now it has come out that Trump knew about the payment to Stormy Daniels months before he denied. No shit. You don’t have $130,000 deducted from your bank account and just wonder where it went. According to Rudy, when Trump recently learned what it was for he acted as though a mystery was solved. Most people go nuts with a mystery deduction of ten bucks from their bank account. Even a billionaire, if Trump really is one, would question $130,000. We all know how cheap Trump is. None of the stories coming from Cohen, Trump, Giuliani or any of their other idiots are believable.

To Trump’s new lawyer, and his future new lawyers, have fun. You’re going to need a mop. Also, take one good look at Rudy Giuliani. That’s your future.

 

[Sparkyp]

Dr. Scally. i'm new here and i already know you seem to be one of the veterans here. i mean this with no disrespect but i don't think trump is doing that bad (on policy) he doesn't do himself any favors when he talks longer than he should. He blew it during the campaign with the building of the wall and continuing obama's ban on the (7) muslim countries. i will say, the economy has exploded here in the tri-state (NY, NJ, CT) it was "steady" the past 10 years but things have turned around and business owners in the trades such as myself can't keep up.

he's not the ideal president and far from perfect but i'm about 60% happy with him.

Dr. Scally. i'm half Arab. i voted for Barack Obama and Trump. I consider myself a moderate. I find what our conservative and liberal media outlets have done to our country is disgusting. I truly hope moderates like John F Kennedy or even a Bill Clinton type candidate run in the future and win. having an extreme right/left leader is not the best. well, if the congress is split it won't matter much.

figured i'd voice my little opinion. on the other forums i'm on, political talk is forbidden! lol. every time it would just explode getting people banned. it's nice to be able to throw out a political post

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Sparkyp]

^^ ok got it.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Those close to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have told the White House that their plan for the Arizona Republican's eventual funeral is to have Vice President Pence attend — but not President Trump, The New York Times reports.

The funeral is expected to take place at the Washington National Cathedral, according to the Times.

But Trump, with whom McCain has had a tempestuous relationship, is not expected to attend the service, at least not according to current planning, the Times reported.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]