There You'll Be

No problem, whatsoever.

canflam

So much news this week. Trump has canceled his meeting with Vlad Putin. He apparently canceled just over an hour after Trump told reporters he was going through with the meeting. Also Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty to making false statements. Apparently he lied to the House & Senate Intelligence Committees. So many lies. Perhaps being associated with Don Trump does that to people. There's also this Jerome Corsi guy in the news: Here's an update on him:

Jerome Corsi, Roger Stone associate, in plea talks with special counsel, source says

Conservative writer and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi is in plea negotiations with special counsel Robert Mueller, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.

The talks with Corsi — an associate of both President Trump and GOP operative Roger Stone — could bring Mueller's team closer to determining whether Trump or his advisers were linked to WikiLeaks' release of hacked Democratic emails in 2016, a key part of his long-running inquiry.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politi...123-story.html


Corsi provided research on Democratic figures during the campaign to Stone, a longtime Trump adviser. For months, the special counsel has been scrutinizing Stone's activities in an effort to determine whether he coordinated with WikiLeaks. Stone and WikiLeaks have repeatedly denied any such coordination.



Stone has said that Corsi also has a relationship with Trump, built on their shared interest in the falsehood that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.


David Gray, an attorney for Corsi, declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Mueller. Stone declined to comment on Corsi's plea negotiations. An attorney for Trump declined to comment.


The deal is not yet complete and could still be derailed. Last week, Corsi said his efforts to cooperate with prosecutors had broken down and that he expected to be indicted for allegedly lying. He described feeling under enormous pressure from Mueller and assured his supporters that he remained supportive of the president.



In a webcast and a series of interviews, Corsi said he had spoken to prosecutors for 40 hours and feared he could spend much of the remainder of his life in prison.


After two months of interviews, Corsi, 72, said he felt his brain was "mush."


"Trying to explain yourself to these people is impossible,” he added. “I guess I couldn't tell the special prosecutor what he wanted to hear.”



At that time, he gave no indication that he intended to plead guilty, instead casting himself as an unfairly targeted victim of a Mueller campaign against Trump.



Then, Corsi abruptly fell silent, canceling a scheduled Nov. 13 interview with NBC. Gray, his attorney, told NBC he had just spoken to the special counsel's office and had advised Corsi to cancel.



Since then, Corsi has resumed talks with Mueller's team about a possible deal that could result in him agreeing to plead guilty in exchange for leniency, according to the person familiar with the situation.


It is not clear what information Corsi could leverage to get a deal with prosecutors. However, he told the Daily Caller last week that prosecutors were focused on whether he had developed a source with inside information about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's plans.



Corsi said he did not have a direct source to the group. Instead, he said he developed a theory that Assange had access to hacked emails belonging to Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and that WikiLeaks would release them in October 2016.



He told the Daily Caller that he shared his prediction with many people, including Stone.


If Mueller could prove that Corsi learned about Podesta's emails from Assange or another person in contact with him, he could try to link WikiLeaks' releases to Stone or others in Trump's world.


Stone told the publication that Corsi never relayed such information.


"He never told me that he had figured out or believed that John Podesta's emails had been stolen," Stone said.


On Aug. 21, 2016, Stone tweeted: "it will soon the Podesta's time in the barrel." He has insisted his tweet had nothing to do with any plan by WikiLeaks and that it was based on research Corsi had provided to him about work Podesta and his lobbyist brother Tony had done involving Russia.



"He simply told me of their Russian business deals in banking gas and uranium," Stone said in a text message this week to the Washington Post. "There was NO WikiLeaks context."


Stone told the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017 that his Podesta tweet was “based on a comprehensive, early August opposition research briefing provided to me by investigative journalist, Dr. Jerome Corsi, which I then asked him to memorialize in a memo that he sent me on August 31st, all of which was culled from public records. There was no need to have John Podesta's email to learn that he and his presidential candidate were in bed with the clique around Putin."


Stone has since said that the information in the Aug. 31 memo — which he received 10 days after his now-infamous tweet — was similar to information that Corsi had relayed to him verbally before the tweet.


The prediction that Corsi said he made that Assange would publish Podesta's emails was correct: On Oct. 7, 2016, WikiLeaks began publishing 50,000 emails stolen from Podesta's account, releasing them in batches of a few thousand at a time each day leading up to the November election.


Corsi told the Daily Caller that he based his prediction on public sources of information, including the fact that Podesta was not among the Democrats whose emails had been published by WikiLeaks when the group released Democratic National Committee correspondence in July.


He said he concluded that WikiLeaks must be holding back Podesta's correspondence to make a bigger splash later in the campaign.



Podesta did not work for the DNC and the emails were stolen from his private Gmail account, not an address linked to the Democratic Party.


Corsi told the Daily Caller that Mueller's prosecutors did not believe his explanation and pressed him to name his WikiLeaks source. They were especially interested, he said, in a trip he took to Italy with his wife that he said coincided with his realization about the Podesta emails.


"They said they wanted me to tell the truth,” Corsi said, “but when I did tell the truth they told me it was preposterous, and they wouldn't accept it."


Stone is under scrutiny because he made a series of comments during the campaign that suggested he was in contact with Assange and knew of WikiLeaks' plans.


Since then, Stone has vigorously contended that his comments were exaggerations based on public information, as well as tips from New York radio host and comedian Randy Credico.


Stone has also told the Post that Corsi had a relationship with Trump and spoke directly with the Republican candidate during the campaign.


Stone said the two men became friendly after Corsi published a book in 2011 advancing the false theory that Obama was not qualified to hold office because he was not born in the United States. Trump became a leading proponent of that falsehood.

sunnykerr

I hope India sees to the restoration of the Taj Mahal. That's way more worth their time than recovering the body of that U.S. missionary dude.

POTUS cancels on Putin. POTUS is going to meet with Putin. Every minute, the news reports something different. I don't really care. Does anybody believe anything can come out of such a meeting that we can't already predict? I rest my case.

And a non-corrupt politician in Brazil is like an NBA player who doesn't sleep with prostitutes. You know they exist, but darn it if it's hard to believe in them.

There You'll Be

Somehow I didn't realize (probably buried with all the other "news" happening) that the US, Canada, and Mexico had reached, and signed, a new trade agreement. At any rate, the trade war with China, Climate Change discussion, Mohammad bin Salmon, and the Russia/Ukraine escalation, have created much tension for the G20. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46395758 I'm not expecting anything good to come of any of the G20 meeting.

Okay, this is very extreme to me. French MP's have voted 51-1 to outlaw smacking children. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46397087 I can't figure out how the courts are going to be able to decide what is acceptable discipline, and what isn't.

Since 2014, a data breach at the Mariott has caused 500 million people's information to be compromised. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46401890

51 more Pilot whales have died on a beach in New Zealand. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46395410 There is something seriously wrong here.

canflam

Is that new trade agreement like NAFTA?

There You'll Be

It is NAFTA, with a few words changed, so that he can take credit for MAGA.

France police and protestors clashed. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46411699 Things seem to be going from bad to worse there. It's not just fuel prices now, it's anger about everything. I wonder if they're even trying to find a solution.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46403405 Alaska had a 7.0 earthquake yesterday. The pictures of some of the highways are scary. I am mostly worried about electricity because it's already so cold there. Some of the aftershocks were over 5 on the scale. Boston even picked up on the quake. I had no idea Alaska was in the Ring of Fire.

Michelle Obama's book has become the #1 best seller this year, in just over 2 weeks. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46407734 It's sold over 2 million copies in the US and Canada.

sunnykerr

And, of course, the "new" NAFTA will destroy whatever is left of the Mexican and Canadian auto industry. Don't forget that part.

There's a lot to be said about the situation in France. There is violence, but not as much as has been reported. And a lot of it is over the regions being pissed at the big cities, because of access to ressources and a perception that national decisions are being made by the cities in spite of what the regions want... doesn't sound at all familiar to the United States, right?

I was at the JCPenney on Saturday when the cashier told me about the earthquake. It was an odd place to be to have that kind of news. I'm just happy that everyone seems to be mostly okay.

estiuet78

Paris doesn't care about what regions need. My neighbors of southeastern France are very tired and angry with Macron

sunnykerr

I don't really see how Paris doesn't care about the regions. What do you mean by that?

Because of the potential for triggering topics, I hope you don't mind if I move the other stories you linked to the other News thread.

Rare gold coins found in Israeli city of Caesarea It's literally a 900-year-old time capsule, which is so cool!

Another cool story, for anyone who's a fan of space exploration: Canadian David Saint-Jacques reaches the International Space Station I've seen him explain his mission on some local talk shows and it sounds really interesting, even if science stuff tends to go right over my head. This type of medical research, though, I find super interesting.

And, finally, a wonderful update on our favourite trio of St. Bernand brothers: Inseparable Saint Bernard dogs play in snow, watch moose at Calgary forever home

There You'll Be

Well, France has decided not to increase the fuel taxes, well, they've postponed them, until summer. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46443672 Hopefully things will settle down, some.

I wonder how many personal riches are buried around the world, and how many never get back to them. I think it's pretty incredible they were found.

That is amazing-all that David Saint-Jacques will be doing while there. Also so amazing that he went there. I'm very impressed. I've never really know, or read, anything about astronauts.

I'm so glad the St. Bernards are together, and so happy. They are so much fun to watching running around and playing. Aw, that just melts my heart. Thanks for posting the update.

This white reindeer is adorable! It's very cool that the man was there, and able to photograph it. It's interesting to read how rare they are. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46442538

Migrants get over the wall, in Tijuana. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46439119 Who could have seen that coming.

Okay, this is awesome-a cave discovered in Canada. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46432350 Kind of scary a river flows into the opening, but this is very exciting as far as discovery. I'm curious to see what they find.

In the always something new and criminal department, of the daily life of Trump, D.C. and Maryland are issuing subpoenas in the Emoluments case against Trump, involving his D.C. hotel, and to see what foreign governments the Trump organization is making money off of. https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...=.9b09b184ca40 A judge ruled they could go ahead with the case.

estiuet78

Thanks

France has always had a very centralist political system. Even the most "stupid" and easy decisions affecting a small town a thousand km far from Paris have to be appointed and accepted by the central government.

sunnykerr

Are you saying that the ban on burkinis were sanctioned by Paris? Because that's not the way I remember that going down... kinda the opposite, actually. In fact, French regions have a heck of a lot more autonomy than we do here in Canada. They don't rely on the federal government for funding on infrastructure and even have control over regional bureaucratic appointments and funding. And if the constitution and the rule of law applies the same everywhere, and also trumps everything else, I can't say I find anything wrong with that, personally.

And I can't believe I'm standing up for France. Oh what a reversal!

Kim, that's usually how it goes in France. The government passes a law. The people protest. The law either sticks around or doesn't. But the people always protest. Just look at this case now. The "gilets jaunes" are saying they're gonna keep protesting. Even though they got what they wanted and a few people have died in the process. Vive la Republique!

That white reindeer is adorable. And it occurs to me that it's a bit odd that what makes him white is the genetic "abnormality" since, for obvious reasons, being white should be an advantage to his survival. I mean, whatever predators reindeers have will have a tough job finding him...

There is so much wrong with literally everything the Trump family does and everything that's ever been associated with each and every one of them. Except maybe for Tiffany and Barron, but time will tell. Anyway, I don't understand how lawsuits are just now going forward over their abuse of their official role to obtain financial gains for themselves. And, of course, it's only one of the multitude of ways in which they've made themselves rich off of taxpayer... stupidity? (I mean in voting the old man in.)

And, what do you know, I guess global warming has an upside if it means more of Canada's wilderness can be explored. Can you tell I'm not a big outdoors enthusiast?

Panama Papers: Four charged in US with fraud and tax evasion You know, it occurs to me that if we treated fraud as severely as we do drug convictions, the U.S. prison population would probably more adequately resemble its actual demographics, as opposed to shifting disproportionately towards the "brown" end of the racial scale. Also, you'd have a heck of a lot more older dudes in there. I'm not even kidding. How is this not treated more severely? Does no one realize how damaging these things are to the economy and, thus, to human lives?

Speaking of: North American markets nosedive on sign of potential recession ahead Since about Week 1 of Trump's taking over POTUS, international economists have been predicting a recession. I guess they were basing themselves on his skills as a businessman. Anyway, that all means that warnings this week don't really mean a whole heck of a lot. But the cumulative effect does make it feel as though we're getting closer and closer with every stupid decision that administration is making.

US mid-term elections: Republican committee reports hacking to FBI I bet they were so pleased to do that. "Hey, look, we got hacked, too. We're totally the victims here!"

There You'll Be

No, they only think of their own interests-they could care less about the economy. They're making theirs, so they don't care about anyone else. You are so unbelievably right about who belongs in prison at a higher rate, and who at a lower one.

Heck, if the GOP hadn't passed their sweeping 1% tax break, that would have helped. It's obvious if a man can't make money off of casinos, and bankrupts them (though they were actually used for money laundering)...yeah, the majority of us knew he would bankrupt the country, while he makes money off of it. I didn't know the world had been predicting recession though. That's interesting to know.

Angela Merkel's choice has been elected as the ruling party leader. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46487246 This is a very good thing, as far as I can see.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46482613 The US says the arrest of Meng Wanzhou has nothing to do with the US-China trade talks. I'm kind of inclined to believe the US on this one-because I don't see how it helps us. Then again, it may be above my pay grade in understanding these things. As usual, you guys are fairly screwed by this.

sunnykerr

Yeah, why the U.S. arrested the Huawei director is way above my paygrade, too. I'm inclined to side with the U.S. intelligence community, though.

I'm just relieved that Merkel's successor will also be a woman. I mean, this isn't really about feminism (although what would be so wrong with that?), but about the fact that I feel international governance needs more women involved.

Trump chief of staff John Kelly to leave White House job Apparently the rumour is POTUS wil pilfer Pence's chief-of-staff? I suppose, at least, he didn't straight up name Ivanka, which I was fully expecting.

There You'll Be

Yeah, I'm still expecting him to pick Ivanka.

In all truth though, rumors have been swirling that Pence is preparing to take his spot as POTUS...and that may be why he wants someone who was working for Pence-to try to get inside information. He's too stupid to realize it would work just the opposite. So, Mark Meadows is now at the top of the list-a senator from North Carolina. A die-hard let's investigate Hillary over and over. He tweeted that James Comey repeatedly said he couldn't answer questions, or didn't remember some things in the closed door questioning last week-well, that happens when you ask the same question over and over and over. Meadows is awful.

I'm glad Merkel's replacement is a woman, You're right-because the world needs women in charge of some things, and some places.

Unlike here where "a woman would be too tempermental and not have the emotional strength blah blah blah" so instead they pick someone who is all of those things, and worse.

The Moose Cree First Nation is the first to get drone deliveries. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46500367 It can only carry 11 lbs, but that could make a big difference in things like medical supplies, and other needs. I'm curious to see how this works out. It has to be a big help, unless they start charging way too much.

A US teacher has been charged after cutting a male students hair, forcibly...while singing a different version of the Star Spangled Banner-which leads me to ask, what the version was. I didn't watch the video, though. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46500375

So, it's too late, but most of Britain thinks they should stay in the EU. Not sure how accurate polls are, but, it makes sense. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a8673926.html