My former boss—Robert S. Taylor, who served as Acting General Counsel at Department of Defense—with a strong warning to federal employees across departments and agencies.
2. Two laws — Hatch Act and Antideficiency Act — can impose stiff penalties (including prison time) for federal employees who illegally undermine the election.
The latter could apply to federal actions that use funds that have not been appropriated by Congress for that purpose.
3. "Every federal employee should assume that if he or she carries out an activity intended to impair or impede the election... their conduct will be judged by people deeply upset over the effort to entrench a President viewed as a threat to the very foundations of our democracy"
4. "There may well be congressional investigations — especially after the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3 – with a strong reason to look into any efforts to interfere with the 2020 election. Committees and individual members could make criminal referrals to the" Justice Dept.
3. Report on Esper's weak response to Congress on question of using military in the election (contrasted with General Milley's solid response to Congress).
"Our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs" nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
2. "The death rate in this country is more than double that of Canada, exceeds that of Japan, a country with a vulnerable and elderly population, by a factor of almost 50, and even dwarfs the rates in lower-middle-income countries, such as Vietnam, by a factor of almost 2000."
3. The USA has "failed at almost every step. We had ample warning....
The United States came into this crisis with enormous advantages. Along with tremendous manufacturing capacity, we have a biomedical research system that is the envy of the world. We have enormous expertise..."
“Secret Service agents expressed their anger and frustration to colleagues and friends Friday, saying that the president’s actions have repeatedly put them at risk. ‘He’s never cared about us,’ one agent told a confidant.”
2. “Former Secret Service agents said it was unheard of for agents to openly complain about their president but that some currently in the ranks had become convinced during the pandemic that Trump was willing to put his protectors in harm’s way.”
from same Washington Post report
3.
“This administration doesn’t care about the Secret Service,” one current agent relayed in an internal discussion group. “It’s so obvious.”
The CDC "had a contact tracing team ready to go...but had NOT been asked to mobilize."
Dr Conley:
"The White House medical unit, in conjunction with the collaboration with CDC and local state health departments, are conducting all contact tracing per CDC guidelines."
2. WaPo also casts doubt on Dr. Conley's claim that the White House has engaged "local state health departments" in contact tracing.
WaPost: "Officials in Minnesota, Ohio and New Jersey, where Trump held events in recent days, said they haven’t heard from the White House."
2. On prospect of Trump's impending personal financial crash:
"A danger of simply running out of money soon if there is no turnaround...$421 million in personal liability debts...due soon add to the impression of an approaching risk of financial breakdown."