Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[MassTurk]

I feel the same. Does that mean we have to take in everybody? Can we not choose who should be able to come to America based on our own security and beliefs? I don't see a problem with the 90 day moratorium to evaluate our vetting process.

We shall not close our doors to ones in need because we are afraid
We already choose the ones we want in. I have been through the process myself. It works. It takes years to be Vetted. Where is the need for this policy?

Edit: I should learn how to spell

 

[XKawN]

We shall not close our doors to ones in need because we are afraid
We already choose the ones we want in. I have been through the process myself. It works. It takes years to be wetted. Where is the need for this policy?

I ain't asking you to get wetted. That would be just cruel and unusual.

 

[MassTurk]

Lol I'm Turkish forgive my grammar

 

[Eman]

I thought the premise this nation was founded on was slavery.

Really? Liberty, free speech, freedom of religion, due process of law, freedom of assembly... These don't ring any bells?

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacist Infiltration Of Law Enforcement
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/31...-supremacist-infiltration-of-law-enforcement/

WHITE SUPREMACISTS AND other domestic extremists maintain an active presence in U.S. police departments and other law enforcement agencies. A striking reference to that conclusion, notable for its confidence and the policy prescriptions that accompany it, appears in a classified FBI Counterterrorism Policy Guide from April 2015, obtained by The Intercept. The guide, which details the process by which the FBI enters individuals on a terrorism watchlist, the Known or Suspected Terrorist File, notes that “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers,” and explains in some detail how bureau policies have been crafted to take this infiltration into account.

Although these right-wing extremists have posed a growing threat for years, federal investigators have been reluctant to publicly address that threat or to point out the movement’s longstanding strategy of infiltrating the law enforcement community.

…

“This is a fundamental problem in this country: We simply do not take this flexible, and forgiving, and exceptionally understanding approach for combating any other form of terrorism,” said Jones. “Anybody who’s on social media advocating support for ISIS can be criminally charged with very little effort.”

“For some reason, we have stepped away from the threat of domestic terrorism and right-wing extremism,” Jones continued. “The only way we can reconcile this kind of behavior is if we accept the possibility that the ideology that permeates white nationalists and white supremacists is something that many in our federal and law enforcement communities understand and may be in sympathy with.”

That sympathy might just be reflected by the election of a president who was endorsed and celebrated by the KKK, and who has been reluctant to disassociate himself from individuals espousing white supremacist views.

“This election, for white supremacists, was a signal that ‘We’re on the right track,’” said Simi. “I have never seen anything like it among white supremacists, where they express this feeling of triumph and jubilee. They are just elated about the idea that they feel like they have somebody in the White House who gets it.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The Republican Fausts
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/opinion/the-republican-fausts.html

Many Republican members of Congress have made a Faustian bargain with Donald Trump. They don’t particularly admire him as a man, they don’t trust him as an administrator, they don’t agree with him on major issues, but they respect the grip he has on their voters, they hope he’ll sign their legislation and they certainly don’t want to be seen siding with the inflamed progressives or the hyperventilating media.

Their position was at least comprehensible: How many times in a lifetime does your party control all levers of power? When that happens you’re willing to tolerate a little Trumpian circus behavior in order to get things done.

But if the last 10 days have made anything clear, it’s this: The Republican Fausts are in an untenable position. The deal they’ve struck with the devil comes at too high a price. It really will cost them their soul.

In the first place, the Trump administration is not a Republican administration; it is an ethnic nationalist administration. Trump insulted both parties equally in his Inaugural Address. The Bannonites are utterly crushing the Republican regulars when it comes to actual policy making.

….

Second, even if Trump’s ideology were not noxious, his incompetence is a threat to all around him. To say that it is amateur hour at the White House is to slander amateurs. The recent executive orders were drafted and signed without any normal agency review or even semicoherent legal advice, filled with elemental errors that any nursery school student would have caught.

…

Third, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the aroma of bigotry infuses the whole operation, and anybody who aligns too closely will end up sharing in the stench.

…

Fourth, it is hard to think of any administration in recent memory, on any level, whose identity is so tainted by cruelty. The Trump administration is often harsh and never kind. It is quick to inflict suffering on the 8-year-old Syrian girl who’s been bombed and strafed and lost her dad. Its deportation vows mean that in the years ahead, the TV screens will be filled with weeping families being pulled apart.

None of these traits will improve with time. As former Bush administration official Eliot Cohen wrote in The Atlantic, “Precisely because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him. It will probably end in calamity — substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have. It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment.”

 

[Michael Scally MD]

The Immigration Ban is a Headfake, and We’re Falling For It


When I read about the incredibly active first week of the Trump administration, I struggle with two competing narratives about what’s really going on. The first story is simple: the administration is just doing what it said it would do, literally keeping its campaign promises. Lots of people won’t agree, but it’s playing to its base. They’re also not really good at this whole government thing yet, so implementation is shaky. The second is more sinister: the administration is deliberately testing the limits of governmental checks and balances to set up a self-serving, dangerous consolidation of power.

…

 

[Michael Scally MD]

DeVos’ Code Words for Creationism Offshoot Raise Concerns About ‘Junk Science’
DeVos’ Code Words for Creationism Offshoot Raise Concerns About ‘Junk Science’

Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s pick as secretary of education, has funded groups that champion “intelligent design,” a sophisticated outgrowth of creationism. Science educators worry that she could use her bully pulpit to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools.

At a confirmation hearing earlier this month, Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s pick for education secretary, responded to a question about whether she would promote “junk science” by saying she supports science teaching that “allows students to exercise critical thinking.”

This seemingly innocuous statement has raised alarms among science education advocates, and buoyed the hopes of conservative Christian groups that, if confirmed, DeVos may use her bully pulpit atop the U.S. Department of Education to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools.

DeVos and her family have poured millions of dollars into groups that champion intelligent design, the doctrine that the complexity of biological life can best be explained by the existence of a creator rather than by Darwinian evolution. Within this movement, “critical thinking” has become a code phrase to justify teaching of intelligent design.

Candi Cushman, a policy analyst for the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, described DeVos’ nomination as a positive development for communities that want to include intelligent design in their school curricula. Both the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation and Betsy DeVos’ mother’s foundation have donated to Focus on the Family, which has promoted intelligent design.

“Mrs. DeVos will work toward ensuring parents and educators have a powerful voice at the local level on multiple issues, including science curriculum,” wrote Cushman in an email.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Justin Amash [R] U.S. Representative for Michigan's 3rd congressional district


Many supporters and opponents of President Trump's executive order are conflating the terms "immigrant" (which encompasses green card holders), "nonimmigrant," and "refugee."

It's not lawful to ban immigrants because of "nationality, place of birth, or place of residence." This nondiscrimination provision comes from a 1965 law (8 U.S.C. 1152 Sec. 202(a)(1)(A)) that limits the 1952 law (8 U.S.C. 1182 Sec. 212(f)) that the president cites.

It's lawful to ban nonimmigrants for almost any reason. These are people who are temporarily visiting the United States, like tourists or students.

It's lawful to ban refugees for almost any reason. But banning all refugees from particular countries is harsh and unwise. We still should admit well-vetted persons.

Understanding these distinctions is important because supporters of President Trump's executive order continue to wrongly insist that the order is lawful and that President Obama did almost the same thing in 2011. And opponents of President Trump's executive order continue to wrongly insist that banning refugees violates the Constitution or the law.

President Trump's executive order covers not only refugees but also immigrants and nonimmigrants. As noted above, it's not lawful to discriminate in the issuance of an *immigrant* visa because of the person's "nationality, place of birth, or place of residence."

President Obama's action (which wasn't disclosed at the time) covered only refugees and, therefore, did not violate the Constitution or the law, even if one finds it objectionable for other reasons.

 

[Xlgx]

The conspiracy theories and fear mongering continues ...

 

[Michael Scally MD]

How to Build an Autocracy
How to Build an Autocracy

The preconditions are present in the U.S. today. Here’s the playbook Donald Trump could use to set the country down a path toward illiberalism.

Those citizens who fantasize about defying tyranny from within fortified compounds have never understood how liberty is actually threatened in a modern bureaucratic state: not by diktat and violence, but by the slow, demoralizing process of corruption and deceit. And the way that liberty must be defended is not with amateur firearms, but with an unwearying insistence upon the honesty, integrity, and professionalism of American institutions and those who lead them.

We are living through the most dangerous challenge to the free government of the United States that anyone alive has encountered. What happens next is up to you and me. Don’t be afraid. This moment of danger can also be your finest hour as a citizen and an American.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Docd187123]

He labeled these as countries of concern and enacted travel restrictions from these 7 countries. These weren't countries that trump made up because he has no business ties to them. Obama only enacted a complete ban on Iraq... racist.

After a direct threat of people in the a United States aiding terrorists. Can you explain where the direct threat is currently?

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Fact: Trump can uphold this LGBT order *and* sign a new religious freedom order.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Trish Greenhalgh: “Do doctors have a duty to hold their silence or to voice concern about Donald Trump’s health?”
BMJ Blogs: The BMJ » Blog Archive » Trish Greenhalgh: “Do doctors have a duty to hold their silence or to voice concern about Donald Trump’s health?”

Donald Trump may or may not have a mental illness. As a doctor, it would be unprofessional of me to comment on that question. Or would it?

Like many liberal-minded people, I find Trump’s opinions and actions abhorrent. I have joined in social media condemnation of his policies and questioned his personal integrity. I have retweeted cartoons that mock Trump, because I view satire and parody as legitimate weapons in the effort to call our leaders to account.

But as a doctor, should I go further? Should I point out the formal diagnostic criteria for a particular mental illness, cognitive condition, or particular personality disorder and select relevant examples from material available in the public domain to assess whether he appears to meet those criteria? As a medical academic with an interest in evidence-based medicine, should I summarise research evidence for and against allowing someone with said illness or disorder to hold senior public office?

I put this question out on Twitter. Of my 25,000 followers, many are doctors or psychologists. They were divided in their responses.

 

[XKawN]

After a direct threat of people in the a United States aiding terrorists. Can you explain where the direct threat is currently?

Um, isis. Islamic terrorists. The fact that our intelligence agencies have reported isis plans to infiltrate the Syriain Refugee program. Seems like if there is even the slightest of difference between an Obama program and a trump program that there's room to say when Obama does it it's OK, but when trump does it it's racist or unamerican.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Live From the White House, It’s Trump TV
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/opinion/sunday/live-from-the-white-house-its-trump-tv.html

DONALD Trump’s presidency has sent people searching for historical analogies. Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist, calls him a modern incarnation of Andrew Jackson. Newt Gingrich compares him to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Liberals prefer authoritarian analogues, like Vladimir V. Putin or figureheads of the Axis powers.

Each comparison assumes that Mr. Trump is a political figure with a politician’s instincts and calculations.

But that is wrong. Mr. Trump is not just a president who is unusually obsessed with media. He is an aspiring media mogul who happens to be president. When Mr. Bannon told The New York Times that the media should “keep its mouth shut,” he was being disingenuous. Mr. Trump doesn’t want the media to keep its mouth shut. He wants to silence his critics, co-opt their distribution and broadcast the story of his stardom. After winning with the instincts of a media impresario, he will lead using the strategy of a media empire.

Before the primaries even got rolling, Mr. Trump stormed to a lead through means that would be familiar to any upstart media or entertainment group. He identified an underserved audience demographic — the white working class — for whom he produced a range of genres from horror and comedy to uplift. Then he found a formula — nativist outrage and invective — for getting his message distributed on broadcast channels that he didn’t own or control, which happens to be the challenge of every 21st century media company in an age of decentralization.

Now in the White House, President Trump is poised to enact his agenda through extraordinary means — by broadcasting an alternative reality in which he seeks a monopoly on his own narrative and facts. It is 20th-century strongman meets 21st Century Fox.

In conversations with dozens of entertainment and media executives and academics from hit-making industries over the past few years, I have learned that there are three overarching rules of popular entertainment. Each applies to Mr. Trump.

 

[Big_paul]

Soon trump will have a radically right leaning SC a gutless congress, and that will give him the power of a dictaor.

 

[Big_paul]

What's up with confidentiality agreements he had those who drafted his Muslim ban sign?

 

[Big_paul]

In 2020 the party is over. Alt right should enjoy their time in the sun. It will be short lived.