During part of a Face The Nation interview earlier today President Trump’s attorney innocuously dropped a bombshell revelation that Michael Cohen recorded hundreds of conversations, including dozens of interviews with journalists and reporters.
Some of those recordings between Cohen and journalists were recently passed along to Mr. Giuliani because the subject of them was his client, President Donald Trump.

Let that sink in.
President Trump has recordings, at least a dozen, of reporters discussing him, and their reporting/opinion of him, with Michael Cohen.
Apparently Michael Cohen recorded dozens of interviews with journalists about candidate Donald Trump, and President-elect Donald Trump, and President Donald Trump. Michael Cohen hated the Trump campaign; he made his opinion of the campaign abundantly clear. The media hate anything Trump etc. Now imagine what’s on those recordings…. The journalists did not know they were being recorded.
(more…)

It’s becoming increasingly clear that John Miller keeps distracting the daily news cycle by moving the cheese in the media maze….  A curiously jovial discussion between President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and CBS’ Margaret Brennan indicates the media mice are suspecting the same:

President Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani appears on Fox News Sunday to talk about Donald Trump’s former legal counsel, Michael Cohen.

Canada is on the cusp of instituting a national carbon tax.  Against push-back from normal Canadians in Ontario who are against the insufferable proposal, Liberal Minister of Environment Catherine McKenna explains how it will work.  WATCH:

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Interestingly Reuters uses the narrative from an anonymous Canadian “official” to frame an article about how global car manufacturers are coming together next week in Geneva to coordinate their strategy against the United States and President Trump.
Just let that part sink in for a moment…

Behind that context we can clearly see: 1) the economic importance of the Auto industry to the countries that are assembling; 2) their multinational corporate interest in retaining unlimited access to the U.S. market; and 3) the absolute need of all assembling corporations to find a way to keep their investments in NAFTA’s fatal flaw viable.
Who is gathering?  Canada, Mexico, the EU (ie. Germany), Japan and South Korea.
Where are they going?  To visit Geneva, Switzerland.  Why Geneva? Because that way China can attend (see Volvo/Sweden) without being on the official roster.  ::nudge, nudge:: ::wink, wink::  ::say-no-more Panda boy, say-no-more::  Additionally, Cecelia Malmström (EU Trade Minister), is the person Canada is relying upon to cover their anti-Trump position:

MEXICO CITY/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico and South Korea will meet in Geneva next week to discuss how to respond to threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on U.S. imports of autos and car parts, officials familiar with the talks said.

(more…)

The head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Kevin Hassett shares his perspective on the 4.1 percent GDP growth, and the ongoing MAGAnomic America-First initiatives.   Hassett rightly points out that finished good domestic inventories dropped as an outcome of consumer purchasing outpacing manufacturing.  As more manufacturing comes on-line, the production capacity expansion leads to more GDP growth.
Remember, one of the unique attributes of the U.S. economy, thanks to the foresight of industrial titans who built it, is our internal consumption.  We are not only the worlds’ largest economy, we are the biggest self-sustaining economy in the history of the world; a massively consequential strategic advantage. Our leverage comes from nations needing access to our market; the U.S. does not necessarily need access to theirs. Therefore POTUS Trump can dictate the terms.

Last week President Trump went to Granite City, Illinois, to celebrate the re-opening of a U.S. Steelworks manufacturing facility.
If you ever had any question about how important President Trump’s Main Street economic and manufacturing policies are to U.S. workers, well, just watch this interview with a formerly laid-off Granite City steelworker.  [Dusty Keyboard Alert]:

“We’re back”

That’s the heartbeat of America right there!
(more…)

Curious legal developments in the case against the former Director of Security for the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Wolfe, are beginning to become quite troublesome.
In a noted bit of research timing, Jeff at MarketsWork [SEE HERE] and CTH are following the same curious trail.  SEE HERE.

First, we know from overwhelming circumstantial evidence, conveniently overlooked by media, that one of Wolfe’s specific leaks involved sending his concubine Ali Watkins a copy of the 82-page FISA application used to gain a Title-1 surveillance warrant against U.S. person Carter Page.   {Full Backstory Here}  Some key things about this leak:

1. It is highly likely there were no redactions in the copy Wolfe leaked to the media.
2. It is highly likely Wolfe was caught in a leak hunt, and the copy given to him included a specific, and intentionally wrong, internal date using October 19th as the origination date for FISA application approval.  (The actual date was Oct 21st).
3. The October 19th date then shows up in subsequent media reports which were based on the leak.  The New York Times and Washington Post used the wrong date; the concentric reporting of the NYT and WaPo spread the wrong date like a virus.
4. However, despite overwhelming and easy to prove evidence against him, Wolfe was never charged with the Carter Page FISA leak.  The DOJ/FBI have him dead-to-rights on that leak, but he was charged with the more disingenuous crime of lying to the FBI.

These explosive details have been largely ignored by media, and two recent legal filings add even more layers of intrigue.  Last week a federal judge denied a request by Wolfe’s lawyers to put a gag order on the entire U.S. government; to include President Trump:
(more…)