The CIA leaks narrative spin to the Washington Post. The FBI leaks their narrative spin to the New York Times; and the State Dept. primarily uses CNN for the same purposes. This media distribution model is the one constant in an ever changing universe.
Today’s Club narrative was too predictable.  Everyone who does not support the DC intel apparatchik immediately becomes a Russian asset. Now, “according to people familiar with the matter”, the Russians are trying to help Bernie Sanders:

WaPo – U.S. officials have told Sen. Bernie Sanders that Russia is attempting to help his presidential campaign as part of an effort to interfere with the Democratic contest, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Kash Patel previously worked as Devin Nunes’ senior staffer on the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI).  It was Patel who was the lead author of the Nunes memo exposing corrupt conduct of the FBI and DOJ officials during Crossfire Hurricane.

Patel joined the National Security Council’s International Organizations and Alliances directorate last February and was promoted to the senior counterterrorism role at the NSC mid-summer 2019.  According to recent reporting Patel is now joining Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell as a Senior Advisor and Catherine Herridge is reporting the objective is to ‘clean house‘.

The New York Times and a host of allied political narrative engineers attempted to spin up another Russia narrative yesterday.  The claim surrounds a briefing by DNI Joseph Maguire (pictured below) to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).  Adam Schiff and house Democrats in the briefing claim DNI Maguire stated Russians favored President Trump and would work to assist his re-election.

The Democrat spin was to claim President Trump replaced Maguire as an outcome of this briefing; and Trump wants to ignore Russia interference assistance. etc. etc.  The media ran with the framework of the Democrat narrative; and the political operatives piled-on.
However, in a surprise move Jake Tapper actually undercuts the narrative engineering through his own sources with information on the reality of the briefing:

(1) DNI Joseph Maguire never said Russia was, would, or is working to interfere in the election to help President Trump.  Rather the briefing nuance was that Russia has an understanding of Trump and would likely view him as a deal-maker they could work with and Sanders, Buttigieg et al were unknowns.

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Last night it was reported that President Trump was considering Doug Collins amid a group of four names for the Director of National Intelligence.    However, Collins is currently running for a Georgia senate seat.
Appearing on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo this morning Rep. Collins outlines he is appreciative of the consideration but not interested in the position.

The dynamic for the Georgia senate seat is another example of Mitch McConnell and the Club -vs- grassroots MAGA voters.  Georgia doesn’t have a Senate primary vote, so the November senate election will be a jungle ballot.
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It was the final question in a wild and furious Democrat debate last night: “If no candidate earns the majority of delegates how should a nominee be chosen?”  Should the candidate with the most delegates be selected as the nominee?
Every candidate on stage -except Bernie Sanders- stated the private Club rules should determine the nominee at the DNC convention in Wisconsin; regardless of who comes to the convention with the highest number of delegates.   Bernie Sanders position is that whoever has the highest number of votes and earned delegates should be the nominee.

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With proportional distribution this difference of opinion could be problematic if most of the candidates stay in the race (quite probable now, except Biden) and split the non-Bernie vote. Yet, Bernie Sanders beats them all in the popular vote and earned delegate count.
After the first round delegate count at the convention the 700 ‘Super Delegates’ could select a ‘non-Bernie’ nominee in round two. This has always looked like the Club plan; however, Team Bernie will likely go bananas.
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The potential for supply chain disruption as a result of China dealing with the Coronavirus, and almost a complete shutdown of their manufacturing economy, is looming heavy upon Wall Street multinationals invested in China.
However, tangentially related, as a result of USMCA we are now seeing signs of shifted investment into North America and increases in forecasts for U.S. manufacturing.

(Via CNBC) […] Early in the week, New York’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey for general business conditions posted a reading of 12.9, up 8 points from January and its best level since May. New orders surged to 22.1, the highest since September 2017, and shipments rose to 18.9, the best since November 2018.
On Thursday, the Philadelphia survey exploded 20 points higher to 36.7, the highest since February 2017. New orders hit their highest since May 2018. (more)

The Philadelphia FED tracks factory orders in eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware.  New orders in that region soared far higher than all expectations, reflecting a strong consumer-driven economy with ongoing purchases of durable goods.
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Roger Stone receives three years and four months in federal prison as a first offender. However, Judge Amy Berman Jackson has delayed the implementation of the sentence until she takes up the issues with a biased jury foreperson, and request for a new trial.

Within the process to deal with Stone’s motion for a new trial, Judge Berman-Jackson knows resolving the petition involves bringing jury foreperson Tomeka Hart to her courtroom for questioning.  The activist judge did not want a damaging political optic prior to delivering her sentence.  An appearance by the foreperson to explain overt bias begs the question of how poorly Judge Berman-Jackson handled jury selection.
Judge Jackson also keeps the blanket gag order on Roger Stone which stops him from discussing, highlighting or complaining about any issue related to his prosecution and trial.

President Trump appointed Richard “Ric” Grenell to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the surprise appointment begins immediately.  Within minutes the media intelligence apparatus displayed apoplexy at the announcement.
All of the right administrative state interests are visibly triggered by the appointment; and it appears this could be a key turning point in President Trump’s push-back against the permanent intelligence apparatus that has targeted his administration for three years.

It does not seem accidental the appointment of Ric Grenell as Acting DNI comes after AG Bill Barr publicly displayed his weakness in managing the DOJ and FBI.  When the U.S. Attorney General chooses to complain about POTUS tweets making it “impossible to do his job” via public statements, the underlying message is an AG unwilling to do his job.
The challenge for the Office of the Presidency has been executive leadership unwilling to confront visible corruption within the DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community (IC).
Failed executive leadership includes Jeff Sessions (DOJ), Rod Rosenstein (DOJ), Chris Wray (FBI), David Bowditch (FBI), Dana Boente (FBI), Michael Horowitz (OIG) Mike Pompeo (CIA), Gina Haspel (CIA), Michael Atkinson (DOJ-NSD/ICIG), Matt Whitaker (DOJ), Dan Coats (DNI), Rex Tillerson (DoS), James Mattis (DoD), the list is long.
The evidence of ongoing efforts to undermine the presidency have surfaced in everything from the FBI not addressing rampant politicization, to an Intelligence Community Inspector General (Michael Atkinson) willing to facilitate an impeachment effort.
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Despite not being on the ballot in Nevada, tonight will be Michael Bloomberg’s first appearance on a Democrat debate stage.Tonight’s presidential debate is hosted by NBC, MSNBC, Telemundo and The Nevada Independent. Start time 9 p.m. Eastern.

Six candidates qualified: Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont; former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.; former NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.; and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

The Club is highly restricting the broadcast options for viewing.  However, the Debate is being broadcast on NBC and available on-line HERE
If you are watching via NBC broadcast, MSNBC cable or on-line, feel free to share your opinions in the thread comments below.

UPDATE:  Appointment Confirmed
Lots to unpack here.  Maggie Haberman is warning resistance allies in the Senate to prepare all defensive weapons against a possible Trump appointment of Ric Grenell as  Director of the Office of National Intelligence (ODNI).
Grenell currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.  He can serve as “acting” ODNI, but to become permanent ODNI he would need to survive confirmation railroading by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chair Mark Warner.  The SSCI is deep swamp and and participated in the coup effort against the office of the president.  The SSCI has a vested interest in controlling the ODNI position; hence their prior blocking of Representative John Ratcliffe.

[Via New York Times] … Mr. Grenell, whose outspokenness throughout his career as a political operative and then as ambassador has prompted criticism, is a vocal Trump loyalist who will lead a group of national security agencies often viewed skeptically by the White House.

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