Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday that the panel has voted to release all witness transcripts related to the Russia investigation to the Department of Justice and special counsel Robert Mueller.

Why it matters: Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone and former personal attorney Michael Cohen have both been indicted for lying to the committee. Schiff has previously said that he would like Mueller to review the transcripts to determine whether other witnesses, including Donald Trump Jr. and Erik Prince, may have also lied during their testimonies.

Now that Democrats are in the House majority, Schiff said the renewed investigation will examine...

1. “The scope and scale of the Russian government’s operations to influence the U.S. political process, and the U.S. government’s response, during and since the 2016 election.”
2. “The extent of any links and/or coordination between the Russian government, or related foreign actors, and individuals associated with Donald Trump’s campaign, transition, administration, or business interests, in furtherance of the Russian government’s interests.”
3. “Whether any foreign actor has sought to compromise or holds leverage, financial or otherwise, over Donald Trump, his family, his business, or his associates.”
4. "Whether President Trump, his family, or associates are/were at heightened risk of, or vulnerable to, foreign exploitation, inducement, manipulation, pressure, or coercion.”
5. “Whether any actors — foreign or domestic — sought or are seeking to impede obstruct, and/or mislead authorized investigations into these matters, including those in Congress"

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Fear not, America—the women are coming to save you. If there was any one message that was coherent and all-encompassing to take from the spectacle of Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, it was that. The Resistance is real and meaningful, and it’s being led by women.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi performed with mastery from her seat behind and above the presidential podium, most notably with an epic clap-back that landed practically in the face of President Donald J. Trump, our pussy-grabber-in-chief. From her perch, she conducted her chorus of exuberant white-clad congresswomen like a maestro. All while saying nary a word.

Trump had apparently bet that in silence, the speaker would be robbed of her power. He couldn’t even bear to have her gavel him in, couldn’t stand to hear his introduction come out of the mouth of the woman who controls the largest federal legislative body. So as she stood with the gavel, poised to announce her honor and privilege in introducing the president of the United States, he launched into his speech. He’s lucky she didn’t rule him out of order—because he was. Despite having just endured such disrespect, Pelosi exercised her duties with a fierce grace that has already generated a viral meme.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Teaching an abstinence-only approach to https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/sex-education (sex education) in the US has a perverse effect, according to a new meta-analysis.

In an effort to identify the relationship between federal funding of sex education and the adolescent birth rate, researchers looked at pregnancy rates for women aged 15 to 19 between 1998 and 2016. The findings concluded that abstinence-only education is ineffective in decreasing teenage pregnancies.

According to the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, funding for abstinence-only education “had no effect on adolescent birth rates overall.”

Rather, in conservative states, researchers found the education contributed to an increase in teenage pregnancies.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

But since the political rise of Donald Trump, I’ve found myself at first deeply disappointed and now often at odds with the GOP. The party of Reagan has been fundamentally transformed. It’s now Donald Trump’s party, through and through.

That’s turned out to be quite a problem for me, because from the moment he announced his run for the presidency, I believed that Trump was intellectually, temperamentally, and psychologically unfit to be president. Indeed, I warned the GOP about Trump back in 2011, when I wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal decrying his claim that Barack Obama was not born in America.

From time to time, people emerge who are peddlers of paranoia and who violate unwritten codes that are vital to a self-governing society, I wrote, adding, “They delight in making our public discourse more childish and freakish, focusing attention on absurdities rather than substantive issues, and stirring up mistrust among citizens. When they do, those they claim to represent should speak out forcefully against them.”

Instead of rejecting him, however, the Republican Party eventually nominated Donald Trump. ...

Today I see the Republican Party through the clarifying prism of Donald Trump, who consistently appealed to the ugliest instincts and attitudes of the GOP base—in 2011, when he entered the political stage by promoting a racist conspiracy theory, and in 2016, when he won the GOP nomination. He’s done the same time and time again during his presidency—his attacks on the intelligence of black politicians, black journalists, and black athletes; his response to the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia; and his closing argument during the midterm elections, when he retweeted a racist ad that even Fox News would not run.

It would be deeply unfair to claim that most Republicans are bigots. But it is fair to say that most Republicans today are willing to tolerate without dissent, and in many cases enthusiastically support, a man whose appeal is based in large part on stoking racial and ethnic resentments, on attacking “the other.” That has to be taken into account. At a minimum, their moral reflexes have been badly dulled.

It’s impossible for me to know with any precision how much of the Republican base is motivated by ethnic nationalism and racial resentments and anxieties, but it’s certainly a higher percentage than I’d thought. A conservative friend of mine recently had a meal with a prominent Republican officeholder who, when asked what explained Trump’s growing appeal in his state, told my friend it was in reaction to Obama and it was mainly a matter of race.

...

I certainly don’t have problems with those who decide to stay in a party in order to improve it. There is even something admirable about doing so. If the GOP were to embrace a humane, aspirational conservatism—one that seeks to defend truth rather than to deconstruct it—I would certainly be open to returning to the fold. But whether I ever do or not, what troubles me in the here and now are those who, having decided to stay in the Republican Party, are allowing that affiliation to seriously impair their moral judgments and intellectual standards; to lead them to enable those in power to do grave damage to our civic and political culture; and to encourage them to protect a Republican president for acting in ways that they would condemn in any Democratic president.

The Republican Party, like all parties, has its flaws. While I was within it, those flaws were harder to perceive or acknowledge; from the outside, I see them more clearly. I’ve lost something, though, by my present alienation from the party. If I’m one day able to return, I hope that I’ll bring the compensating gifts of greater insight and critical distance back with me. And if I don’t, I like to think that the things I’ve gained still outweigh the things I’ve lost.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Morning epiphany: @emptywheel was right and the whole Carter Page - Man of Mystery - was an elaborate distraction, an illusion used by the magician to make us look for fake conspiracy instead of at the real one. The Russians were clearly onto Steele and fed...(1/14)

Disinfo into the dossier. Once you remove that fog and dead ends of those pieces (Rosneft, pee tapes, etc.), the complexity of the conspiracy becomes simplified and crystal clear. It goes something like this and I'll start with Mike Flynn's texts to illustrate: (2/14)

“Mike has been putting everything in place for us,” Copson told the informant, according to Cummings. “This is going to make a lot of wealthy people.” Flynn texted during inauguration to suggest Russia sanctions would end, Democrat says

That's the whole point. It was never about espionage. It was about money. Trump had one job: to lift sanctions when he became POTUS. Once the sanctions were lifted, every corrupt bastard in his orbit was going to make a lot of money... (4/14)

Trump did not need to be involved or even know of each separate conspiracy and each criminal undertaking (Flynn's nuclear plant, Manafort's pay off to Deripaska, etc.). He had his own bribe: Trump Tower Moscow and he needed it, because once again...(5/14)

He was near bankruptcy. A deal was made in which he would make a lot of money and all he had to do was run for POTUS. He would be helped along the way. He did not need to be read into how he would be helped. But he knew there was help and where it came from...(6/14)

And then something unexpected happened. The USIC/USLE made public that Russia had hacked the DNC. Suddenly, team Trump realized the "how" of the help. They panicked... deals were being called off, a frenzy of meetings and discussions were had... (7/14)

I think team Trump really did not grasp how deeply they were now compromised and that is why Trump began to insist that there was no collusion. In his mind, he did not know or tell the Russians to do what they did specifically. He does not realize (even now) ...(8/14)

That by making the deal with the devil (regardless of not knowing the particular details of what the devil would do), he was already compromised and that everything the devil did implicates him. Not only that, everything every other crook ...(9/14)

Did to profit off of the lifted sanctions also implicates him, even if he did not know of each crime or each criminal activity. Let me put it this way. Trump's job was to unlock the house for the thieves. He did not need to know what each thief was going to take...(10/14)

Or what each thief was going to do or even who the thieves were. That is why there are so many side conspiracies that seem to involve every aspect of his personal and professional life. Like putting his name on a building, he need not know what goes on inside...(11/14)

But by agreeing to the bribe (Trump Moscow) and taking the stolen keys (without even thinking where those keys came from) and by opening the door, he is responsible 4 everything that happened as a result. He believes "there was no collusion" in terms of what went...(12/14)

On in the hypothetical house. He probably did not know about Flynn's little side deal or Manafort's side deal or Cohen's side deals. In his mind, he had nothing to do with any of this. But that is not true, is it? He unlocked the door in exchange for millions in property. (13/14)

He committed the main crime from which all the other crimes were born.I woke up this morning marveling at the the elegant simplicity of all of this. It really is about the money and just the money. I really think he hoped to lose the election once things got real (IMHO). (14/14).

Thread by @larisa_a: "Morning epiphany: @emptywheel was right and the whole Carter Page - Man of Mystery - was an elaborate distraction, an illusion used by the m […]"

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[T-Bagger]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

tRumpFuckingIdiots, tRumplings, ...

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who doesn't regularly read the daily intelligence summary prepared for him, is also participating in relatively few in-person briefings from his spy agencies, according to intelligence officials and a review of his schedules.

It's the latest indication that Trump does not consistently rely on the information and analysis provided to him by the $80 billion a year U.S. intelligence-gathering apparatus.

A series of recently published presidential schedules show that he has been in just 17 intelligence briefings over the last 85 days. That's about the same frequency as two of his predecessors, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, according to a former CIA briefer who has written a book on the subject. But unlike those former presidents, Trump does not regularly read the written intelligence briefing sent over each day to the White House, U.S. officials tell NBC News, and in private he frequently questions the integrity and judgment of the intelligence officials who are giving him secret information.

Trump has also done that publicly. Last week, after intelligence officials publicly contradicted him, Trump tweeted that his top spies should "go back to school," and in an interview with CBS News Sunday, he acknowledged that he frequently disagreed with his intelligence advisers.

When Trump believes something to be true, U.S. officials tell NBC News, it's extremely difficult for them to dissuade him, even if they have a mountain of evidence he is wrong. And when he doubts something they are telling him, he often requires iron-clad proof of a type that is rarely available from intelligence collection.