Elvis in Mississippi?

Mueller Time: It turns out that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort hasn’t been much of a cooperating witness after all.  Yesterday, Special Counsel Mueller’s prosecutors provided their much awaited progress update to Amy Berman Jackson, the Judge presiding over Manafort’s Washington DC case.  They reported that despite his promise to cooperate Manafort has been lying like crazy about “a variety of subject matters” and that as a result they are prepared to ask her to throw the book at him during his upcoming sentencing hearing.  Unfortunately for Manafort, under the terms of his plea agreement he cannot withdraw his guilty plea so, absent a pardon from Trump, he probably will be spending the rest of his life in jail.  For the record, Manafort’s defense lawyers who have been communicating with Trump’s lawyers say that Manafort hasn’t violated his plea agreement because he “believes he has provided truthful information,” a kind of wishy washy statement that pretty much acknowledges that they know their client has been lying but it’s only because he can’t help himself.  That Mueller’s team knows that Manafort is lying means that they have one or more other witnesses who’ve provided them with information that contradicts Manafort’s deceptions which is a good thing.  However, it also means that Manafort is withholding and/or lying about valuable information that Mueller hoped to get from him.  Bottom line, though Mueller’s investigation is still expected to bear fruit, those hopes that Manafort would deliver Trump on a silver platter have probably flown out the window.  It also appears that reports that James Corsi, the right wing conspiracy theorist who had told anyone who would listen that he was on the verge of  reaching a deal  with Mueller’s team to plead guilty to one count of perjury has changed his mind.  Corsi, an originator of the Obama birther claims, is thought to have acted as a link between Trump associate Roger Stone and WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange and may or may not have critical information about who knew what when about the 2016 pre-election release of the DNC emails that helped tank Hillary Clinton’s campaign. His decision may have been partially influenced by those screenshots of George Papadopoulos beginning his two week sentence for lying, not much time but then again the older Corsi may not have the stamina to withstand even two weeks in the clinker.  Expectations are that Mueller will indict Corsi soon unless of course the erratic Corsi changes his mind, again.

Election Update:  It isn’t over until the fat lady sings or until Elvis shows up in Mississippi.  Last night while campaigning for Republican senatorial candidate Cindy Hyde Smith, Trump told a bunch of whoppers.  He asserted that a few border policemen had been badly hurt during the prior day’s Mexican border confrontation even though his border chief confirms that none were, he claimed that no tear gas had been used even though it was, he alleged that the barefoot child running away from the “non-existent” tear gas was a prop who had been “grabbed” by a woman “pretending” to be her mother  to make her appear more sympathetic and, in a moment of real absurdity he bragged to the adoring Mississippi crowd that “other than the blonde hair, when I was growing up they said I looked like Elvis. Can you believe it? I always considered that a great compliment.”  Elvis, I mean Trump, was the main attraction at two Mississippi campaign stops because despite his sinking approval ratings, only 38% now approve of his performance, Mississippi remains one of the places where he is still loved and even in Mississippi many know that Cindy Hyde Smith is a woefully unqualified candidate.  Unfortunately as weak as she is, she is likely to win today’s run-off election against Democrat Mike Espy.  Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight website says that Espy would need  more than an Alabama like miracle to pull off a victory and he pretty much implies that in comparison to Mississippi, Alabama is a liberal paradise.  Absent that miracle, Trump will further solidify Republican control in the Senate, however Democrats may be on the verge of gaining another House seat bringing their net gain to 40.  In California Democrat DJ Cox is now leading Republican incumbent David Valadeo in a race that had been previously called for the Republican; mail in ballots are still being counted but with more of those ballots coming from Democrats it’s looking more and more likely that Cox will be declared the winner.  It’s also looking more and more likely that Nancy Pelosi who has been very effectively knocking off the “never vote Pelosi” Democrats will emerge from tomorrow’s closed door Democratic caucus vote with enough votes to become Speaker when the floor vote takes place on January 3.  

The World:  Yesterday, Trump threw British Prime Minister Theresa May under the bus again by dissing her Brexit plan.  As it is she’s been having a hard enough time trying to come up with a plan that satisfies her constituents, party and the European Community, the last thing she needed was a comment from Trump.  In any case though it’s hardly likely that he actually read the current plan because, as his trade advisors confirm, he doesn’t read much and the plan doesn’t include pictures, Trump alleged that May’s plan would preclude the UK from entering into a future trade deal with the US.  Of course it does not and in fact, the success of the plan hinges on the UK being able to enter into a one-off trade  agreement with the US. Though he weighed in on Brexit, Trump only said that he was “unhappy” about the increasingly volatile confrontation between Russia and Ukraine over the Kerch Strait leading to the Sea of Azov.  Secretary of State Pompeo issued a slightly stronger statement saying that Russia’s actions were "a dangerous escalation" that violated international law and urging both Ukraine and Russia to show restraint. Neither of them matched the ire of outgoing UN Ambassador Haley or our European allies.  In anticipation of further hostilities, Ukraine President Poroshenko has now declared martial law in the regions of the Ukraine closest to Russia, and given Putin’s history, the likelihood of future hostilities is looking less and less remote.  Trump is due to see his good friend Vlad during the upcoming G 20 meeting in Argentina which begins on November 30.  He is also expected to spend some time with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. However, Trump does not plan to travel to neighboring ally Mexico for the inauguration of President-elect Lopez-Obrador, he’s sending VP Pence and Ivanka instead.