Pardon Me: President Trump said yesterday that the prosecutors who recommended 7 to 9 years in prison for his longtime friend and former political associate Roger Stone “ought to apologize.”

  “You have murderers and drug addicts that don’t get nine years,” the president said. “Nine years for doing something that no one can even define what he did.”

  What Stone did, and was defined in his indictment, was lie to investigators and try to talk a witness out of cooperating in the investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign. It’s the witness tampering that brought the tough recommendation under federal sentencing guidelines.

  Trump said it’s unfair to jail Stone while former FBI Director James Comey is a free man. “In the meantime Comey walks around making book deals,” Trump lamented. Comey has never been accused of a crime.

  Walter Shaub, the former head of the Office of Government Ethics, said Trump is behaving like the head of an authoritarian regime. “A corrupt authoritarian and his henchmen are wielding the Justice Department as a shield for friends and a sword for political rivals,” Shaub said in a Twitter post. “It is impossible to overstate the danger.”

  Asked whether he would pardon Stone, the President said, “I don’t want to say that yet, but I tell you what, people were hurt viciously and badly by these corrupt people.”

  A NY Times editorial says, “In any ordinary Justice Department, a president publicly calling for leniency toward a close personal ally would set off alarm bells.” 

Illegal Order: Former Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly has finally come out publicly against his former boss, telling a crowd at Drew University that he disagreed with the President about Trump’s words and actions regarding North Korea, illegal immigration, military discipline, Ukraine, and the news media.

  He said migrants are “overwhelmingly good people” and “not all rapists.”

  The former Marine general backed up Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who reported to superiors that he was disturbed about Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine and his demand for an investigation of Vice President Joe Biden.

  That was tantamount to hearing “an illegal order,” Kelly said. “We teach them, ‘Don’t follow an illegal order. And if you’re ever given one, you’ll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then tell your boss.’”

Outbreak: A new method of testing and diagnosis has made the numbers jump in the coronavirus outbreak. In China’s Hubei province, where the epidemic began, authorities today reported nearly 15,000 new cases and 242 additional deaths in a single day. The death toll is now 1369 and the number of people infected is 60,349.

  The giant Barcelona Technology Trade Show has been cancelled for fear of the spreading coronavirus. 

  The Dalai Lama has cancelled all his public events.

  Researchers are still trying to put a finger on the animal that is the origin of the virus. Bats are suspected, but also the pangolin, the endangered scaly, ant-eating mammal that is imported in huge numbers to Chinese markets for food and medicine. They are believed to be the most trafficked mammals on earth.

The Bulletin Board: It was only a matter of time. Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, resigned as a result of the Iowa Caucuses vote-counting debacle. — Stocks are hitting new highs. The Dow Jones rose 275 points yesterday, 0.9%, to a new record of 29,551 — Global emissions of carbon dioxide in 2019 were pretty much the same as 2018, according to a report released Tuesday by the International Energy Agency. — Amy Klobuchar’s rise in the presidential polls has been dubbed “Klomentum.”

Grim Reaper: Scientists in Canada have discovered a new species of tyrannosaur that dined in North America around 80 million years ago. It was about eight feet tall and had teeth like knives.

  It’s been given the Greek name “Thanatotheristes degrootorum,” which translates to “Reaper of Death.”  But the carnivore’s nickname is “Thanatos,” which means simply, “death.” Charming.

Uggs: Crocs and KFC have cooperated to create a shoe printed with a fried chicken graphic. The shoes also smell like fried chicken but not after you wear them for a while.

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