Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

THE STOCK MARKET has experienced its worst performance in December since the early 1930s. Despite brisk holiday shopping, the usual Santa Claus rally was canceled, in part thanks to a grinch named Steve Mnuchin.

The treasury secretary’s inexplicable maneuver on Christmas Eve eve, announcing that he convened meetings — by phone, from Cabo — with the six largest banks and was reassured that America faced no liquidity problems, when nobody was particularly concerned that we did, sent markets into a volatile tailspin. It was as if the contractor you hired to fix a sticky door told you that your roof was probably in no immediate danger of collapse; that wasn’t your preoccupation before, but it is now.

The stock market is not the economy, as long as jobs and paychecks continue to be strong. This was an unforced error that temporarily snagged the 16 percent of America that actually own stocks. But Mnuchin’s boneheaded actions reflected his dominant characteristics. He is a sycophant willing to debase himself, no matter how strongly, at the altar of Donald Trump. The president has convinced himself that the Federal Reserve is ruining his economy (and, like a stopped clock, he’s https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/11/29/does-trump-get-one-thing-right-about-fed/?utm_term=.4f64b3ae96c1 (not totally wrong)), and Mnuchin’s pronouncement of financial stability made no sense outside of a vain need to show his boss that everything was actually fine — or, at least, that Mnuchin was doing things.

But the sycophancy in this case mashed up with Mnuchin’s other main trait: He’s a rather dim gentleman. Anyone who doesn’t recognize the implications of springing on the public an announcement that banks most certainly have ample liquidity isn’t operating with a shed full of all the tools needed to do this job. And, sadly for the country, this is part of a pattern.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

For two years, they formed a community of experts, about 1,000 in all, including 300 leading climate scientists inside and outside 13 federal agencies. For two years, they volunteered their time and expertise to produce the Fourth National Climate Assessment.

There is no parallel process to tackle the questions I study; there is no ongoing national racial assessment mandated by a law summarizing the impact of racism on the United States, now and in the future. Still, I can relate to these climate scientists.

From U.S. national assessments to the global assessments of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate scientists have been pumping out warnings for decades. Each warning about what will happen if there is not “substantial and sustained reductions in global greenhouse-gas emissions” has been more dreadful than the last. I can relate to their continuous stand on scientific certainty, their continuous travel toward scientific discovery, and their quest to cultivate and defend humanity from humanity. “I’m for humans,” the climate scientist Andrea Dutton recently tweeted.

The first volume of their Fourth National Climate Assessment, released last year, concluded that there is “no convincing alternative explanation” for global warming other than “human activities, especially emissions of greenhouses gases.” This year’s second volume, released into the mad dash of Black Friday sales and family reunions, stated, “More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities.”

“I don’t believe it,” President Donald Trump said in response. “No. No. I don’t believe it.”

I have heard this before. I can relate.

“No. No. I’m not racist,” Trump has said repeatedly. Evidence be damned.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used his new year address on Tuesday to deliver a warning to the US that he might have to seek a “new path” if Washington failed to ease economic sanctions.

While signalling his willingness to meet President Donald Trump again, Mr Kim said he might be “compelled to explore a new path” to defend North Korea’s sovereignty if the US “seeks to force something upon us unilaterally . . . and remains unchanged in its sanctions and pressure”.

In the closely watched televised speech, Mr Kim said he was “firmly” committed to denuclearisation and stressed that North Korea would no longer produce nuclear weapons. But he urged the US to take corresponding measures to make faster progress on denuclearisation and warned that Washington should not test Pyongyang’s patience with continued pressure.

The North Korean leader called for the US to “completely” stop joint military exercises with South Korea involving strategic military assets. He also proposed multilateral negotiations to bring permanent peace to the Korean peninsula, in place of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean war.

 

[Swiper]

ha ha

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Hong Kong (CNN)Xi Jinping called on Taiwan to reject independence and embrace "peaceful reunification" with China, in a conciliatory speech that nevertheless took a hard line on the self-governing island's political sovereignty and freedoms.

The Chinese President's Wednesday address was a far cry from one he gave in March last year, in which he said "not a single inch of our land" could be ceded from China, adding the country was prepared to "fight the bloody battle against our enemies."

By contrast, the latest speech -- marking 40 years since a key policy document opened the door for rapprochement between Beijing and Taipei -- was largely procedural, even outlining how a future system would respect Taiwanese people's "private assets, religions, beliefs and legitimate rights," as Xi attempted to portray the future unification of China and Taiwan as an inevitability.

"Reunification is the historical trend and the right path, Taiwan independence is ... a dead end," he said.

Taiwan has been de facto independent from mainland China since the end of the country's civil war in 1949 when the losing nationalist government fled to Taipei. China's Communist Party has always maintained that Taiwan is part of its territory and vowed to pursue reunification, vacillating between building economic and social ties with the island and threatening it militarily.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

DR. PIMPLE POPPER
https://claytoonz.com/2019/01/02/dr-pimple-popper/

No. I did not pull this out of my butt. Doctor Pimple Popper is actually a thing. If you haven’t heard about it before, now you will.

Anytime something new enters the pop culture lexicon, political cartoonists think, “can I use this for a cartoon”? It’s something I had to train my brain to do when I first started cartooning, and I’m still working on it. Sometimes, I have to see it three or four times before it occurs to me that it might be a cartoon. My brain can be slow. That was the case with Dr. Pimple Popper.

Doc Popper is pretty new for pop culture despite being around since 2010. I’m sure my use of it with this cartoon will make a few other cartoonists think, “why didn’t I think of that?” Every cartoonist, including myself have done that. As for being the first to use this reference, it helps that most of my colleagues haven’t returned to their drawing tables yet after the holidays. Lazy bastards.

Instead of thinking about a cartoon the first time I saw a reference to Dr. Pimple Popper, I thought, “EW! I don’t want to see that.” When I was a teenager, I felt like god was punishing my face with acne. I really felt persecuted. My son got it even worse than I did, which made me feel guilty as hell. I have seen enough acne treatment to last two lifetimes, which is how long it does seem to last. So, I don’t need to see any television shows about popping pimples. I’m good.

But, guess what. There’s a TV show about popping pimples. Right when I’m wondering how many seasons The Walking Dead can get out of killing zombies, Dr. Pimple Popper has been renewed for a second season. But, hey. If Honey Boo Boo can get fives seasons, why can’t pimples get two?

Dr. Sandra Lee is Dr. Pimple Popper. She started uploading videos to YouTube of popping pimples in 2010. From that, she got her own TV show. Meanwhile, my YouTube channel of these cartoons being drawn and my witty commentary only has 254 subscribers after nearly a year. Pimples are more popular than my cartoons.

Dr. Lee’s show started on TLC (which I’m sure stands for something) back in July. The second season starts later this month. Last month, it had its own Christmas special. IT HAD ITS OWN CHRISTMAS SPECIAL! What did they call it, “Its a zitty Christmas, Charlie Brown?”

Our nation is experiencing a breakout of stupidity and just really bad taste. People are famous for being famous. It shouldn’t surprise me that we’re watching reality shows about popping pimples when our president was a reality show celebrity endorsed by Duck Dynasty reality celebrities. Are we living in a Simpson’s episode? When you think about it, it’s shocking there isn’t a Kardashian in the United States Senate.

Hopefully, Robert Mueller pops that one great big, giant, racist zit that’s revealed the ugliness of our nation, but I’m not sure anything can save us from the rest of the outbreak that are Trump sycophants.