Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[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]

SLEAZE AT THE DMZ
Sleaze At The DMZ

I should have started working on this idea as soon as Donald Trump tweeted out an invite to North Korea’s dictator to meet up for an impromptu photo-op at the DMZ. For a nation and dictator still craving legitimacy, I don’t think anyone seriously considered that Kim wouldn’t show up. I’m only surprised he wasn’t wearing bells, or Trump for that matter.

Trump touted the historic significance of an American president stepping foot on North Korean soil, even if he only ventured about ten feet from the South Korean side. Former presidents, Carter and Clinton, have visited North Korea, but this was the first time a sitting president made the journey.

And it was historic, but Trump is a very historic president. He’s the first thrice-married American president. He’s the first president to defend Nazis. He’s the first president to throw his own intelligence agencies under the bus for the word of a Russian dictator. He’s the first president to lie and claim his predecessor wiretapped him. He’s the first president to endorse a pedophile. He’s the first president who doesn’t know how to spell “president.”

Also historic is Trump’s Defense and throwing cover for fascists, strongmen, bullies, and dictators. He claimed Mohammad bin Salman hasn’t been accused by anyone of being involved in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which is a lie. He continues to defend Vladimir Putin’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. He claimed Kim Jong Un wasn’t aware of the torturing of American student Otto Warmbier, who was returned to the U.S. in a coma shortly before dying.

Trump gave a summit to North Korea in exchange for a bunch of empty promises. The summit produced a treaty that was empty on conditions. Trump gave Kim a second summit, despite no actions on denuclearizing or ending his brutal treatment to his own people. There was no positive development from the second summit. In fact, it ended early in frustrations for both nations.

Trump claimed everything was great with North Korea because they stopped testing nuclear weapons and firing missiles. Then, they started firing missiles again. Instead of condemning the testing of missiles, Trump tweeted an offer of another photo op with Kim, this time on his soil.

If Trump condemned the actions of these tyrants in their presence before the free press, he would receive unanimous praise and support from Republicans and Democrats. There would at least be a point to these meetings and photo ops other than gratifying Trump’s ego.

While sitting with Vladimir Putin, he should condemn his meddling in free elections, his poisoning on our allies’ soil, and his murdering of journalists instead of sitting ugly like Putin’s poodle.

When sitting with MBS, he should condemn his nation and his involvement in the murder of a Washington Post journalist who was an American resident instead of waxing romantically about their friendship.

Instead of talking about “falling in love” and the “beautiful letters” Kim has sent him, Trump should look Kim in the eye, point a finger at him and condemn his treatment of his own people, his murdering of his own family members, his hacking attacks on movie studios (Siskel and Ebert only gave films a thumbs down they didn’t like), and mostly, for the murder of American college student Otto Warmbier. While betraying the Warmbier family for the sake of a photo op, he’s also betrayed America. A U.S. court handed down a default judgment ordering North Korea to pay the Warmbier family $501 million in damages for the death of Otto. Do you think in his three meetings with Kim that Trump has brought up the judgment?

Dictators who murder Americans should NOT receive visits and legitimization from U.S. presidents. All they should get are condemnations, grief, and scorn. Not only does North Korea receive legitimacy from Trump, but they also promised a check for returning Otto’s comatose body.

Each time Trump offers legitimacy to Kim Jong Un, his own legitimacy diminishes. Trump truly is an illegitimate president.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

To my Trump-supporting family,

On the morning of November 9, 2016, the America I knew and loved died. Or rather, I woke that day to discover that it never really existed in the first place.

Let me explain.

I grew up in the Deep South. I was a flag-waving, gun-shooting, red-blooded American boy. I said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school, got tingles when I heard the national anthem, and fervently accepted that no other country on the planet could ever come close to the grandeur, freedom, and inspiration that the United States of America offered. We were that City Upon the Hill that was promised to the world – a shining beacon of participatory democracy that everyone else desperately wanted to emulate but could never achieve. We were tough on our allies, but only because we needed to push them to excel and improve. Of course, they’d never quite catch up to us economically, politically, or militarily, but hey, that’s the price of not being the USA. The chants of “USA! USA! USA” weren’t taunts, but merely celebrations of our preeminence. And anyone’s detractions were just signs of their jealousy. Because everybody wanted to be American, right?

...

Up until November 8, 2016, I genuinely believed that, despite its myriad shortcomings, America was still the country that stood up to bullies. It valued intellect and scientific discovery. Americans may have disagreed on specific policies, but still had faith that public servants genuinely had the country’s best interests at heart. Immigration built this country. And we should always, always protect the innocent and welcome those fleeing poverty, war, or famine with open arms.

But America didn’t elect a leader who represents any of those principles. America didn’t elect a leader with any principles. And you did that. You can say you held your nose and voted for the “lesser of two evils,” or that you only voted for Trump because you knew he’d further the policies with which you agreed, even if you found him personally detestable. But when you and all of the other Trump voters pulled that lever, you weren’t just selecting your preferred presidential candidate. You were selecting what America was. And it is nothing like the America I grew up believing in. To say that your choice and the result it brought about triggered an existential crisis would be an understatement. My whole life, I’d been an unquestioning, patriotic servant of America because of what I’d believed it stood for. But in a single night, everything it stood for was revealed as a fraud. Everything I stood for was a fraud.

So now, two and half years into the alternative reality, I’ve come to grips that this isn’t some insane nightmare. This is reality. And seeing how Trump supporters (yourselves included) have behaved since then, I really was a fool for ever believing America stood for anything else.

I won’t bore you with my journey to “wokeness” or why the things you tolerate literally sicken me. Sexual predator? “They’re not hot enough to sexually assault.” Racist bully? “Fake news.” Uncompassionate bigot? “They should stay in their own damn countries.” Even if I had the capacity and patience to expound on every deviation from the America I thought existed, you wouldn’t care. Why? Because you’ve stopped listening. The rise of Fox News means you’ve stopped reading the papers. And even if you did, you wouldn’t be intrigued or inquisitive about what they say because you’ve bought into the idea that the press is the enemy of the people (except for Fox News and the National Review, which get passes because, well, why?).

You’ve stopped paying attention to anyone who doesn’t agree with your crystallized view of the world. You’re the mosquito of the Reagan era, completely unaware the sap has long hardened around you into amber. And frankly, it’s not even particularly pretty amber. It’s dull, opaque, muffled. You can’t see or hear through it and you don’t want to.

But to be honest with you, I’ve lost all interest in trying to break you free. At first, I really wanted to. I wanted you to understand how the promise of America was broken. I wanted you to see so we could find some way to fix it. But every time I tried, you trotted out some line you heard Trump spew (none of which make any sense whatsoever, by the way) or that some Fox News commentator has conned you into thinking reflects reality. So I’m done.

The America I believed in doesn’t exist. Instead, it’s a different country now, irretrievably. I get a bit melancholy about it sometimes, because promise and hope and opportunity are like political endorphins, and I miss them. And I miss you. I miss having conversations about our lives as though you hadn’t abandoned everything we ever believed in. I miss seeing your smiling faces without having to hold back a political tirade. I miss spending time with you without constantly wondering how you sleep at night knowing what this country is doing to the defenseless.

Surely by now you’ve seen the AP’s recent photo of an El Salvadoran man and his two and a half year-old daughter who drowned as they fled the violence in their home country, hoping to seek asylum in America. They drowned because Trump won’t let them claim asylum at the border entry points. He’s denying them the safety and promise that America used to stand for. Many observers who haven’t yet fully recognized their prior delusions are saying, “This isn’t what we stand for.” But it is. It’s exactly what America stands for.

And that is why I’m done with you and your ilk. We’re still family; you raised me; we share the same blood. But we come from and live in two different countries.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Lean_N_Mean]

Trump is doing an amazing job as a President and keeping America first just like every leader of every country should put its citizens first. Just like when you go as an illegal immigrant to Mexico or any other country you’d get locked up and kicked out. My cousin overstayed her visa in Australia where her mom is a citizen by marriage and she was put on a plane and kicked out of the country for 7 years as well she should have been since she was doing it on purpose and trying to work under the table. I’m so tired of people coming here illegally and blaming America for following the law and treating these people like the criminals they are. Don’t care if it keeps families apart. They should do things legally if they don’t want trouble with any government. Trumps America First policy is great and our economy is booming thanks to a great business man running this country!

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]