The big news for me yesterday was not Michael Cohen being sentenced but the news that American Media, (the National Enquirer’s parent company), had also admitted to its role in one of those illegal payments, and agreed to provide more evidence.
American Media has a ton of information on Donald Trump and has agreed to provide it as part of their plea deal. Watch out here. They defintently bought the Playboy model story and buried it before the election. There is much, much more.
Cohen’s plea to nine felony counts, including the two campaign-finance violations, makes him tough to be a witness. Tax fraud, they had so much on him he is lucky to get just three years. He certainly doesn’t come across as a lovable, or likable figure.
A few things learned from all this include the people Donald Trump surrounded himself with were at best questionable. Also, when you choose your friends do better then he did. Michael Cohen went from “I would take a bullet for Donald trump” to states evidence in a day. Trump went from he’s my lawyer to he should “be locked up for the maximum” in no time. Friends like that, no one needs.
Bottom line, it’s clear to me that the Special Prosecutor is building a strong case. All these people turning state’s evidence are copping pleas for a reason. I think the noose is starting to lower on the President and something is coming. I also think it’s more than paying off strippers and ex Playboy playmates. For the first time I think Donald Trump is in trouble.
On The Shutdown:
Remember what I wrote about Trump agreeing to take the hit for any shutdown and it was a bad idea? Here’s some comments from his own party yesterday:
(From The Washington post and Politico).
Republicans ditch Trump on his shutdown .”I don’t understand the strategy, but maybe he’s figured it out and he’ll tell us in due course,” said John Cornyn (Tex.), the No. 2 Senate Republican. “But I don’t understand it.”
]ohn Thune (S.D.), the third-ranking GOP senator said there was no scenario under which he would be proud to shut down the government. “It would not be good.”
Pressed on whether Trump’s comments were helpful to the negotiations, Thune answered obliquely. ‘The president has his own style and way of negotiating,” he said. “The only thing I would say is, it’s just simple math — that you’ve to got to get 60 votes in the Senate, and that’s going to require Democrats.”
It was a bad move to say I will own the shutdown.
What’s Trump Going To Do?
First, he’s going to attempt to say the new USMCA deal is so good for us and negative to Mexico that they are paying for the wall. He will say I told you “one way or another they would pay and they are”. The problem is you can’t bring this up now after the fact, after the deal is done. You never said it before.
Second, he is going to take dollars from the Military budget to build the wall. It will be his way of saying I am getting it done as I promised. The problem here is after touting how he restored the military budget to take five billion from them is not sellable to me.
For the two years he controlled the house and senate he never got a vote or brought it to the floor. Now he is cornered and the new house is not going to do a thing on the wall.
Nancy Wins:
Nancy Pelosi pulled off becoming speaker just as many of us knew she would. Check this out from the WSJ this AM:
Nancy Pelosi struck a deal with detractors in her caucus that would set a term limit on her speakership. The agreement would limit her to three terms as speaker, with the option for a fourth if she won the support of two-thirds of her caucus.
TWENTY-FOUR DAYS AGO, 16 Democrats — 14 men and two women — wrote a letter to their Democratic colleagues saying that they were “committed to voting for new leadership in both our Caucus meeting and on the House Floor.”
LESS THAN ONE MONTH LATER, NANCY PELOSI flipped eight of them — plus one more who signed on later — and that put her on the brink of winning the speakership. Half of the people who vowed to never support Nancy Pelosi are now supporting her.
Are you surprised?
Other Newsworthy Stories:
Remember yesterday we talked about the congressional “sexual harassment” payouts that were secret and at taxpayer expenses? Here’s an update:
Congress has reached an agreement to overhaul congressional policies on sexual harassment. The legislation would hold members of Congress personally liable for awards and settlements that stem from acts of harassment and related retaliation they personally commit.
Now let’s see if it passes.
What the shame here is that as the investigation has unfolded we learned how poorly this was handled from allowing the shooter to stay in school. To his not being properly treated. To failed police action on the day of the attack. There has been little to no coverage of all this.
Last week I picked up a granddaughter from her girl scout meeting and we were talking about the activities they were doing. I said, “Do you want to join the boy scouts?” She responded as you would expect. “Why would I want to do that?\ I want to be a girl scout.” I just told her girls were allowed now to be boy scouts, and let it go. I told people that next we will have boy scouts, girl scouts and undeclared gender neutral scouts.
Mexico Decision:
Here’s a story reprint from the Washington Times today that you will find interesting. It’s related to the administration’s crackdown on Mexico’s northern border with the U.S.
Mexico cracks down on illegal immigration at southern border with Guatemala
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s top security official said Wednesday the government will close off illegal entries at its southern border with Guatemala, but didn’t say how the country plans to do it.
Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero also said the migrant caravans that crossed the southern border in October “is no longer an issue.”
“Do you know why it is no longer an issue? Because in five days this administration solved the issue, five days,” she said, referring to the first week since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office Dec. 1. “The United States was impressed.”
The new administration has mobilized material and equipment to improve conditions at the migrants’ shelter in the northern border city of Tijuana, but problems continue because the Central American there are frustrated by the slow pace at which U.S. officials are processing asylum requests.
Sanchez Cordero said Mexico will promote a “Christmas at Home” campaign to encourage many of the migrants to return to their home countries for the holidays.
Discussing the entry of migrants, she said the new administration will end the practice of undocumented or illegal crossings over the Suchiate River, which marks much of the border between Mexico and Guatemala.
“In the south there will be only one entry, on the bridge,” she said. “Anyone who wants to enter illegally, we are going to say: ‘Get in line and you can enter our country.’”
Sanchez Cordero offered no details on how that would be done, however.
In late October, Mexican authorities briefly tried to block a migrant caravan from crossing the river with ranks of police and military personnel, a helicopter and boats but the migrants crossed anyway.