The Buck Stops With Everybody

Ken AshfordGubmint Shutdown, Immigration and Xenophobia, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Impasse. Government is shut down. Nobody is budging. At a meeting yesterday with Pelosi and Schumer, Trump asked if they would fund his wall. He specifically said “wall” and NOT “border security” (he lied in a later tweet about this). Pelosi said no, and Trump said (verbatim) “Bye bye” and left. At present, he seems to have rallied the Republicans … Read More

Breaking: Mystery Foreign Company Gets No Help From SCOTUS

Ken AshfordBreaking News, L'Affaire Russe, Supreme Court, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

A few weeks ago, there was a super-secret hearing in DC Court regarding a subpeona issued to an unknown foreign company from the Mueller investigation. The company was fighting the subpoena. This just happened: "(Bloomberg)—The U.S. Supreme Court refused to shield a mystery company from having to provide information in what’s believed to be the criminal investigation being conducted by … Read More

This Sounds Like Collusion

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Ooops! Due to a redaction error by Manafort’s attorneys, we just learned that: 1) Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, who has been tied to Russian intelligence, met in Madrid during the campaign; 2) Manafort shared 2016 polling data with Kilimnik; and 3) They discussed a “Ukrainian peace plan.” Here is the filing in question. You can copy (Ctrl-C) the redacted … Read More

The Non-Crisis Ploy

Ken AshfordGubmint Shutdown, Immigration and Xenophobia, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Flop sweat for Donald Trump. As the government shutdown enters its third week, and there is no movement on funding Trump’s wall, Trump is looking and acting desperate. Tonight, he will go on primetime television and, everyone expects, he will declare some sort of emergency and then try to get his wall funded by the military. Basically, the administration is trying … Read More

Trump’s Ignorance Of Afghanistan Is Scary And Curious

Ken AshfordAfghanistan, Military Issues, Russia, Trump & Administration, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

At a press briefing at the end of a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump took questions from the press, and went on for 90 minutes in a rambling monologue festooned from end to end with falsehoods on a variety of subjects. But one particular statement he made has stood out: But then Trump went right off the deep end with a disquisition on … Read More

Enter Mitt

Ken AshfordElection 2020, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Yesterday, Mitt penned a scorching New Year’s Day attack on Trump in the Washington Post: The Trump presidency made a deep descent in December. The departures of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, the appointment of senior persons of lesser experience, the abandonment of allies who fight beside us, and the president’s thoughtless claim that America … Read More

Reflections on 2018

Ken AshfordTrump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

1968 is often thought of as the most turbulent year domestically in modern American history, but I think 2018 is right up there. Sure, there wasn’t rioting in the streets, but the limitations of democracy and our constitutional rule of law remain tested. Trump is, if not a criminal, certainly immoral, and without question the worst custodian of this country. … Read More

Why Should Democrats Negotiate When Team Trump Can’t Even Agree On What A “Wall” Means?

Ken AshfordGubmint Shutdown, Immigration and Xenophobia, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

In an interview published Sunday in the Los Angeles Times, Kelly was quoted saying that the current White House plan for a barrier is “not a wall.” “The president still says ‘wall’ — oftentimes, frankly, he’ll say ‘barrier’ or ‘fencing.’ Now he’s tended toward steel slats,” Kelly said. “But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration … Read More

Cohen, Who Claims To Never Have Been To Prague, Was In Prague It Seems

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

This story right now is a little under the radar, but McClatchy has the scoop: A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen … Read More

Government Shutdown Watch

Ken AshfordCongress, Economy & Jobs & Deficit, Immigration and Xenophobia, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Last night, the House passed a continuing resolution bill that included the $5 billion for a border wall, which Trump wanted. but the bill is DOA in the Senate and, we’re told, has no chance of passing. Trump is unchained. Mattis resigned yesterday after Trump’s decision, contra his advisers and, well, everyone, to pull out of Syria leaving a huge … Read More

Mattis: I’m Outta Here

Ken AshfordMilitary Issues, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Mattis quits. He wasn’t fired – he quit, no doubt due to the fact that Trump decided on his own to withdraw troops. The resignation letter is astonishing. It does not praise Trump. It is cold and icy. Mattis’ resignation letter makes it clear. “My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear eyed about both malign actors … Read More

The Barr Memo

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

Trump’s pick for the Attorney General (to replace Jeff Sessions) is William Barr, who previously served as Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush. In June 2018, Barr sent the Justice Department an unsolicited memo questioning the appropriateness of an obstruction probe special counsel Robert Mueller is said to be conducting of certain Trump actions in the White House. Barr in … Read More

Trump’s New Positions On The Wall And Syria Has Some Conservatives In An Uproar

Ken AshfordImmigration and Xenophobia, Republicans, Syria, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Let;s start with the wall and note how sad Trump has become. He used to have so much vision: Oct. 3, 2015“We’re going to build a wall, and it’s going to be impenetrable, it will be a real wall.” — Jan. 16, 2016“China built a wall that’s 13,000 miles long 2,000 years ago. My ambition is for ours to be … Read More