Trump World: President Trump will be in Hanoi today for his second summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, but back in Washington Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen is expected to spill the beans in front of a House committee.

  Cohen is expected to speak about Trump’s shady personal finances, the negotiations over a Moscow tower, and even the President’s use of racist language.

  Cohen might even drop the bomb that Trump has broken the law since he became President in connection with reimbursements to Cohen made for hush money payments to two women during the 2016 campaign.

  Republicans are expected to attack Cohen as a proven liar, but a lawyer representing him told The NY Times that Cohen’s answer will be, “I take full responsibility, I lied in the past; now you have to decide if I’m telling the truth.”

Walled Off:The House is expected today to pass a resolution to block President Trump’s emergency declaration to build his southern border wall. If it passes, the Republican majority in the Senate must allow a vote that would require only a handful of defections to pass. 

 Passage would be a major political defeat for Trump, although he does have the power to veto the resolution. A veto-proof majority in the Senate seems unlikely. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who originally opposed the emergency declaration, now supports it.

The Money Poll:One week into his second run for president,  Vermont Sen. Bernie  Sanders has raised $10 million from 359,914 donors, his campaign says. A frightening figure for his opponents is that nearly 39 percent of those donors appear to be new — they come from email addresses never previously used to give to Sanders.

Permawar: Indian jets struck targets in Pakistan in retaliation for a suicide bombing against Indian troops in the disputed Kashmir region this month.Remember, both countries have nuclear weapons, but it appears that the bombs didn’t hit anything. The Indians were just trying to make a point.

The News Roundup:A former Trump campaign aide has sued the President, claiming that when he was a candidate he forcibly kissed her without consent. Alva Johnson, who lives in Alabama, says in a lawsuit filed yesterday it happened inside an RV in Florida in August 2016. — In the continuing sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, Cardinal George Pell, the top financial adviser to Pope Francis, has been convicted in an Australian court of molesting two choir boys. Pell, now 77, was 55 at the time of the offenses. He was convicted in December, but the verdict was held secret until yesterday. — Vandals have stolen the head from the 800-year-old skeletal remains of a crusader contained in a crypt at a Catholic church in Dublin. — Musician R. Kelly finally made bail on sex abuse charges yesterday and promptly went to a Chicago McDonald’s where he had a Quarter Pounder. We don’t know if it was a Quarter Pounder with cheese.

The Obit Page:Morgan Woodward, the actor who played the field boss known as “the man with no eyes” in the classic 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke,” has died at age 93. Woodward had small parts in as many as 250 movies, but he was unforgettable as the sunglass-wearing boss man with a rifle.

Always Low:WalMart is getting rid of its front door greeters to be  replaced by “customer hosts” with expanded responsibilities. The change will put a lot of disabled people out of work because the physical requirements of being a greeter  are fairly minimal. The hosts must be able to lift 25 pounds, clean up spills, collect carts, and stand for long periods of time,pretty much eliminating wheelchair-bound greeters.

The Donner Party:An Amtrak train bound from the Pacific Northwest to Los Angeles has been stranded on snowbound tracks since Sunday evening after being blocked by a tree that fell on the tracks.

  The train still has power, but there are 183 people on board. Amtrak says there’s enough food, but passengers report that the food carts are empty and people with infants have run out of diapers. 

Sympathy for the Devil:Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are pleading for mercy in his sentencing next month, saying in a memo to the court that their client “has suffered almost unprecedented public shame” for what they called garden-variety offenses.

  About to turn 70, Manafort effectively faces life in prison. He pleaded guilty to two felony conspiracy charges. He’s also been convicted in a separate case of eight charges of financial crimes.

 Manafort’s lawyer say in their memo that, “The special counsel’s attempt to portray him as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts.” They say Manafort has been “vilified in a manner that this country has not experienced in decades.”

  Remember, this is the guy who continued lying even after he agreed to cooperate and tell the truth.

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