I swear to God, Trump is literally the Grim Reaper! Everything he touches dies. Admiral Ronny Jackson was just a kind in the background doctor, issuing Presidential health reports once a year, living the good life. And then along comes Trump, and Admiral Jackson will be lucky to keep his medical license.
The New York Ties has just broken reporting that adds new details, quoting a foreign affairs committee Democratic staff summary of the allegations against Admiral Jackson. If the allegations can be proven, they have not only killed his nomination to head the VA, they may kill his medical practice as well.
The Times reporting states that Admiral Jackson provided a large stash of Percocet, a prescription opioid, to a military office staff member, which caused a panic on his staff when they did an inventory and couldn’t account for the missing supply. Having the President’s personal physician throwing around large quantities of an opioid, at a time when Trump is publicly trying to prosecute a national war on the substance, and its abuse, is kind of jarring.
But it gets even worse. There are also allegations that Jackson was caught writing himself prescriptions, which is not an activity that the AMA heartily supports. Exactly the opposite in fact, as well as most state medical regulating bodies. When he was caught, his solution to the problem was to ask a physician assistant to provide him with the medication.
And, just because good things always come in threes, there are allegations that Admiral Jackson went to a Secret Service going away party, got blitzed to the gills, and trashed a government issued vehicle. Good lord, with this kind of reputation, his entourage must be a bunch of over the hill rockers.
Think about this for a moment. Reporters and legal analysts were stunned when Trump picked a part time prosecutor and small time lawyer from down south to join hie Russia defense team. At least that guy isn’t being threatened with disbarment yet. But now he’s chosen a physician totally unqualified to be the Secretary of veteran’s Affairs, and this guy is getting burned at the stake. What’s the difference? Easy. Picking a quite possibly unqualified lawyer to represent him personally hurts nobody but himself. But, choosing someone to run a department with 300,000 employees, and give medical treatment to more than 9 million veterans affects one hell of a lot of people. The media interest and scrutiny matches the situation. And Admiral Ronny Jackson takes the fall for his Ignoramus in Chief.
But guess what, you can’t lay this solely at the feet of Glorious Bleater. What in the world was Ronny Jackson thinking?!? I was a pretty good hockey layer in my day, but I would never accept the job of head coach of the Las Vegas Golden Knights. I wouldn’t make it through training camp and the preseason. How could a guy who runs a medical practice smaller than some rural hospitals possibly think he was ready to take on this assignment? And now it’s costing him a personal toll that could be much more far reaching for both him and his family than just some public humiliation in the press.
When Trump promised during the campaign to run the country like he ran one of his businesses, I think most susceptible voters were thinking of the Trump organization. Turns out that what Trump was really talking about was Trump U. Hook the suckers, reel ’em in with pie-in-the-sky bullshit, take ’em for everything they have, and then discard them to the side of the road. The travails of Trump’s cabinet and high staff appointments force me to say something I never thought would come from my fingers. At least the son of a bitch told the truth about one thing!
