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 and appalled” after watching the events of the past week. Ever since Mattis’ departure from the Pentagon in early 2019, the pair have engaged in verbal skirmishes, trading jokes and insults at the others’ expense.

“When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Mattis recalled, before turning to Trump’s militarized Monday night speech that threatened to use active-duty military forces to crackdown on the nationwide anti-police brutality protests. “Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”

Mattis also firing a barrage at current Defense Secretary Mark Esper, for his comments calling to “dominate the battlespace” of American streets during a conference call with the White House on Monday.

“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate,’” Mattis cautioned. “At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.”

But Mattis then turned his sights back to Trump and pulled no punches about his failures to live up to the role he was elected to hold.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try,” Mattis concluded. “Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”

It’s Not Just Trump; It’s The Whole GOP

Ken AshfordRepublicans, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

George Will is right. It’s not enough to boot Donald Trump out of office:

In life’s unforgiving arithmetic, we are the sum of our choices. Congressional Republicans have made theirs for more than 1,200 days. We cannot know all the measures necessary to restore the nation’s domestic health and international standing, but we know the first step: Senate Republicans must be routed, as condign punishment for their Vichyite collaboration, leaving the Republican remnant to wonder: Was it sensible to sacrifice dignity, such as it ever was, and to shed principles, if convictions so easily jettisoned could be dignified as principles, for . . . what?

….Those who think our unhinged president’s recent mania about a murder two decades ago that never happened represents his moral nadir have missed the lesson of his life: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come.

It has long been my belief that the Republican Party was on the brink of a devastating defeat that would ruin the party for decades. But I was always wrong. Somehow it never happened even though the demographic headwinds were always intensely against them. They kept hanging on, winning elections despite getting worse and worse.

But the same thing is true of all bubbles: they always last longer than anyone thinks they can, which makes the inevitable crash even worse. Republicans probably expected 2016 to be the year of the crash, but thanks to a desperate strategy and some good breaks, they somehow managed to eke out one more win. Unfortunately for them, the price for this was Donald Trump, who was always fated to be the doom of the party. Mitch McConnell knows this, which is why he’s so frantically filling judgeships. He knows Republicans are likely to lose in November, and it’s possible that this is finally the year that they lose the median voter too, entering the same decade-long wilderness that Democrats did in the 1980s.

Trump isn’t the only sign of this. The right these days is bereft of ideas. Literally. They have nothing new that they want to accomplish and no particular principles left. They just mechanically accede to whatever Trump happens to be saying this week. The left, by contrast, is brimming with ideas. UBI. National health care. $15 minimum wage. Child care. The revival of labor unions. Taxing the rich. The Green New Deal. Free college tuition. Decriminalization of marijuana. Criminal justice reform. DC statehood. Most of these won’t fly, but even if you’re a moderate who doesn’t care much for Bernie-esque socialism you can still sense the tumult of ideas roiling the progressive movement. There’s life and energy among progressives, while conservatives seem filled only with weariness and hatred. This is not a good foundation for four more years.

Then again, I might be wrong yet again. Maybe the Republican bubble still has some life left in it. Ask me again in November.

The Fire Of Violence Is Being Stoked… By The Right

Ken AshfordLaw, Racial Homicides, Social Media & Networking, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Let me be clear about one thing… the overwhelming majority of protests that are taking place are peaceful,

Let me be clear about another thing… looting and violence are occurring and some of it are by violent leftist protesters and much of it — particularly the looting — are crimes of opportunity.

It is also true that people in law enforcement have been hurt, killed, or injured.

I condemn all of this.

But Trump and AG Barr and others on the right are quick to condemn that all the trouble is coming from leftists, particularly, Anttfa. Trump went so far as to declare, by tweet, Antifa a terrorist organization.

Despite his position in the highest seat of national power, Trump’s tweets are (fortunately) not legally-binding. And even if they were, it wouldn’t matter — the United States has no official statute for designating domestic terrorists, a fact which has ironically served to benefit homegrown mass murderers acting on white supremacist agendas. There’s also the fact that Antifa is … not a formal organization. There is no hierarchy, no centralized leadership — it’s just individuals, occasionally clustering together, engaging in direct action. Even if you could legally designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, it would be impossible to develop any sort of criteria to decide who or what qualifies as “Antifa.”

And since Antifa means “anti-fascist”, that would envelope virtually everyone who fought in World War II.

But stupid is as stupid does.

There is little sign that Antifa has been responsible for any of the violence. But right wing white supremacist groups posing as “Antifa” have been caught.

Check out this article from the prominent right wing blog Redstate.

The pro-Trump website RedState published a report Monday that was based on a tweet from a hoax “Antifa” account actually linked to a white nationalist group.

As NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny, Emmanuelle Saliba, and Ben Collins reported Monday night, a Twitter account claiming to be a national Antifa group posted a tweet that went viral in conservative media. A Twitter spokesperson told NBC News that the account was suspended, and that the platform found it was linked to white nationalist group Identity Evropa.

Per NBC News:

The spokesperson said the account violated the company’s platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts. Twitter suspended the account after a tweet that incited violence.

As protests were taking place in multiple states across the U.S. Sunday night, the newly created account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted, “Tonight’s the night, Comrades,” with a brown raised fist emoji and “Tonight we say ‘F— The City’ and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods…. and we take what’s ours …”

Here’s the tweet in question:

Identity Evropa, which in early 2019 changed its name to “American Identity Movement,” is a white nationalist organization, led by Patrick Casey, that mainly organizes on college campuses across the country.

Trump campaign adviser and regular Fox News guest Harlan Hill was also duped by the faux tweet, as well as Fox Nation host Lara Logan.

“Absolutely insane,” Trump Jr. wrote on Instagram, sharing a screenshot of the tweet, “Just remember what ANTIFA really is. A Terrorist Organization! They’re not even pretending anymore.”

But there’s more…

There’s the Proud Boys, a well-known right wing group of armed race warriors, embedding themselves with the protesters.

You have the Boogaloo Boys. Like the Proud Boys, their goal is to start a second Civil War, as in “Civil War: Electric Boogaloo”. Hence, the stupid name. They are showing up to riot as well. They are sometimes identifiable by their Hawaiian shirts with their camo outfits.

And of course, you have unaffiliated people who see BLM protests as an opportunity to shoot:

But there’s even more…

Social media users participating in protests over the death of George Floyd have reported large piles of bricks randomly appearing at rallying sites.

Unconfirmed videos emerged on social media that claimed to show random stacks of bricks in the middle of some of these protest locations. Breaking911, a Twitter handle with nearly 700,000 followers, posted that “videos continue to surface showing protesters stumbling upon pallets of bricks or pavers in areas with no construction taking place.”

Videos of rioters stumbling on these piles prompted several theories online about their origin, ranging from them being planted there by police so rioters could face tougher charges to outside agitators trying to up the stir up more trouble.

The evidence is slack…. except for maybe this video of Boston PD in an alleyway handing bricks.

And then you have the police themselves. Aside from (possibly?) putting bricks out, many are… well… going crazy:

In Louisville, Kentucky, a police chief was fired after officers killed an African American restaurant owner, David McAtee. The officers involved in the incident had not activated their body cameras as required by department policy.

In Atlanta, Georgia, two police officers were fired on Sunday and three others were placed on desk duty after officers used Tasers on two college students who had been sitting in a car. The action violated department restrictions against excessive use of force.

“After review of that footage, Chief [Erika] Shields and I have made the determination that two of the officers involved in the incident last night will be terminated immediately,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said at a news conference.

A county prosecutor announced on Tuesday that arrest warrants had been issued for six Atlanta officers on charges including aggravated assault, simple battery, criminal damage to property, pointing a handgun and aggravated battery.

Police shot dead a member of a crowd in Las Vegas who had “multiple firearms who appeared to be wearing body armor”, the local police department said in a statement.

Finally…. guess who is back, after being silent for three years…. hacking from the left…

So much gaslighting and conspiracy theories, It’s hard to know what’s true.

UPDATE — earlier today:

Document Dump: Judge Sullivan Files His Brief In Flynn’s Mandamus Request

Ken AshfordCourts/Law, L'Affaire RusseLeave a Comment

COVID-19 Update: Yeah, It’s Still Here

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

World:

US:

NC and local:

You wouldn’t know it from the news, but we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. States are gingerly opening up, but gatherings are limited. No sports, no movies, no theater, no concerts. I personally am still working from home.

Trump, no in full campaign and fascist mode, barely talks about coronavirus. In fact….

Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the most prominent members of the White House coronavirus task force, said on Monday that he has not spoken to or met with President Donald Trump in two weeks.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added that that his contact with the President has become much less frequent.

Their last interaction was May 18, when Trump invited Fauci to provide medical context during a teleconference with the nation’s governors. The Task Force last met on May 28 and last held a White House press briefing on May 22.

News that the pair haven’t communicated in two weeks comes during a critical period in the US coronavirus response as all 50 states have relaxed social distancing measures even as the virus’ death toll continues to climb. As of Monday, at least 1.79 million Americans have contracted the virus and at least 104,300 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Put another way, 15,000 Americans have died since the coronavirus task force last met.