They Knew

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) released the fifth and final volume of their multipart report on Russia’s Active Measures Campaign and Interference in the 2016 presidential election yesterday. You can find the first four volumes at this link. This fifth volume is entitled Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities and despite that title it really ties together all the pieces from the previous four reports. … Read More

Trump Saying The Quiet Part Out Loud

Ken AshfordElection 2020, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

The push to destroy the US Post Office is real and it’s dangerous. And Trump isn’t even trying to hide his reasons: Back in March, President Trump seemed to blurt out the real reason he opposes expanded voting by mail in the 2020 election. Referring to provisions in the Democrats’ coronavirus stimulus bill to vastly increase funding for voting by mail, he said … Read More

Trump Campaign Flummoxed By Kamala Harris Already

Ken AshfordElection 2020Leave a Comment

There are two lenses by which to look at presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s choice of California Sen. Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate, and both are winners heading into the stretch run of the 2020 presidential campaign.  1)  A vice presidential candidate’s only job is to help the ticket win. So, does Harris fit the bill? Absolutely.  We … Read More

It’s Kamala!

Ken AshfordElection 2020Leave a Comment

My preferred choice for the 2020 Democratic nominee is Joe Biden’s VP pick. And I couldn’t be happier. Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau. I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her … Read More

The Train Wreck Interview

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

Trump’s interview with Axios’s Jonathan Swan is iconic, and an instant classic. Good God. Trump’s handlers should have staged a diversion to stop that disastrous interview. Pulled a fire alarm. Pumped laughing gas into the room. Set themselves on fire. Whatever it took. “Train wreck” is too gentle a description. It was like a nuclear-armed jet crashed into a train, … Read More

Breaking: Trump’s Tulsa Rally Just Killed Presidential Candidate Herman Cain

Ken AshfordBreaking News, Ebola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Here’s just a few of the #BlackVoicesForTrump at tonight’s rally! Having a fantastic time!#TulsaRally2020 #Trumptulsa #TulsaTrumprally #MAGA #Trump2020 #Trump2020Landslide pic.twitter.com/27mUzkg7kL — Herman Cain (@THEHermanCain) June 20, 2020 Former Republican presidential contender Herman Cain has died due to COVID-19. Cain was hospitalized on July 2 for COVID-19 symptoms; his last apparent public appearance was at Donald Trump’s Tulsa, Oklahoma rally two weeks prior, on June 20. That … Read More

As Soon As It Was Announced That Last Quarter’s GDP Set Records For Shrinkage, Trump Floats The Idea Of Delaying The Election

Ken AshfordElection 2020, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote??? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020 Fact check: Mail-in voting and absentee voting are exactly the same … Read More

Trump Can’t Understand Why Dr. Fauci Has Higher Approval Ratings. It Seems Glaringly Obvious Why.

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

For Trump, taking the virus seriously was apparently little more than a short-lived experiment, given the president’s retweet of a video in which a doctor claims that the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine is the cure for the coronavirus. The video was later deleted by Twitter: Twitter has pulled a video of doctors making false claims about the novel coronavirus after it was shared … Read More

Trump Admits He Hasn’t Talked To Putin About Russian Bounties On U.S. Soldiers

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Military Issues, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

President Trump just admitted in a new interview that during his recent conversation with Vladimir Putin, he didn’t ask the Russian leader about the news that Russia might have paid bounties to Taliban-linked militias for the killing of U.S. troops. Because Trump is often so unabashedly shameless about his corrupt motives and his prioritizing of his own interests above all else, his … Read More

Barr Really Is Evil Or Incompetent, And Probably Both

Ken AshfordTrump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Barr’s testimony today was just as awful as his worst critics would expect. While it wasn’t useful at eliciting new information, Barr did not succeed at filibustering over questions he wanted to ignore. Jim Jordan, whose favorite tactic is to scream and refuse to let witnesses answer questions, four times complained that Democrats had insisted on reclaiming their time when … Read More

Barr’s Opening Statement

Ken AshfordTrump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Billy Barr’s statement for his testimony today is here. It is as cynical and dishonest as you might imagine. In his first paragraph, he pays tribute to John Lewis, without mentioning the ways he personally is trying to roll back the ability for every citizen to vote (most notably, of late, by falsely suggesting that the only safe way to vote … Read More

What’s Up With Portland?

Ken AshfordPolice Brutality/Reform, Race, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Today marks the 50th straight day of protests in Portland, Oregon—which have been ongoing since shortly after the May 25 murder of George Floyd. The protests have been largely peaceful, but there have been several well-documented episodes of violence, vandalism and property damage. In the past few days, however, the protests have been met with what appears to be a … Read More

Trump Is Using The Rose Garden For His Campaign

Ken AshfordElection 2020, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

President Trump is having a rally problem. This past weekend he was forced to cancel a highly-touted rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, supposedly because of “bad weather.” They don’t normally cancel Trump rallies even when people are waiting outside in below-freezing weather, so this was surprising. In fact, the weather was warm and sunny on the New England coast that day, so it’s pretty … Read More

GOP Governors Not Good At Handling COVID, Public Says

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, PollsLeave a Comment

Oh look. It seems that people aren’t impressed with their GOP Governors following the Trump model of lying, blowing smoke, blaming and otherwise acting like assholes during a major public health crisis: While governors’ ratings for communicating about the virus and caring about their communities are down slightly, this is not uniform across the country but varies by the party of the … Read More