Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

View attachment 112131

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama lawmakers voted Tuesday to ban virtually all abortions in the state — including for victims of rape and incest — sending the strictest law in the nation to the state’s Republican governor, who is expected to sign it.

The measure permits abortion only when necessary to save a mother’s life, an unyielding standard that runs afoul of federal court rulings. Those who backed the new law said they don’t expect it to take effect, instead intending its passage to be part of a broader strategy by antiabortion activists to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide.

The Alabama bill, which passed 25-6, is even more restrictive than prior state-level abortion laws, and it includes a penalty of up to 99 years in prison for doctors who perform abortions. Six of the Senate’s Democrats voted against the bill — one abstained — and they staged a filibuster into Tuesday night after debating the bill for more than four hours, with senators discussing the role government should play in legislating what a woman can do with her body and the definition of life.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama lawmakers voted Tuesday to ban virtually all abortions in the state — including for victims of rape and incest — sending the strictest law in the nation to the state’s Republican governor, who is expected to sign it.

The measure permits abortion only when necessary to save a mother’s life, an unyielding standard that runs afoul of federal court rulings. Those who backed the new law said they don’t expect it to take effect, instead intending its passage to be part of a broader strategy by antiabortion activists to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide.

The Alabama bill, which passed 25-6, is even more restrictive than prior state-level abortion laws, and it includes a penalty of up to 99 years in prison for doctors who perform abortions. Six of the Senate’s Democrats voted against the bill — one abstained — and they staged a filibuster into Tuesday night after debating the bill for more than four hours, with senators discussing the role government should play in legislating what a woman can do with her body and the definition of life.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

SHAVE YOUR TOADYISM
Shave Your Toadyism

William Barr is NOT acting as the Attorney General and is instead working as Donald Trump’s personal defender.

He deflected the Mueller Report. He held onto it for three weeks after he issued his misleading memo. When asked how Mueller felt about his memo, Barr lied and said he didn’t know despite having received two letters and one phone call from Mueller telling him that he didn’t like it. When I was a teenager, a girl’s father once threatened to shoot me if he ever caught me climbing into his daughter’s window again, but other than that comment I’m not sure how he felt about me.

Barr also quibbled when asked if anyone in the White House asked him to investigate the investigators. William Barr has engaged in a coverup and is now doing Donald Trump’s bidding, which is using the Justice Department to go after his political enemies.

The Justice Department is now investigating how the FBI conducted its investigation into Russia’s meddling and involvement in the Trump campaign. We’re now going after people for going after Russian spies.

Donald Trump promised during the presidential campaign that he would use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies. His first AG didn’t work out in that regard so he fired him to install a genuine toady in the position. This is where William Barr entered the picture.

Trump says we need to move on from the investigations into Russia. All investigations are bad except investigations into investigations.

We are now a banana republic without the bananas.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

It was reported on Monday that the Trump administration has concocted a plan that involves sending 120,000 troops to the Middle East to counter a potential Iranian attack on American forces. Whatever threat may exist is almost entirely of the president’s own design.

Since Trump rebuffed allies, experts and his own administration in removing the United States from the Iran nuclear deal last year, tension between the two nations has escalated steadily. Both have seemed especially jittery in the past few months as the U.S. continues to ramp up sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy.

But it seems like the threat of military aggression from Iran isn’t what the Trump administration wants people to believe. On Tuesday, a British military official told reporters at the Pentagon that there isn’t evidence Iran is any more of a threat that it has been in the past.

“We are aware of their presence clearly and we monitor them along with a whole range of others because of the environment we are in,” said Major General Chris Ghika, adding that “there has been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq or Syria.”

According to the New York Times, these early machinations for conflict have largely been set in motion by National Security Adviser John Bolton, a war hawk who supported the invasion of Iraq and unsuccessfully pushed George W. Bush to take action against Iran.

The plan to send 120,000 troops was reportedly his idea, as has been the idea that military action against Iran could soon be warranted. The Timesnotes that, according to intelligence and military officials in both the United States and Europe, “most aggressive moves have originated not in Tehran but in Washington — where Bolton has prodded Trump into backing Iran into a corner.”

One American official said, according to the paper, that the intelligence supporting the idea that Iran is a threat is “small stuff,” and that Bolton wants to goad Iran into taking action against American forces, thus, in his mind, justifying a military response. ...

 

[Michael Scally MD]

JR. JEOPARDY
Jr. Jeopardy

James Holzhauer is on a 22-game winning streak on Jeopardy (in case you’re a Republican, that’s a game show). Holzhauer has accumulated $1.7 million in winnings and has given the game show higher ratings than, get this, The Big Bang Theory and hold on to your lugnuts, Game of Thrones. No shit.

Holzhauer owns the 10 highest single-day winnings in the show’s history, but he doesn’t own the record for most Jeopardy money…yet. That honor belongs to Ken Jennings.

James Holzhauer and Ken Jennings are smart. They have big brains. Let’s talk about someone who does not.

After being subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Donald Trump Jr has agreed to limited questioning from the senators. Wait. How the hell did that happen? He gets a subpoena and agrees to limited questions? Have you ever been called to court and refused or negotiated your terms on testifying? Even Marisa Tomei didn’t get that deal in My Cousin Vinny. Is this a nation built to serve rich douchebags or what?

The deal is, Trumpy Jr will testify if the topics are limited to a half dozen to maybe a dozen (depending on which source you use), and he only has to stay two to four hours. He’s a busy guy who doesn’t have time for accountability. He has a shyster corporation to run, big game animals to shoot, and conspiracy theories and Nazis to retweet.

Trump Jr. refused to be questioned by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team. For some reason, Mueller didn’t subpoena him. He testified once before the Senate in a private session and later agreed to return, which he reneged on.

Daddy Trump has wailed that his son is being mistreated and that he had already testified in private for hours upon hours. Yeah, that’s why he’s gotta come back. It’s that testimony that’s raised questions. The Mueller Report contains testimony from more than one witness that contradicts Jr. If you tell the cops you didn’t do something and then ten people contradict you, the cops are probably going to want to talk to you again.

Like his father, Junior has a history of lying. Before news of the Trump Tower meeting came out, he was on Fox News denying there was ever ANY contacts with Russia, and how dare anyone ask if there were.

Junior is a liar. He makes shit up. He retweets antisemitic theories on George Thoros. He gives interviews to people who believe in white genocide. He compares immigrants to Skittles. He’s almost as horrible as his father. Maybe by the time he’s 72, he’ll be just as bad and have his very own failed hair transplant, and pornstars to hush.

Senators want to question Junior about the Trump Tower meeting where he was seeking dirt on Hillary Clinton from Russians, and on the secretive Trump Tower Moscow project. Daddy Trump and Junior have both claimed no Moscow deal was in progress, yet Michael Cohen claims there was, they were working on a bribe to Vladimir Putin, and Junior was briefed on the development at least ten times. I wonder if he ever replied, “I love it?”

Lindsey Graham, who once screamed that Bill Clinton and his people had to comply with congressional subpoenas and who also chairs a committee that issues them, said Junior should refuse to testify and ignore the subpoena. No cognitive dissonance there, right? Lindsey Graham has sold his soul for a bag of orange jelly beans, or are they skittles?

I understand the chairman of the committee, Richard Burr, was under intense pressure from his fellow Republicans to comply with Junior. I mean, Junior’s lawyer was threatening to send a letter. Ack! I suppose issuing contempt charges for a person being contemptable was out of the question.

This president needs oversight and that goes for his stupid children who have aided him in subverting democracy. Can someone please go to jail for breaking the law, selling out our nation to Russians, and lying to Congress?

Greg Kihn is a one-hit wonder with the song “Jeopardy” (but check out “The Breakup Song), which Weird Al Yankovic covered with “I Lost On Jeopardy.” I’m hoping Weird Junior loses on legal jeopardy.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

A President who invokes absolute authority to…pardon himself. An ambassador to Germany who declares he wants to…topple the German government. Senators — the most powerful people in democracy, save the President — knocking on the door of a “detainment center”, looking for kids separated from their parents, only to be denied by guards who…laugh at them contemptuously, call the police, and have them shooed away like nobodies.

Do Americans understand how much trouble they’re now in? How grave the threat to America’s constitutional democracy, its civil society, its place in the world, and its ongoing survival is? Now. When I ask this question, you’ll protest: “Of course I do!” (or perhaps “You’re overstating it!!”, in which case the answer is already…no.) But I don’t mean you, yourself. I am asking you to ask yourself about everyone else, perhaps the mythical average American.

Here is a truth you would probably rather not hear. …

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

LAST WEEK, GEORGIA governor Brian Kemp—the narrow winner over Stacey Abrams in a contentious, sketchyelection last year—signed into law a ban on abortions after more than six weeks of pregnancy. That made Georgia the sixth state to institute such a ban, and the fourth this year (Ohio’s elected officials put theirs in place in April), with seven more states kicking around the idea. It’s not even the most aggressive anti-abortion concept; the Alabama state senate is set to vote today on a https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/05/11/could-miscarriages-land-women-jail-lets-clarify-these-georgia-alabama-abortion-bills/ (bill) that, if it became law, would make performing an abortion a crime punishable by up to 99 years in prison. They’re all part of a nationwide push, with more than 300 bills in 2019, to try to make the procedure illegal.

The political aim of so-called heartbeat bills is pretty clear. Some Americans would like to ban abortion altogether, but the Supreme Court says that’s unconstitutional. So they advocate for increasingly draconian laws that walk up to that line. Less straightforward, though, is the science. What the bills call a heartbeat—it's not that.

These bills generally say that a “fetal heartbeat” helps predict whether a pregnancy will result in a living baby; the http://f2a.org/images/Model_Heartbeat_Bill_Apr._2019_version.pdf many states use refers to that fetal cardiac activity as a marker of “an unborn human individual,” defining a moment where alive-ness starts. And, yes, it’s true that detection of cardiac rhythm is a marker for the health of a pregnancy and a good sign that it’ll continue—that, if everything works out, it’ll result in the birth of a living baby. “Detecting a fetal heartbeat can be a sign that there is a pregnancy developing, and that’s a sign we use to reassure people,” says Sarah Horvath, an ob-gyn with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

But beyond that, the science here needs a lot of unpacking. ...

Yet many state bills use a six-week clock and fetal cardiac activity as a basis for policymaking. “I do think there’s a deliberate conflation of terms going on in legislation in order to try to co-opt the science, or at least the scientific language,” Horvath says. “These bans are really just arbitrarily chosen points in time in a pregnancy that are strictly there because they want a complete ban on abortion care.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Amazon has announced that will now offer same-day delivery of certain items ordered and delivered within the states of Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio.

“One thing Amazon has always prided itself on is identifying and filling a hole in the market when one crops up,” Amazon Deputy Media Liaison Shirley Vaughn told reporters at a press conference this morning. “The holes in the hearts of red state lawmakers ended up creating a hole in the coat hanger delivery market that only Amazon is uniquely positioned to fill.”

Starting next week, customers in Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio will have the option to select same-day delivery of wire coat hangers, rags, and bleach ordered through Amazon, with no additional charge.

“We have special agreements in place with all our vendors in those states that will help expedite the delivery of those items,” Vaughn said. “The only real concern we have is if the coat hangers, bleach, and rags can be produced fast enough to meet demand. There are going to be tons of 14 year old daughters of staunch Republicans making these orders.”

Amazon will also offer special packaging for coat hangers, bleach, and rags.

“We’ll put them all in a box marked, ‘Guns, Ammo, and Bibles,’ so it won’t arouse any suspicions from local authorities,” Vaughn said. “That should help get the boxes straight through to the rape victims and adult women wanting to make their own sexual reproductive choices in a place quickly devolving into a theocratic fascist Christostate. Which is, of course, just another opportunity for us to stretch our profit margins a little wider.”

...

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

What "normal" will the GOP return to after Trump? The Mitch McConnell normal that kept Merrick Garland off the court? The normal of the Georgia or Alabama GOP attacks on a woman's right to choose? The normal of the Republicans who defended Trump's racism and crimes?

The normal of the GOP that was compromised by Russia and chose party over American national security? The normal of the GOP that is the pocket of a gun lobby that results in tens of thousands of innocent deaths a year?

The normal of the GOP that has sought to gerrymander American states to ensure permanent GOP rule despite Constitutional prohibitions? The normal of the GOP that has sought to pack ideologues onto courts for decades?

Is it the normal of McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Louis Gohmert, Matt Gaetz or Dana Rohrabacher? The normal of the GOP establishment that has embraced, defended and enabled Trump, making him the leader of their party?

Of Barr or Sessions? Of Adelson or the Kochs? Maybe it's the normal of Sarah Palin or of the Tea Party. Maybe it's the normal of Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, or even Tom DeLay? Could it be the normal of David Duke who sees Trump as advancing white supremacists long campaign?

Pat Buchanan? Jerry Falwell and Jerry Falwell Jr. and the Christian right? Of James Dobson? Wait, maybe it's the "normal" of neocon wars and torture? The normal of 40 years of special deals for the rich and big companies, tax cuts and budget deficits?

Is it the normal of some of the GOP leaders that were in the early lead before Trump took off in 2015 and 16--of Ben Carson, of Ted Cruz, of Rand Paul and others? Or Pat Robertson or Pat Buchanan back in the day? Of the 62 million Americans who voted for Trump?

The normal of Trump is the normal of the GOP before him and the normal of the GOP after him. Trump is grotesque and egregious and corrupt and has betrayed his country as no American traitor as before him or after him. But so too can we describe his enablers and defenders.

No one has done more to undermine US democracy or the stature of our legislative institutions than Mitch McConnell. Misguided ideologues like Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Thomas will be with us for years, maybe decades.

The American Taliban, evangelical religious zealots of the hard right, have made common cause with the compromised, GOP for decades and will for decades to come. The conservative establishment engineered where we are, funded it with dark money and won't stop when Trump is gone.

Would it be better if we were not so divided? If compromise or ideals or genuine patriotism were still part of the GOP vocabulary? It would. Should we focus on the ideas that the majority of Americans support that can bring us back together--like health care for all,
reasonable gun restrictions, a clean environment, investing in jobs and education, and security? Yes, we should. But any Democrat who thinks that Trump is more than a symptom of a disease that has been spreading through the GOP and America for decades makes a terrible mistake.

Anyone anywhere in the world who thinks America will "snap back" to its pre-Trump self the day he is gone is in error. The only true alternative, the only way to reverse what has happened requires real leadership and commitment in order to fuel a Democratic victory...
that wins not just the White House but also the Senate and the House. One that they implements policies that work, that are based on principle and vision, that bring benefits to all and that refutes the GOP arguments with performance and facts.

But we should make no mistake, we cannot expect that to happen by sweet talking post-Trump Republicans. That would misread who they are and how they work. And it would also miscalculate the costs of compromises that dilute outcomes or prolong and preserve bad policies.

A unified Democratic Party is key to this, but so to is one with leadership that is clear about where we and those who oppose us and what's good for the country stand and committed to the changes that are desperately required to ensure America's success in the future.

 

[Michael Scally MD]