Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

ICE ICE BABY
https://claytoonz.com/2018/07/09/ice-ice-baby/

Donald Trump’s Zero-Tolerance policy of separating families and throwing children in detention centers has stirred a sentiment among many Democrats and liberals to abolish ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Trump and Republicans have used immigration as a divisive wedge to rile up his base. He’s even accusing those who call to abolish ICE as wanting MS-13 gangs to run wild in the streets. Any rational person (which describes fewer Republicans lately) knows that is preposterous. Just because you don’t want immigrants unjustly punished and families ripped apart doesn’t mean you want open borders or gangs killing Americans. But yelling and screaming about MS-13 has become the latest racist wolf whistle for Republicans.

I have been undecided about abolishing ICE, but now I’m starting to think we don’t need the agency. While ICE isn’t responsible for separating families at the border, it has become an abusive and needless program. It’s also interesting that for once, Republicans are the ones against decreasing the size of government.

ICE has only existed for 15 years. It spends over $2 billion a year on detention out of a an annual budget that’s over $7 billion. Private contractors have been benefiting from detention centers, which gives them a huge financial incentive to holding immigrants indefinitely as if they’re al Qaeda members in Guantanamo. There have been 1,448 allegations of sexual abuse between 2012 and March 2018 in ICE detention centers.

ICE’s job is to round-up illegal immigrants. They don’t patrol the border. That job is for Border Patrol, which can technically operate within 100 miles of the border. Since two-thirds of Americans live within 100 miles of the border, that makes ICE redundant.

Republicans argue we need ICE to catch violent criminals. But, we already have the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, the DEA, the ATF, your local police department, Neighborhood Watch, John Walsh, McGruff the Crime Dog, and your nosy neighbor who calls the cops every time she sees a brown person at the public pool. Now, at least 19 ICE agents want their own agency dissolved, believing the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal migrants has limited their ability to pursue national security threats, child pornography and transnational crime.

We need secure borders. We need to arrest violent criminals, whether they were born south of the border or in the United States. But we don’t need to harass and separate families just for seeking a better life for their children, attempting to escape violence in their home country, or even seeking asylum (which is legal). We don’t need to use the issue as a racist wolf whistle. And, we don’t need to hold brown babies and children hostage to fund a wall the president told us we wouldn’t have to pay for.

The greatest threat facing this nation does not come from immigrants. That distinction belongs to the current occupant of the Oval Office.

ICE is very much like the Vanilla Ice song, “Ice, Ice, Baby” (which was ripped off from Queen). It’s redundant, pointless, useless, and should be banished and never seen or heard again. Sorry if I put it in your head today.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

1. Thread Let's talk about NK's reaction to Pompeo's Pyongyang trip, that "US attitudes" during the talks were "truly unfortunate." I read the statement in Korean. This was expected cuz (a) it's typical NK negotiating & (b) Singapore statement foreshadowed this would happen...

2. On (a), NK likes to stall and draw out negotiations, blame US, wants US to make first big move, paints itself as good responsible guy and US as bad irresponsible evil guy, and lodge threats. On (b), Singapore statement's 1st 3 points showed NK's priority in sequential order...

3. Recap, Singapore statement first 3 points:

(1) commit to new relations for peace and prosperity
(2) build peace regime
(3) reaffirm Panmunjom Declaration and NK commits to complete denuke of KP

NOTE: Denuke comes AFTER relations/peace/prosperity and peace regime....

Thread by @duyeonkim: "1. Thread Let's talk about NK's reaction to Pompeo's Pyongyang trip, that "US attitudes" during the talks were "truly unfortunate." I read t […]"

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

"It had been the promise of free doughnuts that enticed his mother and dozens of her co-workers out of the planting fields and into the break room that day, where instead they had been met by 200 federal agents with plastic handcuffs and guns."

In the beginning, it was the promise of bread and jam that brought Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Umschlagplatz, the deportation site to Treblinka.

Of course the situations are not exactly the same. But if you are waiting for them to be exactly the same, you are missing the point of learning from history. Each detail of atrocity should be remembered as an alarm for decent people. We can't forget and we can't fail.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

[Thread] This is the mother of all strawman arguments. I mean, in Norway, which leads the world in press freedom, some of the finest journalists work for NRK. Are you seriously comparing NRK to RT?

I used to take Greenwald seriously on some topics, and chalked up his more eccentric positions to being a contrarian. But this just goes too far especially if he actually believes it. So after this, no, I don't think he even deserves to be taken seriously at all.

RT isn't just state funded, it's state *controlled*. But then what's wrong about working for RT isn't that it's state controlled, it's the kind of state that controls it. Putin's regime is one of the planet's most ardent forces against human rights and democracy.

...

Thread by @iyad_elbaghdadi: "This is the mother of all strawman arguments. I mean, in Norway, which leads the world in press freedom, some of the finest journalists work […]"

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Michael Cohen, the President's former fixer and ultimate loyalist, is sending a clear signal to President Donald Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that "the truth is not you(r) or your client's friend," according to sources with knowledge of Cohen's thinking.

Two sources familiar with Cohen's thinking say he has "hit the reset button" and is continuing his commitment to speak the "real truth."

In particular, the same sources say Giuliani is wading into dangerous territory when he asks Cohen to "tell the truth" about the Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Russian meddling in the election.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

[Thread] 1. I don't think we are fully grappling with the possibility that we could be on the on the cusp of a completely new era, a fundamental reshaping of the international order. And I don't mean over the course of the Trump Administration. I mean by next week.

2. It sounds outlandish to even say it out loud, and some can easily call this hyperbole. I hope to God it does not happen. But we would be insane not to grapple with the possibility.

3. Trump clearly wants to pull the US out of NATO. He doesn't believe in the alliance (or any alliances); he thinks our allies take advantage of us; he complains that NATO is worse than NAFTA(whatever that means); he seeks purely transactional relations with our closest partners.

4. Should other NATO members meet their 2% of GDP defense spending targets? Absolutely. Trump is on solid ground to push for it. But to consistently trash allies, undervalue their contributions to our security, threaten to withdraw US troops -- that's him wanting out.

5. Perhaps most damaging is that his rhetoric is building up hostility to NATO among his supporters. It's a huge breach in the consensus American support for the alliance that has undergirded Western security for 70 years, and it won't disappear when Trump does.

6. What's more, his passionate desire for friendship with Putin is emboldening Russia & risks doing further damage to European security. If he recognizes Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, if he seeks to tone down sanctions on Russia over its aggression vs Ukraine, watch out.

...

Thread by @DanielBShapiro: "1. I don't think we are fully grappling with the possibility that we could be on the on the cusp of a completely new era, a fundamental resh […]"

 

[Michael Scally MD]

KAVANAUGH’S HANGUPS
https://claytoonz.com/2018/07/10/kavanaughs-hangups/

Leave it to Donald Trump to make a Supreme Court nomination that reminds us just how bad the Bush administration was.

Shortly after being nominated to the court, Bush issued a statement on Brett Kavanaugh. “President Trump has made an outstanding decision in nominating Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” said the 43rd president.

Kavanaugh served as counsel in the Bush White House, and then as secretary before finally being nominated by Bush for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. His confirmation was stalled for three years on accusations that he was too partisan. Why would be be viewed as too partisan?

Working in the White House for either party can be viewed as partisan. He also represented the Miami family of Elian Gonzalez, pro bono, in a losing battle to keep the boy from being reunited with his father in Cuba. Perhaps most partisan was working on Kenneth Starr’s investigation of Bill Clinton and being one of the author’s of Starr’s report recommending impeachment of the president.

In contrast to the tight lips of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian collusion and obstruction by Donald Trump, the Starr investigation was constantly leaking to the press. Republicans supposedly hate leakers. If it turns out that Kavanaugh was leaking to the press, will Republicans hold it against him? No. Republicans don’t have problems with hypocrisy. Even if Kavanaugh may be deciding cases in the future on government leakers.

Speaking of hypocrisy, in 2009, the nominee wrote an article that presidents should be exempt from “time-consuming and distracting” lawsuits and investigations. Did I mention he worked on the investigation of Bill Clinton and recommended that he be impeached for lying? How does he feel about being nominated by the biggest liar-in-chief in history?

He may be the only candidate on Trump’s list who is on public record with that opinion. Since the question of whether or not a sitting president can be indicted is not settled, it may land before the Supreme Court. Now, we have Donald Trump sending someone to the court who believes presidents shouldn’t be investigated. He may argue that Trump shouldn’t be distracted from golf and retweeting Nazis.

Kavanaugh should not be confirmed, at least not while the Mueller investigation is ongoing. Forget the election. Forget the abortion debate. Forget Mitch McConnell’s hypocrisy of refusing to hold a hearing for Obama’s nominee and allowing it to be stolen by Trump. What shouldn’t be allowed is an appointment to the Supreme Court by a president who is suspected of collusion with Russian spies, thus potentially sending someone to the court who will protect him.

Trump has a history of asking everyone for their loyalty. Does anyone believe he’s capable of not asking SCOTUS candidates for their loyalty?

Trump has the legal right to nominate for the court. But, he was elected by a minority of the people with help from a government hostile to the United States. He welcomed that help. Do we want his appointments sitting on the court for the next thirty years if it turns out he is guilty?

Religious Republicans and other assorted scary fundamentalists believe their deal with the devil will eventually give them a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe v. Wade. It just might, but that doesn’t appear to be Trump’s first concern with his nomination.

As exhibited by making the announcement at prime time, as if it it’s reality television, Trump’s first concern is for himself. Trump’s selection may be what’s best for Trump. It’s no wonder that even the North Koreans believe they’re dealing with gangsters.

The bar has been lowered for Trump. Even his nominees require fewer votes for confirmation than past nominees. The bar shouldn’t be lowered for the rest of us.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[ergomaniac]

so from reading some tweets, to looking into who tweets them I found some interesting things.

from here, Lincoln's Bible (@LincolnsBible) | Twitter, I found this. There is a man who controls our President. And his name is not Vladimir Putin. this is a fascinating read and I highly recommend everyone at least take a look. putting theses together, What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?... I'm thinking, oh shit!

@Michael Scally MD, doc I was just curious if you were familiar with this article/info, is it already in the thread?

any thoughts from the peanut gallery?