North Carolina May Finally Have An Election Result

Ken AshfordBreaking News, Election 2016, Local InterestLeave a Comment

Sitting governor Pat McCrory (R-NC) refused to concede the election for NC governor, which ended three weeks ago.  By the end of election day, current NC attorney general and Democratic challenger Roy Cooper was ahead by a little over 6,000.  But the results still had to be counted and certified, down to the last one. If Cooper’s margin remained below … Read More

The OGE Is Trolling Trump

Ken AshfordPolitical Scandals, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

The Office of Government Ethics, which is responsible for ensuring executive branch personnel don’t run afoul of conflict of interest laws, has been pressuring Trump to place his fortune in a blind trust, like virtually every president before him. But Trump has thus far refused — and in his Wednesday tweetstorm, he purposefully did not say he plans on actually divesting from … Read More

The Best Second Draft — And Possibly The Final Draft — Of Election 2016

Ken AshfordElection 2016Leave a Comment

David Roberts at Vox goes deep into the numbers, the graphs, and what everybody says about why Clinton lost and Trump won.  And he concludes….. Turns out everything mattered The most agonizing implication of the narrow loss is that everything mattered. Every decision to hype Clinton’s emails. Comey’s extraordinary violation of precedent. WikiLeaks. Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speeches. Her refusal to … Read More

What Digby Says, Part MCLVII

Ken AshfordElection 2016, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

On Trump and Trump supporters being “sore winners”: An incident in Brooklyn this past weekend illustrates the phenomenon. Two women in a restaurant were bemoaning the election of Donald Trump when a man and his wife sat down next to them and became incensed about what the two women were saying. The manager moved the couple to a different table and gave a meal without … Read More

Trump’s Newest Odd Tweet

Ken AshfordElection 2016, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

I don’t know.  Maybe it was Castro’s death, and Trump missed being in the headlines.  But for whatever reason, he tweeted this: In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016 This is extremely bizarre.  Is … Read More

She Seems Nice

Ken AshfordRace, YoutubeLeave a Comment

Trump voter going on a tirade This incident is the just the latest in a recent spate of obscene and racist tirades by Trump supporters. Last week a Trump fan abused black employees of a Miami Starbucks and over the weekend a viral video showed a Delta Airlines passenger screaming about “Hillary bitches.” Yesterday Delta apologized for not removing the … Read More

McCrory v. Cooper

Ken AshfordElection 2016, Local InterestLeave a Comment

While the nation mourns the win of Donald Trump, here in North Carolina, we have our own little Bush v. Gore drama going on.  Except…. not really, because it isn’t as close as Bush v. Gore was.  We actually have a governor who is willing to cheat the results in order to win.  On election day, the results has Cooper … Read More

Should Hillary Challenge?

Ken AshfordElection 2016Leave a Comment

My thought has always been “no” on this question.  No chance. No evidence.  And she would look like a sore loser. This, however, gave me pause:(CNN) Hillary Clinton’s campaign is being urged by a number of top computer scientists to call for a recount of vote totals in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, according to a source with knowledge of the … Read More

The Last Last Word On Election 2016 And Why Hillary Lost

Ken AshfordElection 2016Leave a Comment

Kevin Drum nails it: So what did cause Hillary Clinton’s loss? This is all still tentative, but as I’ve read more preliminary analysis of county-level returns, I’d say it was three things. Two of them are probably going to piss you off:1 Millennials. This one is pretty clear cut. Relative to 2012, Hillary Clinton did worse among millennials by a … Read More

Photo Op

Ken AshfordImmigration and Xenophobia, Syria, Trump & Administration, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

Hey!  Look!  It’s President-Elect Donald Trump!  And who is with him?  Why, that’s Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.  This was yesterday as they were meeting at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster NJ. I wonder what that was all about. Kris Kobach is a central figure in the nativist movement and the architect of Arizona’s notorious “papers please” law. … Read More

Does Korematsu Provide Precedent For A Muslim Registry?

Ken AshfordConstitution, Godstuff, Race, Supreme Court, Trump & Administration, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

No. No, it doesn’t.  Not even a close call. Let’s just all get on the same page. This is happening: Trump surrogates are already citing Japanese internment camps from WW II as “precedent” for Muslim registry pic.twitter.com/DVnjtom0mc — Brendan Karet (@bad_takes) November 17, 2016 And the obvious question is…. would it be constitutional for the government to require citizens to … Read More

Scenes From New Zealand

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

New Zealand got hit by a devastating 7.8M earthquake earlier this week and has had about 300+ aftershocks, some of them quite strong.  Here are some scenes: Stranded cows:

The First Test Should Be A Massive Infrastructure Bill

Ken AshfordCongress, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Trump promised it, Democrats have always loved it.  And Republicans hate it. Trump promised a half-trillion dollar building program, about twice as much as even Hillary Clinton.  It certainly would put Americans to work (not that unemployment is a problem) AND more importantly, it is needed. But will Trump get it? It will be interesting to see how it plays out. … Read More