Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[NorthMich]

They have no sole...

 

[Michael Scally MD]

OSLO — Evidence for man-made global warming has reached a "gold standard" level of certainty, adding pressure for cuts in greenhouse gases to limit rising temperatures, scientists said on Monday.

"Humanity cannot afford to ignore such clear signals," the U.S.-led team wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change of satellite measurements of rising temperatures over the past 40 years.

They said confidence that human activities were raising the heat at the Earth's surface had reached a "five-sigma" level, a statistical gauge meaning there is only a one-in-a-million chance that the signal would appear if there was no warming.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

A bipartisan group of 58 former U.S. government national security officials have signed a Joint Declaration that directly challenges President Donald Trump’s proclamation of national emergency to allow the use of billions of dollars in otherwise unavailable funds to build a wall at the southern border. The declarants notably include officials who served in the Trump administration, including the former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, U.S. Ambassador to Panama, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and Assistant Secretary for International Engagement at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The declarants “support the President’s power to mobilize the Executive Branch to respond quickly in genuine national emergencies” but state that “under no plausible assessment of the evidence is there a national emergency today that entitles the President to tap into funds appropriated for other purposes to build a wall at the southern border.”

In eight steps, the joint declaration refutes the factual basis for the President’s emergency declaration, relying, in detail, on “evidence in the public record, including the administration’s own data and estimates,” to show that:

• Illegal border crossings are at near forty-year lows;
• There is no documented terrorist or national security emergency at the southern border;
• There is no emergency related to violent crime at the southern border;
• There is no human or drug trafficking emergency that can be addressed by a wall at the southern border;
• This proclamation will only exacerbate the humanitarian concerns that do exist at the southern border;
• Redirecting funds for the claimed “national emergency” will undermine U.S. national security and foreign policy interests;
• There is no basis for circumventing the appropriations process with a declaration of a national emergency at the southern border; and
• The situation at the border does not require the use of the armed forces, and a wall is unnecessary to support the use of the armed forces.

The last of those propositions has special legal significance. The administration’s plan to transfer $3.6 billion requires not only a declaration of a national emergency, but also a determination that the situation requires use of the armed and that the wall is necessary to support the armed forces.

Finally, although this is not the first declaration of national emergency to receive criticism, the former senior officials argue that this assertion of a national emergency is unprecedented in that it has been invoked to address a situation:

(1) that has been enduring, rather than one that has arisen suddenly; (2) that in fact has improved over time rather than deteriorated; (3) by reprogramming billions of dollars in funds in the face of clear congressional intent to the contrary; and (4) with assertions that are rebutted not just by the public record, but by his agencies’ own official data, documents, and statements.

The full declaration is available here and below.

 

[Bundy55]

Trump timeline?..... that’s easy, another 4 years!! Hahahahaahaaahahaaaaaa

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Have you heard the news?

“HOLD THE DATE!” President Trump tweeted Sunday. “We will be having one of the biggest gatherings in the history of Washington, D.C., on July 4th. It will be called ‘A Salute To America’ and will be held at the Lincoln Memorial. Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite president, me!”

Fireworks in Washington on Independence Day? This is a brilliant idea! It’s a wonder nobody thought of this before.

The Twitterverse replied with various follow-on observances the president could initiate: A party in Times Square on Dec. 31? Mass distribution of candy on Oct. 31? And indeed, executive authority would appear to be boundless in this area:

“We will be having one of the biggest meteorological phenomena in the history of Washington, D.C., at 6:45 am tomorrow. It will be called ‘Sunrise.’ ”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, pleaded Monday to avoid a lengthy prison term that would "likely amount to a life sentence" for his convictions in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Manafort is scheduled to be sentenced twice next month, first by a federal judge in Virginia where he was convicted of tax and bank fraud; then a week later by another federal judge in Washington, where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators. Together, those cases could produce what is effectively a life sentence for the 69-year-old political operative.

Prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller have described Manafort as a "hardened" criminal who "brazenly violated the law" through years of fraud and illicit lobbying work. They have urged both judges to order that he serve a significant prison sentence.

Manafort, who pleaded guilty to two conspiracy charges in the District of Columbia, said the harsh descriptions of his crimes weren't for "murder, drug cartels, organized crime, the Madoff Ponzi scheme or the collapse of Enron." And the charges aren't about "collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia, which was the core of what Mueller's office is investigating, his lawyers argued.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, will for the first time publicly accuse the president of criminal conduct while in office related to a hush-money payment to a porn star, a person familiar with his planned testimony before Congress said.

Appearing on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee, Mr. Cohen also will make public some of Mr. Trump’s private financial statements and allege that Mr. Trump at times inflated or deflated his net worth for business and personal purposes, including avoiding paying property taxes, the person said. The financial statements were developed by Mr. Trump’s accountant, the person said. The Wall Street Journal hasn’t seen those statements.

Mr. Cohen’s testimony is expected to focus on his “behind-the-scenes” accounts of working for Mr. Trump for over a decade, a period during which Mr. Cohen will say he witnessed “lies, racism and cheating” by Mr. Trump, the person said.

Mr. Cohen is expected to recount racist remarks Mr. Trump allegedly made to him, including instances in which Mr. Trump allegedly questioned the intelligence of African-Americans and criticized their lifestyle choices, the person said.

Mr. Cohen’s planned testimony comes 13 months after The Wall Street Journal first reported that Mr. Cohen paid $130,000 in October 2016 to former adult-film star Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, to buy her silence after she alleged having a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

WASHINGTON—The House Judiciary Committee believes it has evidence that President Trump asked Matthew Whitaker, at the time the acting attorney general, whether Manhattan U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman could regain control of his office’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s former lawyer and his real-estate business, according to people familiar with the matter.

...

There is no sign Mr. Whitaker acted on any request from Mr. Trump, which the New York Times reported last week. But the House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether Mr. Whitaker may have perjured himself in his appearance before the panel earlier this month, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. Mr. Whitaker told the panel: “At no time has the White House asked for nor have I provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel’s investigation or any other investigation.”

Any evidence that Mr. Trump sought to intervene in the federal prosecutors’ probe could propel further lines of inquiry by lawmakers into whether he has tried to obstruct the investigation into his business dealings.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

DO THE RIGHT THING
https://claytoonz.com/2019/02/26/do-the-right-thing/

During his acceptance speech for winning an Oscar Sunday night, director Spike Lee said, “The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilize. Let’s all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate.”

Mobilize? Be on the right side of history? Make the moral choice between love and hate? That’s a very uplifting message only a righteous douchebag could get upset over. So…Donald Trump got upset over it and sent out a 6:50 am hate tweet.

Trump tweeted, “Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes, or better yet not have to use notes at all, when doing his racist hit on your President, who has done more for African Americans (Criminal Justice Reform, Lowest Unemployment numbers in History, Tax Cuts,etc.) than almost any other Pres!”

Firstly, how is what Spike Lee said in any way racist toward Trump or anyone else? It’s not like he said he hates Oompa Loompas and doesn’t want any to move into his neighborhood. Second, all the positive numbers for African-Americans since Trump came into office is a continuance of an upward trend started during Obama’s presidency. Trump is continuing his trend of taking credit for “my” president’s accomplishments. Third, if criticizing someone of a different race is racist, then Trump’s tweet was racist. And fourth, Trump’s going to criticize someone else’s reading skills? Seriously?

Lee capped off his statement with, “Do the right thing,” the title of his 1989 movie. Lee is right in that we need to do the right thing and end this nightmare of a president who strives to always do the wrong thing. This is a president who chooses hate over love. He uses hate to feed his base and maintain his dwindling support.

BlackKklansman spoiler in the next paragraph: Lee won his first competitive Oscar, for best adapted screenplay for his great movie BlackKklansman. In the film set in the early 1970s, two of the characters debate whether this nation will ever elect a person like David Duke as president. One of the characters explains that Duke was working to make his hate and racist agenda mainstream. The film ends showing the hate march of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville which killed counter protester Heather Heyer. David Duke endorsed Donald Trump. Trump endorsed the Nazis march in Charlottesville. We elected a man like David Duke.

In 2020. we have to correct this. When we vote in 2020, you and I have to do the right thing.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Special counsel Robert Mueller scored one of the biggest legal wins of his tenure on Tuesday, as a federal appeals court rejected claims that his appointment was unconstitutional.

In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals turned aside arguments that Mueller wields so much power as a special prosecutor that he should have been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

The appeals court judges also found no flaw in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s appointment of Mueller in the wake of the recusal of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The court said that because the attorney general can repeal the regulations used to appoint Mueller at any time, he remains under the control of a Cabinet official.

“Special Counsel Mueller effectively serves at the pleasure of an Executive Branch officer who was appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate,” Judge Judith Rogers wrote, joined by Judges Sri Srinivasan and Karen Henderson.

 

[Michael Scally MD]