Live from DC:  President Trump made an impassioned argument for his border wall last night live from the Oval Office, re-casting his appeal as a solution to a humanitarian crisis in a speech loaded with misinformation.

  “How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?”he asked.

  He did not declare a national emergency or announce that he would build the wall without congressional approval. The government shutdown enters its 19^thday with government employees about to miss a paycheck.

  Trump presented his case in dire terms saying, “Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs including meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl.” What he didn’t say is that his own government agencies know that most of the drugs from the south come through official entry points, not where he would build a wall. The majority of fentanyl is mailed from China.

  He said, “Over the years, thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country and thousands more lives will be lost if we don’t act right now.” He offered no evidence to support that. What he did not say is that law enforcement officers know that statistically, illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than native born Americans.

  He also didn’t say that illegal border crossings have been declining for 20 years.

  Trump made the speech despite telling reporters earlier in the day at an off-the-record lunch that he was not inclined to give the speech or travel to Texas tomorrow to dramatize his appeal. He said he was talked into it by his advisors. He is reported to have said his speech was “not going to change a damn thing.”

  It would be hard to know who did the worst job last night, Trump, or the Democratic leaders who appeared after him. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stood before an array of American flags looking like the couple in Grant Wood’s classic painting “American Gothic.” The only thing missing was the pitchfork.

   “President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis and must reopen the government,” Pelosi said while Schumer stared dumbly into the camera.

  Their speeches were salted with mind-numbing words like “bipartisan,” “challenge,” “division,” and “unity.” They showed less command of language than the functionally illiterate President.

   A lot of people had low expectations for last night’s performances and they were met. Neither side said anything new. 

   Porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump, messaged that, “If you’re looking for anything even remotely worth watching tonight at 9pm EST, I will be folding laundry in my underwear for 8 minutes on Instagram live.”

  And she did.

Russia With Love: President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort shared polling data with someone tied to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing unsealed yesterday.

  The information was accidentally revealed by Manafort’s own lawyers who filed the redacted document with black bars over text that could be read through them.

  The revelations include information that Manafort “may have” had contact during the campaign with Russian representatives about cobbling together a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine. That feeds the theory that the Russians wanted Trump elected.

  Also yesterday on the Russian front, the Russian lawyer in the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting who offered political dirt on Hillary Clinton, has been indicted in a separate case.

  Natalia Veselnitskaya has been charged in federal court in Manhattan with trying to derail a Justice Department money-laundering investigation that involved an influential Russian businessman and his investment firm.

  She’s in Russia, so it’s kind of a formality.

  The indictment is not related to the Trump campaign, but it reveals that Veselnitskaya had close ties to the Russian government. It raises the question of whether the Kremlin tried to use her to influence the Trump campaign.

The Mystery Case:The Supreme Court yesterday declined to take up the appeal of an unidentified foreign company under subpoena by a federal prosecutor who may or may not be the Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The case is unusually secret.

  The company is owned by a foreign government identified only as “country A” that claims under federal law it is immune from lawsuits against foreign governments. But the law does not exempt foreign companies, and court papers reveal the company has offices in the US. 

Arrest: Police in Houston filed murder charges against a second man in the drive-by shooting death of a seven-year-old girl.

  Police say Larry Woodruffe, 24, killed Jazmine Barnes when he fired into her mother’s car on December 30th.

 Eric Black Jr, 20, was arrested first and accused of being the driver. Police say the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.

Sour Note: Following the airing of a Lifetimedocumentary series called “Surviving R. Kelly,” prosecutors in Chicago and Atlanta have opened investigations into sexual abuse accusations against the R&B entertainer. He’s had a long-standing reputation for being a creep who’s into young girls.

Once is an Accident:For the second time in 18 months, police have found a man dead of an overdose in the West Hollywood apartment of political activist Edward Buck. He made his name trying to recall the governor of Arizona in the 1980s.

  Buck was not charged with a crime in the first case, but investigators may now be taking a second look. A woman who knows Buck says he picks up black men in bars and sometimes flies them in from out of state.

  “It is suspicious that this has happened twice now,” a sheriff’s deputy said.

  First class police work.

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