White House Takes Control Of COVID Hospitalization Data

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

The administrtion is telling hospitals to bypass the CDC and send their numbers directly to them: The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and, beginning on Wednesday, send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington — a move that has alarmed public health experts who fear the data will be … Read More

Mueller Condemns Trump And Reminds US That Stone Is A Felon

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Political Scandals, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Washington Post: Robert S. Mueller III served as special counsel for the Justice Department from 2017 to 2019. The work of the special counsel’s office — its report, indictments, guilty pleas and convictions — should speak for itself. But I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific … Read More

Breaking: SCOTUS Rules No Absolute Immunity In Two Cases Involving Subpoena Of Trump Taxes

Ken AshfordConstitution, Supreme Court, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Trump v. Mazars LLP: Can US House committee subpoena financial records of Trump and his businesses? 7-2 (same 7-2 as below). Yes if for a proper legislative purpose. Court below must decide if there is a proper legislative purpose, taking into account separation of powers issues. Basically a punt. Win for libs because Trump has no absolute immunity, but good … Read More

Trump’s Second Term Strategy: Ignore The COVID Deaths

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, Election 2020, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

The dreaded 'alligator mouth' continues to open. pic.twitter.com/EFSDXNYR16 — Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) July 7, 2020 It would appear that President Trump is quite serious about the new strategy for dealing with the surging COVID-19 pandemic that was reported earlier in the Washington Post: White House officials hope Americans will grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of … Read More

Trump Endears Himself To White Supremacists… And Putin, Again… While America Gets Sicker

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

The nation is full of racial strife, although on the whole, the BLM movement is peaceful and making rapid progress. A couple pointed guns at protesters in St. Louis as a group marched toward the mayor’s home to demand her resignation. https://t.co/5EqDd43QCd pic.twitter.com/KWNaif77ch — ABC News (@ABC) June 29, 2020 Trump retweet shows supporter yelling "white power" White House spokesman: … Read More

Stone Was Handled With Velvet Gloves [UPDATE: And Flynn Walks!]

Ken AshfordCourts/Law, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

And then Barr got rid of the US Attorney for DC and replaced him with a former staffer and put heavy pressure on his former staffer then acting US attorney for DC to go easy on Stone sentencing because of Stone’s relationship with the president, Zelinsky is saying. — Laura Rozen (@lrozen) June 23, 2020 &then Barr clumsily tried to … Read More

Bolton v Trump

Ken AshfordTrump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Greg Sargent has a good rundown of the issues surrounding this inane DOJ lawsuit against John Bolton to stop him from publishing his book: Typically, when an author wants to publish a book with potentially classified information, National Security Council officials review the manuscript and enter a dialogue with the author, who edits the book until concerns are satisfied. Those officials … Read More

Trump’s Tulsa Rally Could Kill People

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, Election 2020, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta went off on the Trump campaign’s plans to hold a massive, indoor rally this Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the number of Covid-19 cases are currently spiking: “I can’t imagine anyone is telling him this is okay.” On Cuomo Prime Time, the eponymous host asked Gupta to explain President Donald Trump’s reasoning for bringing together tens of thousands of … Read More

Trump Signs Weak Executive Order Reining In Police While Vocally Supporting Police

Ken AshfordRacial Homicides, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Trump signed a piece of paper that didn’t mean shit a while ago. CNN’s account of the Sharpie action notes that by signing an executive order on “police reform,” Trump is taking “his first concrete steps on Tuesday to address growing national outcry over police brutality.” Yeah, right. It’s a bullshit feint at “reform” because Trump doesn’t give a shit about changing a broken system, but he does … Read More

Trump Lacks Object Permanence Development Skill

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way. Anderson Cooper just pointed out that this is something humans usually learn at about 18 months of age. The president hasn’t reached that stage yet: Trump: If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any … Read More

Document Dump: Judge Gleeson On Why Flynn’s Charges Should Not Be Dropped

Ken AshfordCourts/Law, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

The short version, however, is this. Gleeson argues there are two bases for denying a motion to dismiss a prosecution: the prosecutor’s reasons for doing so, or clear evidence of gross prosecutorial abuse. Guided by Rule 48(a)’s text and history, as well as separation of powers principles, there are two grounds for denying leave of court. First, “the requirement of … Read More

No Bottom

Ken AshfordPolice Brutality/Reform, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

The incident, from this weekend: ⚠️⚠️⚠️Officer Aaron Torgalski of Buffalo PD pushed a 75 year old man to the ground in Niagara Square today. Pushing him to the ground with excessive force caused a bleeding head wound. The police claimed he “tripped” and was injured. The officer is on immediate leave without pay pic.twitter.com/6QFCQwcgwd — Ashlyn (@ashlyn3161) June 5, 2020 … Read More

Mattis Weighs In

Ken AshfordTrump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Retired General Jim Mattis, who was Defense Secretary for the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency, dropped a scalding indictment of his former boss, blasting him for his divisiveness, lack of leadership, and disregard for the Constitution. In a scathing statement to The Atlantic, Mattis, who resigned after Trump publicly contradicted his recommendations about the ongoing U.S. presence in Syria, said he was “angry … Read More