Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

HATER PURGE
Hater Purge

Last Friday, Donald Trump tweeted, “I am continuing to monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms. This is the United States of America — and we have what’s known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH! We are monitoring and watching, closely!!” He also accused Facebook of mistreating Diamond & Silk, a couple of Trump sycophants who have a fan page on the platform. Trump tweeted that they’ve been “treated so horribly by Facebook” and “we’re looking into it.”

Trump doesn’t have time to bring up election meddling in an hour-long phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin, where somehow he was able to see that Putin was smiling, but he has plenty of time to monitor the “censorship of American citizens” on social media platforms and time to “look into it.”

Donald Trump does NOT care about censorship. In fact, he’s all for it as he’s threatened the First Amendment and press freedoms multiple times. He’s stated the press should be sued for “fake news,” which is news he doesn’t like, and that the press shouldn’t be allowed to publish whatever they want.

What Trump doesn’t like is when social media limits or kicks conspiracy theorists and hate mongers, who are supporters of his, to the curb. He proved that the other night in his outrage and tweetstorm over Facebook and Instagram kicking off haters, racists, Nazi lovers, and conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Nehlen, and Laura Loomer. Louis Farrakhan was also expunged from the platforms but Trump didn’t mention him. Gee, I wonder why.

I have had cartoons removed by Instagram and one video removed by YouTube. When that happens, I get annoyed because whoever made that decision can’t tell the difference between hate-mongering and content attacking hate-mongering. Sheesh. Usually, when this happens, I don’t get too angry or upset as it’s pretty much out of my hands. I’ll make the removal public information and move on with my life. But even when I feel the removal is unjustified I don’t call it censorship…because it’s not.

“Censorship” is a very popular charge when something you like is removed. But 99% of the time, it’s not censorship. The same people who scream that a baker should be allowed to refuse customers ordering gay wedding cakes also scream that privately-owned platform should provide every fucknut in the world an outlet for their hate and fear mongering.

If I kick you out of my house because you dropped an N-bomb, I didn’t deprive you of your freedom of speech. The same goes for the comments on this website. You can still drop N-bombs in this country, but I don’t have an obligation to provide you an outlet for it. Neither does Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter. Yes, they are public platforms but they’re not government owned.

Trump and conservatives only care about their freedom of speech, not yours. This is also another opportunity for the crowd that loves to accuse liberals of being “snowflakes” to act like snowflakes. White Republicans love to play the victims while they’re beating down on other people. Republicans are the whiniest, thin-skinned babies on the planet. If they don’t have something to have actual outrage over, they’ll invent one.

Many of the people removed by social media were spreading false information and hate. Right-wing actor and crazy pants James Woods has been removed from Twitter for posting content they believe incites violence. Donald Trump has retweeted hate videos and false information from AltRight hate groups. One of his supporters mailed bombs to Democrats, critics, and journalists who Trump has attacked on Twitter. A Pittsburgh synagogue was shot up, killing eleven, by a man who had posted the same wolf whistles, keywords, and conspiracy theories shared by Trump.

Donald Trump shares fake information. He’s a fear mongerer and he incites violence. Even after violence occurs, he doesn’t stop. Donald Trump is the hater president who actively seeks to divide this nation. He has not been banned by Twitter.

There is not a law that says a sitting president can’t be indicted. It’s just a Justice Department policy. Just as stupid is Twitter’s apparent policy that a sitting president can’t be banned from their platform, no matter how much he advocates for his followers to commit violence.

Twitter has removed thousands of bots from Trump’s followers which has enraged him. He needs all the followers he can get, even the fake ones if he’s ever going to catch up to Obama’s number of followers. What Twitter needs to do while removing the bots is to go after the Russian trolls, like Donald Trump.

Twitter, put your money where your mouth is and ban Donald Trump. His tweetstorm over that would be epic…oh wait.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Imagine that you live in a town that has been taken over by gangsters. The mayor is a crook and so are the district attorney and police chief. You can’t fight city hall. But at least you know you can turn for help to the state or federal government. Now imagine that it’s not a city or state that has been taken over by criminals — it’s the federal government. Where do you turn for help? That is not a theoretical concern. After the release of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report, it’s our grim reality.

Even before Mueller’s probe ended, federal prosecutors in New York had https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/07/government-implicates-trump-trump-campaign-federal-campaign-finance-law-violations/?utm_term=.6a769ede7a9f (implicated President Trump) in ordering his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to violate federal campaign finance laws. Mueller then documented at least six ironclad incidents of obstruction of justice by Trump along with numerous instances of misconduct that, while not criminal, are definitely impeachable. The New York Review of Books reported that two prosecutors working for Mueller said that if Trump weren’t president, he would have been indicted.

Now the administration is obstructing attempts to bring the president to justice for obstruction of justice. William P. Barr isn’t the attorney general; he is, as David Rothkopf said, the obstructor general. We now know that Mueller wrote (in Barr’s description) a https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/01/william-barrs-snitty-slip-up-gives-away-his-game/?utm_term=.8a5eeda7efe9 (“snitty” letter)objecting that Barr’s deceptive summary of his work, designed to falsely exonerate Trump, “threatens to undermine … public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

(CNN)A showdown between the White House and House Democrats over the release of President Donald Trump's personal tax returns comes down to one man: Charles Rettig, head of the Internal Revenue Service.

Rettig, 62, a veteran California tax attorney, spent more than 35 years representing taxpayers in disputes with federal and state tax agencies until he was sworn in as IRS commissioner last October.

That makes him the only person in Washington with the authority to turn over the President's personal tax returns under an obscure tax law -- though Rettig has argued in hearings that the decision to comply with Democratic requests nonetheless rests with his boss, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Trump has refused to release his returns, first as a candidate and now as president, breaking precedent going back to Watergate. And he has held fast to that argument even after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts formally asked Rettig to release six years of Trump's personal tax returns.

The latest deadline is Monday, after Mnuchin asked for more time to consult with Department of Justice lawyers.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has reportedly agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15, according to Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline.

The committee member confirmed the agreement to Fox News Sunday. “A tentative date has been set for May 15 and we hope the Special Counsel will appear,” Cicilline told Fox News Sunday. “We think the American people have a right to hear directly from him.”

Cicilline said the date is consided tentative because even though Mueller’s representatives have “signed off” on it, “until the day comes, we never have an absolute guarantee.”

Cicilline also told the network that Trump has not ojected. “The White House has so far indicated they would not interfere with Mr. Mueller's attempts to testify.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

President Trump tweeted on Sunday that tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods will be raised from 10% to 25% on Friday, as trade talks between the U.S. and China progress "too slowly."

For 10 months, China has been paying Tariffs to the USA of 25% on 50 Billion Dollars of High Tech, and 10% on 200 Billion Dollars of other goods. These payments are partially responsible for our great economic results. The 10% will go up to 25% on Friday. 325 Billions Dollars of additional goods sent to us by China remain untaxed, but will be shortly, at a rate of 25%. The Tariffs paid to the USA have had little impact on product cost, mostly borne by China. The Trade Deal with China continues, but too slowly, as they attempt to renegotiate. No!

The backdrop: In February, U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer told Congress that the U.S. had temporarily dropped its plans to raise the tariff rate to 25%, as the two sides inched closer to striking a deal.

• Reality check: Trump has repeatedly claimed that tariffs have caused China to pay billions of dollars to the U.S. treasury. This is incorrect. The tariffs are paid by U.S. importers of affected Chinese goods, not by China's government or by Chinese companies. Importers then either raise costs on consumers, lower their own profit margins or both.

Driving the news: Chinese Vice Premier Liu He — along with a 100+ person delegation — will be in Washington on Wednesday, per the https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-china-trade-talks-race-to-finish-trump-may-settle-for-less/2019/05/02/df906290-6d12-11e9-be3a-33217240a539_story.html?utm_term=.143b16fd2972 (Washington Post), for another round of trade talks. Sources have told CNBC that a trade deal could possibly come as soon as Friday, a day after the latest numbers on the U.S. trade deficit are released, though Trump's latest tweets suggest otherwise.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

But the most significant development for Trump’s 2020 reelection bid is something else that came into clear focus over the course of the week: The president has a plan for survival. It involves essentially shredding the Constitution, demolishing the government of “checks and balances” that was envisioned by the Founders, and promoting a crisis that will leave Americans angry and, at least psychologically, poised for a civil war. That sounds scary but the scariest part is: It just might work: Not for the nation, of course, but for Trump, which in Trumpland is the only outcome that matters.

And somewhere in an underworld ringed by fire, Trump’s evil-genius late mentor Roy Cohn is looking upward and smiling over how well he taught his protégé.

It was Manhattan attorney and fixer Cohn who took a young developer out of Queens in the 1970s and ’80s and taught Trump the strategies that Cohn had engineered at the right hand of 1950s’ Red-baiter Sen. Joe McCarthy: Deny everything. Admit nothing. Never apologize. When challenged, unleash massive retaliation – including a barrage of lawsuits and legal challenges, no matter how frivolous –without any concern toward how bad or embarrassing that might look ... or what innocent bystander gets caught in the crossfire.

...

That fear – that Trump won’t accept a 2020 defeat unless maybe if the election is a blowout – is increasingly voiced by leaders like Pelosi, and it’s a totally valid concern. But the reality is that American democracy may well be in tatters long before we reach that moment. Presidential abuses of power, the nonstop violations of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, Trump floating above the law as “Individual-1” in a felony that sent his lawyer to prison, the throttling of Congress’ constitutionally mandated oversight role, and packing both the Justice Department and the judiciary itself with Trump acolytes is already well underway, and is plowing through the guardrails that had kept the American Experiment on its sometimes wobbly route.

There’s no good road map for the Democrats – or for anyone who cares about the future of this country – to navigate this. But there is a moral path. That would be to defend the Constitution, and the fundamental tenets of a functioning democracy, with the same all-out, no-holds-barred intensity that Trump uses to save his own spray-tanned skin. If impeachment is the only moral course, pursue that – steadfastly, and without fear.


There are two clear advantages to doing the right thing. 1) Courage and boldness will help unite The 54 Percent, which last time I checked is greater than 46 percent if (unlike 2016) it sticks together. 2) You’ll be doing the right thing.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]