Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

GROUNDED BY SOCIALISM
https://claytoonz.com/2019/03/14/grounded-by-socialism/

A Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed in Ethiopia Sunday, killing eight Americans. On Tuesday, Trump tweeted, not to offer condolences to the victims and families, but to complain that “Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly.”

Trump argued that “old and simpler is far better” than new technology being used in cockpits. He finished up by saying, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!”

I too wouldn’t want Einstein piloting a plane I’m in, because he’s dead. I really don’t want anyone unqualified and without experience at the helm of anything complex and dangerous where one mistake could kill thousands of people…like the presidency. Imagine having a pilot with hands too tiny, insecure that the former pilot was more popular and qualified, all while jacked up on Adderall.

Just like everything else in the world, we really don’t want Trump’s expertise on air travel. This is the guy who wanted his personal pilot of Trump Force One (yeah, that’s what they call it) to head the FAA. Currently, that position remains unfilled because, despite two years on the job, Trump hasn’t nominated anyone.

Sunday’s crash in Ethiopia was the second in five months of a Boeing 737 Max 8, the other being in Indonesia. It’s a newer aircraft and it’s very unusual for these things to go down. Tracking data and evidence from Sunday’s crash revealed parallels to the disaster five months ago in Indonesia. Pilots have been registering complaints about these planes for months.

While the rest of the world was grounding the 737, Trump and the FAA resisted. Trump was lobbied by the CEO of Boeing, Dennis Boeing (I’m assuming that’s his last name), who contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration (which is also under investigation because a lot of that money came from foreign sources, like Russians and disappeared).

Reportedly, Trump was resisting bipartisan calls to ground the planes because he was worried about Boeing’s stocks. He reversed course and shocked the FAA, as they thought they would make the announcement.

Boeing is an American company and the rest of the world is having a hard time trusting America right now. Nobody knows why. Ethiopia rejected requests from the U.S. for the black box from the wreckage and instead sent it to Europe to be examined.

Conservatives freaked out over the Green New Deal, claiming it would ban air travel. The Green New deal calls for building high-speed rail so air travel isn’t as necessary. But if you don’t want the big scary government sticking its nose in your business over using combustible engines, then would you want them telling you what type of Boeings you can fly in? The Green New Deal doesn’t call for taking any planes out of the sky, but Trump just did. Are we Venezuela now?

Why should we allow the government to take away our cheeseburgers while demanding how we get from point A to point B? Isn’t liberty being able to take a farting cow onto an airplane piloted by inflatable Otto from Airplane!

That is unless Otto gets that FAA job.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Madeline Peltz works the night shift at the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America. Given the timing of that particular shift, one of her main responsibilities is watching Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. show on Fox News.

And she’s watched a lot of Tucker Carlson.

Carlson has been in the public eye for some 20 years — first as a print journalist, then a television commentator, founder of the conservative site the Daily Caller, and now, Fox News host, with a prime-time slot and a salary in the millions. But people have been confused by Carlson’s tone on Fox since he took over for Bill O’Reilly in 2018, noting concern about diversity and demographics in his show.

After many Carlson-watching hours, the 24-year-old researcher developed a working theory, which she outlined on the nonprofit’s website: that Carlson is using his platform on Fox News to introduce white-nationalist ideas to the mainstream, making him a uniquely prominent “mouthpiece for white supremacy.”

Peltz dug into his recent past and discovered a trove of appearances he made on shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge’s radio show between 2006 and 2011. She found a series of misogynistic, racist and homophobic remarks Carlson made, the audio of which Media Matters published this week.

In response, Carlson was defiant, casting himself as the victim of “the great American outrage machine,” a mob of power-seeking organizations and people he says are waging a political war to censor him.

In reality, credit for the tapes’ publication is due to Peltz: a 20-something in her first adult job who lives in the basement of a D.C. house she rents with five other people, a few cats and a dog named Noodles.

“I’m not like some high-power-wielding globalist,” Peltz said, adopting the conspiracy-inflected jargon of the far right. “I’m this kid who’s been on the Internet my whole life and knows how to get around it.”

...

Peltz said there’s no doubt in her mind that Carlson has been trying to “thread the needle of mainstreaming overt white nationalism” while also avoiding the consequences for it. She cited well-publicized instances: when Carlson https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/15/tucker-carlson-said-immigration-makes-america-dirtier-so-an-advertiser-took-action/?utm_term=.02bebf97ba04 (said)in December that immigration was making the country “dirtier,” and another segment in which Carlson claimed the South African government was https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2018/08/24/tucker-carlson-walks-back-bogus-south-africa-scaremongering/?utm_term=.1e3e2998fbce (seizing land from white owners), simply because they were white. Carlson has defended that story.

Peltz said she believes the extremism has been escalating.

“It’s clear in the editorial choices that he makes that he covers demographic change as basically the end of white people,” Peltz said. “As someone with one of the largest platforms in media, he frequently portrays himself as a victim. And that’s a long tactic of white nationalists, going back all the way to the civil rights struggle in the South.”

She said Carlson’s response to the audio’s publication is a sign that it had an effect. Media Matters says it has more material; it is not clear if the releases will continue.

“There’s a lot of stuff that I don’t think Fox News is super proud of,” Peltz said. “It just took 10 hours a day [listening to] Bubba the Love Sponge to figure out.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

1. Manafort is done. But this isn't just about him. This is evidence of the fact Mueller and NY State have been coordinating, AS WE KNEW, since Schneiderman and then with Underwood, now with new NY AG.

2. Manafort, in the context of the entire Trump org and Trump family investigation, is just an appetizer. We've been telling you and even mainstream media broke the news that Mueller was coordinating with NY State. More importantly, see how that double jeopardy is NO PROBLEM?

3. Coordination is what solves the double jeopardy problem. You simply don't charge for the SAME EXACT crime at a state level, by knowing what federal prosecutors are going to charge the target with. And this is how the Trump lackey wagon will go down.

4. When news broke about NY state coordinating with Mueller (AND SDNY doing the same, let's not forget, even though SDNY is federal, not state) the logic was to undermine any potential pardons and to catch people for the crimes they committed. We're exactly there.

5. This system doesn't only work for Manafort, it works for ANYONE involved in the Mueller investigation who ALSO committed crimes at a state level. Who ELSE could possibly have committed a flurry of crimes in NY? Let me think... rhymes with bump.

6. A pardon now would damage both Manafort AND Trump, bc if Manafort accepted the pardon, that would mean admitting guilt for the crimes he's been convicted of, making the state case a slam dunk. He'd have to give up 5th Amendment rights AND Trump's obstruction would be blatant.

7. The state charges essentially make a pardon not simply pointless, but potentially damaging for the people involved. And that's why Mueller and Schneiderman had coordinated. And why it went on. Now apply this to Trump and family.

8. The BONUS for Trump and family is that not only NY State but also SDNY can decide to indict TRUMP HIMSELF, as they are under no obligation to follow DoJ memos that establish the behavior of the department.

9. You see why what acting AG Underwood did even with the Trump Foundation matters? You see why EVERY single small piece of the puzzle matters? Bc it's all part of the same design: to hold those who commit crimes responsible, no matter who they are.

10. Many of us have been telling you that Mueller, Rosenstein, Schneiderman, Underwood and NY state in general were MILLIONS of steps ahead of Trump. You now see why. And Manafort is but ONE small piece of the puzzle.

11. It is important to bear in mind that JUSTICE is NOT revenge. If we start seeing justice as revenge, we are no better than Trump. Justice, by its definition, is about what is JUST, not about one's own thirst for revenge. Luckily, the Trump lackey wagon has LOTS to answer for.

12. That means they'll be held responsible for crimes they committed, nothing more and nothing but. Bc at those levels people often manage to escape justice, it's important to notice they WON'T manage to in this case.

13. This is what we should care about: that no matter one's position, including the highest office in the land, people are held responsible if they commit crimes. That's what justice is about. And if one part of the system fails, another one can succeed.

14. And that's why Mueller and Rosenstein started coordinating with Schneiderman long ago. Actually, COMEY started that. Meaning NY State is up to date on EVERY.SINGLE.THING the Trump lackey wagon has been up to. Meaning, in return? STATE charges ready.

15. Notice that Manafort's charges were unsealed, meaning they were there sealed, ready to go whenever necessary. You can rest assured a NUMBER of those sealed indictments are there for Trump & the gang as well. Our friend RICO will come in handy this round, I'm quite sure.

16. I do NOT know what possible sealed indictments are sitting in NY for Trump & the gang, BUT I think it's not a stretch, considering what we know publicly, to consider tax fraud, bank fraud, RICO and the like as part of the possible crimes.

17. We cannot possibly know WHEN anyone who is part of Trump's family circle will be indicted, bc NO person in the know talks timing with certainty, ever. But we CAN have faith in justice. And we MUST fight for democracy and decency meantime. Stay frosty! #MuellerIsComing /END.

Thread by @aliasvaughn: "1. Manafort is done. But this isn't just about him. This is evidence of the fact Mueller and NY State have been coordinating, AS WE KNEW, si […]" #MuellerIsComing

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Let me be clear: I do agree Mueller is just about done with the investigation. He’s waiting on Mystery Appellant, possibly on Andrew Miller’s testimony; he may have been waiting on formal publication of Jerome Corsi’s book yesterday. Multiple other details suggest that Mueller expects to be able to share things in a month that he’s unable to share today.

None of that tells us what will happen in the next few weeks. There is abundant evidence that Trump entered into a quid pro quo conspiracy with Russia, trading dirt and dollars for sanctions relief and other policy considerations. But it’s unclear whether Mueller has certainty that he’d have an 85% chance of winning convictions, which is around what he’d need to convince DOJ to charge it. There is also abundant evidence that Trump and others obstructed the investigation, but charging Trump in that presents constitutional questions.

If Mueller does charge either of those things, I’d still expect him to resign and either retire or move back to WilmerHale and let other prosecutors prosecute it. That’s what Leon Jaworski did in Watergate.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

A New York appellate court ruled Thursday that President Trump must face a defamation lawsuit filed by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, one of about a dozen women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct shortly before the 2016 election.

Trump has called Zervos and the other women who made accusations against him “liars,” prompting Zervos to file a lawsuit in 2017.

Trump’s lawyers https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/appeals-court-denies-trump-request-to-stay-summer-zervos-defamation-case/2018/05/17/bc0656b2-59f5-11e8-858f-12becb4d6067_story.html (have tried unsuccessfully) to block Zervos’s suit, arguing that the president is immune from such lawsuits in state court.

In its ruling Thursday, a panel of New York appellate judges rejected that argument, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Clinton v. Jones, which established that presidents can be sued while in office for unofficial acts. Two of the five judges on the panel dissented in part.

“Contrary to defendant’s contention, Clinton v Jones did not suggest that its reasoning would not apply to state court actions,” the judges said in their majority decision. “It merely identified a potential constitutional concern. Notwithstanding that concern, this Court should not be deterred from holding that a state court can exercise jurisdiction over the President as a defendant in a civil lawsuit.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]