Editor’s Note: This blog is going to take a long weekend and be back next week.
Today In The News:
- Two Michael Cohen Stories that the news networks reported differently.
1. The Anti Cohen Story:
After fanatically denying in his testimony last week that he ever asked for a pardon, this report released this morning:
Michael Cohen told his attorney to seek a pardon from President Trump. Mr. Cohen, a former lawyer for Mr. Trump, directed his attorney last spring to inquire about the possibility. Even his lawyer acknowledged the request.
One more strike against his credibility.2. But, the New York Times reported this story instead of that:
Cohen Offers Documents in Bid to Show Trump Lawyers Helped With False Testimony
President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, brought drafts of a 2017 statement he made to Congress, along with emails with Mr. Trump’s lawyers about its drafting.
Comment: It’s clear Michael Cohen is no witness to have on a stand. The sooner he begins serving his sentence, the better off we are.
- In the never ending Trump/Russia story get ready for lots of noise today as Paul Manafort gets sentenced. Forget it has nothing to do with the President and the election, the MSM will cover this like Watergate 2.
He is scheduled to be sentenced today on tax and bank-fraud charges. The sentence could see him spend much of the rest of his life in prison.
Now, if he never got involved with the Trump campaign he would still be freely roaming the world today. - The President has talked so much about the U.S. trade deficit and the need to fix it. He has cancelled deals, forced issues and even put tariffs out there. So what has happened?
The U.S. trade deficit on goods hit a record high in 2018.
The deficit on goods grew 10% last year to $891.3 billion.
U.S. imports grew 7.5%, while exports increased just 6.3%.
Economists say the shortfall was fueled by tax cuts and spending increases that juiced demand from U.S. consumers and businesses as growth slowed around the world.
So if they’re right, the U.S. economy was robust and the world’s wasn’t so we consumed more goods. That’s god but the deficit was negative.
- Meanwhile the Democrats are continuing to divide as a party:
They split over how to respond to comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D. Minn.). A vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism that was sparked by her comments has been delayed. The draft resolution by Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats didn’t name Ms. Omar, but condemned “allegations that Jews should be suspected of being disloyal neighbors or citizens
“We’re working on language,” said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
The far left of the Democratic party is akin to the anti tax group that impacted the Republicans eight years ago. This divide can be even wider and in a general election devoid of “Russian Influence” and other charges will hurt them badly.
- With all the noise at the border, Sen. Lindsey Graham said this yesterday:
“It is no coincidence that these two groups — unaccompanied minors and family units — are crossing the border at an alarming rate. Our immigration laws require that both unaccompanied children and family units be released into the interior of the United States after apprehension. This is due to two legal loopholes… the Flores settlement agreement and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. Flores requires children, or… family units, to be released after 20 days in custody,” said Graham.
“The TVPRA requires unaccompanied alien children from noncontiguous countries to be released to Health and Human Services care facilities instead of being sent back to their countries of origin,” he said.
Under the act, children from Mexico and Canada can be returned to their countries — but the provision doesn’t apply to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, an omission Graham wants fixed.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that 63 percent of illegal border crossings would be addressed just by changing those laws.
Think about that, 63%. Makes you ask, do our elected officials want a solution?
Finally, just to be sure as we all know that as much as things change they remain the same. This from the WSJ today
| March 7, 1911 |
Amid the Mexican Revolution, President William Howard Taft mobilized nearly 20,000 U.S. troops to the southern border. The move marked a strategic shift after the U.S. had largely stayed out of events to the south. It was believed that the real intention was to prevent any damage to American property during the revolution, which would last until May 1920.