Get me Roger Stone

Caller ID labeled them “unknown,” but Roger Stone said he knew to pick up quickly during those harried months of the 2016 presidential campaign. There would be a good chance that the voice on the other end of the line would belong to his decades-long friend — the restless, insomniac candidate Donald Trump — dialing from a blocked phone number.

Those nocturnal chats and other contacts between the man who now occupies the Oval Office and an infamous political trickster have come under intensifying scrutiny as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation bores into whether Stone served as a bridge between Trump and WikiLeaks as the group was publishing hacked Democratic emails.

Mueller’s keen interest in their relationship was laid out in a draft court document revealed this week in which prosecutors drew a direct line between the two men — referring to Stone as someone understood to be in regular contact with senior Trump campaign officials, “including with then-candidate Donald J. Trump.”

  WaPo

No collusion!

The inclusion of the president by name in the draft filing rattled his legal team and indicated how closely the special counsel is scrutinizing what Trump may have learned from Stone about WikiLeaks’ release of emails that prosecutors say were hacked by Russian intelligence operatives.

It rattled Himself, too. And then Corsi went on TV.

In recent months, the Trump Organization turned over to Mueller’s team phone and contact logs that show multiple calls between the then-candidate and Stone in 2016, according to people familiar with the material.

The records are not a complete log of their contacts — Stone told The Washington Post on Wednesday that Trump at times called him from other people’s phones.

[...]

Trump is known to use several phones and has placed calls from cellphones that are not logged in the White House switchboard, current and former aides said. He has occasionally asked associates to make calls for him on their phones, they said.

When the list of incidences used to show intent in the question of obstruction of justice is written, that's going to be on there.

[Jerome Corsi] provided The Post and other news organizations with a draft filing by prosecutors describing his interactions with Stone — including an Aug. 2, 2016, email in which the right-wing author alerted Stone that he heard WikiLeaks was planning a major release of “very damaging” material.

The next day, Stone had one of his private talks with Trump, Stone said on a 2016 Infowars broadcast first reported by CNN.

[...]

Stone said he never discussed WikiLeaks with Trump and diminished the importance of any phone records, saying “unless Mueller has tape recordings of the phone calls, what would that prove?”

This is all they have for defense: You can't prove it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"America is booming"

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Trade wars are good and easy to win"

US v China: who wins? Vietnam!

Companies with thousands of factories in China are now racing to relocate out of the mainland, which seemed the only practical solution to avoid losses from higher tariffs that could take effect in a little more than a month. Earlier this week, Trump said it was “highly unlikely” that he would hold off on increasing the tariffs.

[...]

Importers and distributors, especially in the furniture industry, are confronting the hard truth that the U.S. president’s tariff strategy of bringing production back to the U.S. may not be compatible with a reality that has forced manufacturers to shift production overseas to ensure the low prices that shoppers demand.

[...]

Even though U.S. companies pay the duties when they bring in imports, the additional costs are usually passed right along to customers. As a result, many regard tariffs as taxes on consumers.

[...]

Some 9,000 miles away from the deepwater ports of China and new factory towns in Vietnam, American retailers are grappling with how much of the tariffs they can absorb.

Gao Jian, of the Vnocean Business Consulting Service in Vietnam, said he has guided about 40 Chinese enterprises per month to the more than 50 industrial parks he helps recruit for so far.

“Some companies can absorb a 10 percent tariff, but a 25 percent [tariff] would eat up their entire profit,” Gao said. “They would have to relocate and shut down their factories in China.”

[...]

The reality for many companies, though, is that the trade conflict could drag out for years or escalate quickly on Trump’s whims.

Already, about $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, which includes a range of furniture items and other consumer goods, are scheduled to see tariffs increase from 10 percent to 25 percent as of Jan. 1.

Combined with the initial $50 billion in Chinese imports that were sanctioned in July and August, 25 percent tariffs will apply to about half of all imports from China.

[...]

Foes of the tariffs, which include most major business and industry sectors, have argued that the additional costs are making it more expensive to sell to consumers and manufacture in the U.S.

[...]

After analyzing public comments, the U.S. Trade Representative decided in September to exclude nearly 300 products — mainly consumer goods from China — from the last batch of tariffs. Items exempted include smartwatches, bike helmets and highchairs.

Despite the reprieve, Strategic Sports’ owner, Norman Cheng, is ready to diversify by investing in a new factory with about 500 workers in Vietnam early next year.

“A lot of buyers are increasingly offering orders for factories in countries like Cambodia and Vietnam, due to the trade war,” said Cheng, who has 3,000 workers in China making 40 product lines.

  Politico

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

No collusion!

Conservative author and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi agreed in a new interview that he "absolutely" intended to help President Trump's campaign by trying to get stolen Hillary Clinton emails from Wikileaks.

Appearing Wednesday on Ari Melber's MSNBC show, Corsi was grilled about his involvement in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia's election interference and possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow in 2016.

[...]

Corsi said he would have loved to see the emails, saying “I was happy to do it and I was happy that it would benefit Donald Trump.”

  The Hill

Brilliant. That's not going to help his chances for a pardon.

Draft court documents from the special counsel’s team obtained by The Hill show that prosecutors allege that Corsi made false statements during a Sept. 6 interview. The documents claim that Corsi initially told investigators that he declined a request from an individual, whom Corsi identified as Roger Stone, to get in touch with WikiLeaks about "pending ... emails."

However, the documents state that Corsi later replied to Stone, “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging," appearing to refer to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

In his interview with Melber he made it clear that Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser, and Assange were the people in question.

[...]

Earlier this week, Corsi said he had rejected a plea deal from Muller on a charge of lying to federal investigators, claiming that he did not believe he willfully lied.

Good luck with that.

He spiked Trump's blood pressure, as evidenced in this morning's tweets. I'm surprised His Lardship didn't insist Corsi was just a coffee boy.  He will of course, deny any knowledge of or connection with the man.

Kudos to Patagonia

Outdoor retailer Patagonia announced Wednesday that it plans to donate the $10 million it is saving from President Trump’s corporate tax cuts this year to environmental groups.

“Based on last year’s irresponsible tax cut, Patagonia will owe less in taxes this year — $10 million less, in fact,” CEO Rose Marcario wrote in a LinkedIn post Wednesday afternoon. “Instead of putting the money back into our business, we’re responding by putting $10 million back into the planet. Our home planet needs it more than we do.”

"Taxes protect the most vulnerable in our society, our public lands and other life-giving resources,” she continued. "In spite of this, the Trump administration initiated a corporate tax cut, threatening these services at the expense of our planet.”

Marcario added that the donation will be made on top of the company’s ongoing “1% for the Planet” campaign, which gives 1 percent of the company’s sales to the environment's preservation and restoration.

“It will go a long way toward funding grassroots groups; including those dedicated to regenerative organic agriculture, which may be our greatest hope for reversing the damage done to our overheated planet,” she said.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Somebody's realizing his deal with Manafort might have backfired

There have actually already been a number of crimes uncovered, copped to and paid for, so the "search" has produced results even if it stopped now.  Witches have been successfully hunted.

There'll be more.

Also, the FBI did in fact investigate Hillary and the Democrats, and it may have cost her the election.  Rightly or wrongly, they were exonerated.

He's having a rough morning.





No, "Big Steel" is not opening and renovating plants all over the country.  Auto companies are not "pouring into the U.S."  And "billions of Dollars" are not "pouring into the coffers of the U.S.A. because of the Tariffs."  One of the reasons General Motors is laying off over 14,000 people is because of the tariffs. Retaliatory measues have reduced farmers profits from sales to China. So the tariffs are having the exact opposite effect of what they were supposedly going to do.

For all our sakes, he could take some advice:



UPDATE:

Yemen can wait

Congress may have just made a move toward ending support for the destruction of Yemen, but the White House is still actively aiding in that destruction.

A United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire and the resumption of humanitarian deliveries in Yemen has been stalled by the US and other security council members after a lobbying campaign by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to diplomats at the UN.

The resolution, drafted by Britain, called for a halt to the fighting for control of the port city of Hodeidah, the main entry point for supplies, and for guarantees from the warring sides that food and medicine could be delivered safely to a country at risk of a famine that could threaten the lives of 14 million Yemenis.

[...]

Diplomats familiar with the negotiations said Saudi Arabia and UAE intensively lobbied council members over the past week, threatening that the talks in Stockholm might not take place if the resolution passed.

[...]

The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the defence secretary, James Mattis, had issued a call for a ceasefire at the end of October.

But a UK push last week to have the resolution adopted quickly, ran into opposition led by the US mission. The US, China, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia all argued that the resolution should be delayed until the start of planned peace talks between the exile Yemeni government and Houthi rebels in Stockholm, which the UN special envoy, Martin Griffiths, hopes to broker at some point between 3 and 13 December.

[...]

According to diplomatic sources, only Poland, the Netherlands and Peru actively supported quick passage of the resolution. France, Russia and Sweden were among the remaining council members who did not express an opinion. British diplomats had argued that the threat of famine was so catastrophic that there could be no delay, and were taken aback by the lack of support.

[...]

A previous UK attempt to pass a ceasefire resolution on Yemen failed in similar circumstances in late 2016 after the outgoing secretary of state, John Kerry, persuaded his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, to drop the initiative on the grounds it would interfere with a peace initiative.

  The Guardian

We can't stop the bombing Yemen because that might interfere with attaining peace. Perfectly Orwellian.

Germany raids Deutsche Bank

About 170 police officers, prosecutors and tax inspectors searched six Deutsche Bank officers in and around Frankfurt, the public prosecutor’s office said. Investigators are looking into the activities of two Deutsche Bank employees who allegedly helped clients to set up offshore companies to launder money, it added.

  The Guardian

Hmmmmm. I wonder if they'll turn up any records on the Trump family's money laundering, since Deutsche was the only bank in the world that would do business with them for a period of time.

The prosecutor’s office said it had seized written and electronic business documents. Police cars were parked outside the headquarters of the bank, Germany’s biggest lender.

In a statement Deutsche Bank confirmed the raid. “The investigation has to do with the Panama Papers case. More details will be communicated as soon as these become known. We are cooperating fully with the authorities,” it said.

Records from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca were the the basis of the Panama Papers investigation and included more than 10m documents. The revelations caused protests in several countries and led to the resignation of several heads of state, including in Iceland and Pakistan.

Several banks, including the Swedish lenders Nordea and Handelsbanken have already been fined by financial regulators for violating money laundering rules as a result of the Panama Papers.

[...]

The investigation is separate from another money laundering scandal surrounding the Danish lender Danske Bank, where Deutsche Bank is involved.

Denmark’s state prosecutor filed preliminary charges on Wednesday against Danske for alleged violations of the country’s anti-money-laundering act in relation to its Estonian branch.

Danske is under investigation for suspicious payments totalling €200bn from 2007 onwards and a source with direct knowledge of the case told Reuters that Deutsche Bank helped to process the bulk of the payments.

It's a brave new world

Technically, as far as we know, death is a relief from suffering. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Nobody has more respect for veterans than Trump

NBC News previously reported that some veterans were forced into desperate financial straits stemming from a change in calculating housing allowances under the Forever GI Bill, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2017. When its computers were unable to process that change, the VA quickly faced a backlog of veterans’ claims three times higher than normal.

[...]

For weeks, student veterans across the country have raised an alarm about delayed or incorrect GI Bill benefit payments.

[...]

But on Wednesday, the department told congressional staffers that it would not reimburse those veterans who were paid less than they were owed, two committee aides told NBC News.

The news conflicts with a promise VA officials made to a House committee earlier this month that it would reimburse those veterans who received less than the full amount they were due.

[...]

VA officials told congressional staffers in a telephone call on Wednesday morning that once the system is made right next year, they will not make retroactive payments to those who were underpaid because of the housing miscalculations.

"They are essentially going to ignore the law and say that that change only goes forward from Dec. 2019," one aide told NBC News.

[...]

While this decision could mean the agency is flouting the law because it would not provide the correct amount of money to student veterans as required by two sections of the Forever GI Bill, the VA told the congressional staffers that they have a legal justification that would allow them to move forward with this decision.

They did not share that justification, however.

  NBC

Unbelievable.

UPDATE 11/30:  Reversed.