Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Heed the signs and don't underestimate the threat to our republic from within:

-Trump obstructed justice

-A McConnell-packed SCOTUS says precedent can be changed more easily than previously thought

-AG Barr is an open partisan and slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre beneficiary

-White House ignores congressional subpoenas, document requests

-Mnuchin is violating a law on turning over taxes to House

-Barr & Senate allies want to investigate officials who investigated Trump to retaliate against them and deter future efforts to hold him to the rule of law

-State Dept is setting up a commission to supplant human rights with "natural law"

-An Inspector General found standing room only in border detention cells, with detainees standing on toilets to breathe

-children stolen from parents at the border are dying in internment camps

-Trump cut resources for investigating domestic terrorists

-FBI reports a recent significant rise in white supremacist domestic terrorism

-evidence found of a white supremacist plot to add census Q to help gerrymander in ways "advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites"

-Trump is still resisting setting up defenses against foreign election interference

-Trump's personal attorney solicited foreign govt investigation of current Trump political rival Biden

-AG Barr said something in a weird interview about investigating former Trump rival Clinton

-There's cause for concern Trump/Kushner personal interests may be influencing middle east policy

-Ignoring Congress, Trump declared fake emergency & abused authority to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia to continue its atrocities in Yemen, after it murdered a Washington Post reporter

-Trump declared fake emergency to get more power to ramp up activity at border

-ethics violations (and ethically dubious conduct not rising to a violation) occurring at an unprecedented rate among Trump appointees

-senior admin official says she doesn't care about an ethics law

-if impeached, Trump says he'll try to get SCOTUS to overturn the impeachment

-McConnell, who blocked Merrick Garland ostensibly because it was an election year, shamelessly hinted this week that he'd be willing to fill a SCOTUS position for Trump in an election year

-Trump is praising autocrats, undermining allies

-Tone of OLC's recent opinions has changed under Assistant AG Steven Engel, who was tied to one of the torture memos

-Military went to the border for Trump

-Military hid a ship to placate Trump

-Airborne seen wearing MAGA patches

-Trump admin & Graham inexplicably advocating war in Iran/Venezuela

-DOJ experimenting with new legal theory for prosecuting those who publish classified information (raising a question as to whether the theory will be limited to hostile foreign actors or expanded to journalists)

-some public voices are normalizing Trump admin conduct

-voicemail from Trump lawyer to Flynn shows a disturbing carrot/stick approach (or worse)

-Trump has seemed to dangle pardons to buy silence or worse

-Trump admin officials are violating records laws to conceal actions

-Trump said "Russia, if you're listening"

-Trump said "fine people" marched with nazis

-Trump has told over 10,000 false or misleading statements, per Washington Post

-Trump helped cover up Khashoggi murder, and Kushner's said to have offered advice to MBS on weathering the storm

-a foreign prince is reported to have said he has Kushner in his pocket (but denies saying that)

-Helsinki

-Trump's behavior is erratic and is marked by frequent lies, bizarre public outbursts, name-calling and confusion

-no press conferences, and no transparency

-Trump allies in congress are either lying about the Mueller report or haven't read it

-Trump allies in congress are trying to prevent Mueller & others from testifying because they know their base hasn't read the report and right wing media has kept them from hearing about it

Thread by @waltshaub: "Heed the signs and don't underestimate the threat to our republic from within: -Trump obstructed justice -A McConnell-packed SCOTUS says pre […]"

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Criminal prosecution exacts punishment; impeachment upholds the Constitution and prevents further assaults on it. Many Americans, but far from a majority, think President Trump has committed impeachable acts but are wary of impeaching without hope of removal. However, if there is an indication that severe damage to the Constitution will occur unless Trump is removed, the House must act, and then engage public opinion to pressure the Senate.

On Friday, we might have reached that breaking point. The Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-fails-to-comply-with-court-order-to-release-transcripts-of-michael-flynns-conversations-with-russian-ambassador/2019/05/31/9b4a6754-83b8-11e9-95a9-e2c830afe24f_story.html?utm_term=.243914a285ab (reports): “Federal prosecutors on Friday declined to make public transcripts of recorded conversations between Michael Flynn and Russia’s ambassador to the United States in December 2016, despite a judge’s order.” The Justice Department argued that the documents need not be released because “it did not rely on such recordings to establish Flynn’s guilt or determine a recommendation for his sentencing.” Moreover, “Prosecutors also failed to release an unredacted version of portions of the Mueller report related to Flynn that the judge had ordered be made public.”

Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe tells me, “Even if the district court’s order to release the Flynn-Kislyak transcripts goes further than justified by the sentencing matter before the court, I would’ve thought that, in a government of laws, the only way to avoid compliance is to take an appeal to a higher court.” The government made its arguments to the court, did not obtain a stay to our knowledge and did not seek an emergency appeal. From all appearances, the Trump administration has deliberately and willfully defied a court order.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

TRUMP’S DINGHY
Trump’s Dinghy

The new normal is that it was not “unreasonable” to ask the Navy to hide a ship with the name “John McCain” on it in order to avoid offending a thin-skinned Trump and that whoever did it had the “best intentions.”

In North Korea, they kill staffers who disappointed Kim Jong Un. In what’s becoming our banana republic without bananas, staffers are scrambling to appease our Dear Leader, even on foreign soil

Donald Trump attacked John McCain while campaigning for president. If you believe a man can say McCain was only a war hero because he was captured and that he “likes those who weren’t captured” can also be supportive of the military, then you might be in a cult. Donald Trump attacked John McCain after the election. Donald Trump attacked John McCain while McCain was dying. Donald Trump has continued to attack John McCain after he died.

Donald Trump is fighting a dead guy and losing.

Donald Trump is a 72-year-old man baby and in the new normal, it’s perfectly justified to patronize and feed his insecure little orange ego, even to the point of being an international embarrassment. That’s how Trump cultists and Republicans see it. It’s why he needs two scoops of ice cream to everybody else’s one. The president of the United States has to constantly be told he’s the most important baby at the party.

From telling Donald Trump a report that clearly says he’s not exonerated totally exonerates him from hiding a boat named after John McCain’s grandfather with your tiny Republican dinghy in order to avoid a Trump tantrum, Republicans have become nothing but sycophants catering to a pathetic, whiny, little victimized elderly man baby. For them, this is the new normal.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

AVOCADO BOOM BOOM
Avocado Boom Boom

I give my conservative cartooning colleagues a lot of crap over their devotion to Trump, producing cartoons that are based on fear, hate, propaganda and conspiracy theories while being totally devoid of facts. Mostly, I give them hell for abandoning principles they held decades before Trumpism, such as patriotism, law and order, family values, democracy over fascism. But now I’ve seen at least three of them go against Trump and his tariffs.

Republicans have traditionally been against increasing tariffs, knowing that when we increase tariffs that they’re paid for by Americans. They are basically tax increases. Donald Trump continues to say the nations he raises tariffs on will pay them, which isn’t just fundamentally wrong, but a lie.

So, to those conservative Trump supporting cartoonists who have publicly expressed opposition to Trump tariffs, in all seriousness without making fun of you, kudos. Oh, and if you’re one of those conservative cartoonists, “kudos” means congratulations.

After increasing tariffs on China, Trump got into the tariff zone and is now proposing a five percent increase on tariffs on Mexico to pressure them on an unrelated issue, immigrants from Central America. The five percent increase will take effect June 10 and gradually increase to 25 unless, as the White House issued in a statement, “Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory.”

A report by the right-wing group the Tax Foundation says Trump’s new tariffs will be the largest tax increase on Americans in three decades.

The study says that with the five-percent increase alone, “GDP would fall by an additional 0.50 percent ($124.82 billion), resulting in 0.33 percent lower wages and 387,041 fewer full-time equivalent jobs.”

Mexico is the United State’s biggest trading partner and is the largest market for U.S. corn and pork and supplies one out of three fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the United States. Yet, Trump tweeted that they are an “abuser” that takes but never gives to the U.S. In his announcement that he was running for the presidency, Trump accused Mexico of sending rapists and murderers to the U.S. Throughout the disaster of his presidency, he’s accused Mexico of sending us an “invasion” of drug dealers, cartels, human traffickers, people smugglers and immigrants.

Some U.S. business groups are considering lawsuits against the administration, questioning the legality of mixing immigration policy goals with trade retaliation.

This strategy is as useless as the proposed racist wall and monument to Trump since the majority of undocumented immigrants, drugs, and weapons enter through legal ports of entry.

U.S. farmers are already feeling the pinch of reduced sales after Trump increased tariffs on China and they retaliated. Now, the Mexican market may dry up for them as well. Will Trump throw them another bailout with money borrowed from China to pay farmers not to sell to Mexico and China?

If you are a freak over avocados, get ready to pay more. While California produces the fruit, they do so for only eight months of the year. Mexico produces avocadoes year-round, and the U.S. consumes 74% of that nation’s exported avocadoes. Mexican farmers believe we’re such devotees of the fruit, that Trump’s tariffs won’t hurt them. Apparently, avocadoes are like crack. You’ll keep purchasing for your fix no matter how high your dealer raises the price.

If China and Mexico are smart, and they are, they’ll follow Nancy Pelosi’s lead in negotiating with Trump. The man has a history of bailing on his promises and walking away from a negotiating table with significantly less than he argued for…or nothing at all.

I expect the avocadoes to blow up in Trump’s face.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The short time horizon president
The short time horizon president - TheMoneyIllusion

Today offers another example of a theme I’ve been pushing for several years. Trump is president with a short time horizon, eager to take actions that look good today at a cost to future generations. Examples include:

1. Ramping up moral hazard in the financial system.

2. Reckless “tax and spend” fiscal policy.

3. Moving away from the rule of law, toward authoritarianism.

4. Ignoring global warming.

5. Politicizing monetary policy

In each case, Trump has a lot of “capital” to spend, as the US has traditionally been a pretty well run country. As Adam Smith pointed out, there’s a great deal of ruin in a nation. Even with Trump’s reckless actions, we are unlikely to face a fiscal crisis, a banking crisis, a global warming crisis or a serious move toward authoritarianism in the next few years.

Today we see another example. Before explaining this situation, let me remind readers that Trump is one of those guys who frequently accuses others of having the very flaws that he himself has. Thus the recent claim that Biden is a low IQ person. Or that other candidates were “liars”.

Trump recently accused the Chinese of negotiating in bad faith on trade, backing off from promises that they had previously made. Of course there’s no way to know if any of this is true, as nothing said by Trump or his aides can be trusted. In any case, Trump has now done exactly what he accused the Chinese of doing—reneging on a trade deal with Mexico, which he agreed to just a few months ago.

The US has built up a lot of reputational capital in foreign affairs. We often make serious mistakes, such as the Vietnam and Iraq Wars, but there is always a certain logic to our actions. We are one of the “serious” countries, and have been one for most of our history. Trump has decided to spend some of the reputational capital for short-term political gain.

If we’d been a wild and crazy country for the past 100 years, there is no way the rest of the world would have trusted us to control their money (as we effectively do with our leverage in the global banking system.) Thus Trump has the ability to recklessly use powerful economics sanctions against other countries precisely because all previous American presidents have been so un-Trump like in their policies.

This is just one of the many reasons why Trump is by far the worst President in US history. He’s not just a bad American president, like Nixon or LBJ. He’s not really an American president at all. He’s a completely different animal—a sort of a Venezuelan or Filipino president living in the American White House.

Enjoy it while it lasts; your children will pay the price.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The Supreme Court may be on the verge of issuing its most nakedly partisan ruling since Bush v. Gore.

Based on their questions during oral arguments this spring, the court’s five Republican-appointed justices seem open to allowing the Trump administration to add a new question — about citizenship status — to the 2020 census. Experts say that the question would reduce the participation of Latinos in the census, and, in turn, increase the political power of heavily white regions, which lean Republican.

It’s important to understand that there is no larger conservative principle here. The court wouldn’t be ruling in favor of, say, a fetus’s right to exist or a business’s right to avoid regulation. Instead, a Republican-dominated court would be accepting obvious lies from the Trump administration in order to help the electoral fortunes of the Republican Party. It’s an alarming situation, both for the state of American democracy and the credibility of the Supreme Court. This morning, I want to explain how we got here:

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

As he arrived in Britain for a state visit on Monday, President Trump took to Twitter to express his concern about the options for American news networks in the country.

The president did not make clear what American news outlets he would favor in Britain over CNN, which offers an international version around the world.

However, Trump is known to be an avid viewer of one network in particular: Fox News.

Why can’t the American president watch a “Fox News International” in Britain, as he could with CNN? The problem appears to be relatively simple: British viewers have rejected it.

Just two years ago, it was possible to watch Fox News in Britain. However, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/08/30/fox-news-just-got-pulled-off-the-air-in-britain-because-hardly-anyone-watched-it/?utm_term=.085a1456390f (in August 2017, the network was abruptly pulled) off the air. A statement released by its parent company at the time pinned the blame on low ratings.

“It averages only a few thousand viewers across the day,” 21st Century Fox said in a statement provided to CNN. The company noted that this was largely because the network’s programming was aimed at American audiences.

“We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the U.K.," the statement said.