Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

Now, the president’s repeatedly stated desire to withdraw from NATO is raising new worries among national security officials amid growing concern about Mr. Trump’s efforts to keep his meetings with Mr. Putin secret from even his own aides, and an F.B.I. investigation into the administration’s Russia ties.

A move to withdraw from the alliance, in place since 1949, “would be one of the most damaging things that any president could do to U.S. interests,” said Michèle A. Flournoy, an under secretary of defense under President Barack Obama.

“It would destroy 70-plus years of painstaking work across multiple administrations, Republican and Democratic, to create perhaps the most powerful and advantageous alliance in history,” Ms. Flournoy said in an interview. “And it would be the wildest success that Vladimir Putin could dream of.”

Retired Adm. James G. Stavridis, the former supreme allied commander of NATO, said an American withdrawal from the alliance would be “a geopolitical mistake of epic proportion.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

When the partial federal government shutdown began on December 22, it came practically out of nowhere. In the past, Donald Trump groused about how funding bills failed to provide money for his much-hyped wall along the southern border, but he signed them anyway, including one in late September.

This time, however, he stuck to his demand for the wall, and the resulting shutdown, now the longest in US history, has had serious consequences: Food inspections are less frequent, scientific labs have shut down, Native American tribes lack money for essential needs, and border and airport security officers are working without pay when they're not calling in sick.

On Friday, roughly 800,000 federal employees missed their first paycheck of the shutdown, putting their finances in jeopardy.

The worst aspect of this shutdown is that all this pain was entirely avoidable. That the country has reached this point is an indictment of Trump's ability to make deals with the opposition, read public opinion, and determine which fights are worthwhile—in other words, it reflects his core ineptitude at the routine business of governing.

Trump has boxed himself into a position he can't get out of because at a very basic level, he has no idea what he's doing. This may not seem all that shocking after nearly two years of Trump's presidency and an entire career of business failure and bluster before that.

But it's worth pausing to reflect on the lack of anything resembling a coherent political strategy here, even as regular Americans are left to suffer.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Big_paul]

Who's going to pay for the wall? Mexico.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[hunterbro]

I love Trump......lol..


thought I'd shake it up a little from the metal insanity of posting thousands of posts for little or no reason.

 

[Swiper]

I love Trump......lol..


thought I'd shake it up a little from the metal insanity of posting thousands of posts for little or no reason.

haven’t you heard Trump is a Russian spy, they found collusion, and trump obstructed justice. that’s big news, you got to keep up. ha ha