Man-o-man, this is some high-stakes poker playing, and it’s the United States economy on the table.   Mitch McConnell is going to put S.3548 The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, back on the senate floor at 9:45am ET tomorrow, 15 minutes after the stock market starts collapsing.

[Read Bill Here]

[Link To Tweet]

Sweet Baby Jesus… I can’t remember ever seeing anything like this.  A $20 trillion U.S. economy, and tens-of-millions of American jobs and businesses on the line….  And McConnell is calling Pelosi’s bluff.    P.U.B.L.I.C.L.Y!

Talk about seriously high stakes politics.   Yikes.  McConnell is going to make every democrat senator vote again to close debate and advance the bill; putting them on record for negotiating a deal and then walking away from the deal they assembled.

I would imagine Senator McConnell has talked to President Trump about this….

Over the past three days a bipartisan group of senators, not leadership, constructed a $1.6 Trillion emergency aid package to rescue the U.S. economy and American workers.  The package had the support of Mitch McConnell. It is called The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or “CARE Act“. [READ BILL S.548 HERE]

However, at the last minute House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, having returned from her House recess vacation sipping cocktails poolside, instructed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to crush the senate effort.

Power hungry Pelosi sees an opportunity to use the looming economic crisis as leverage for selecting winners & losers amid the K-Street lobbying community.  Donors for Democrats will be rewarded; supporters of Republicans, not-so-much.  This is DC at it’s worst and Pelosi isn’t going to lose another opportunity.  It’s the same process she used in ’08/’09.

“Twice in one lifetime… How blessed am I?”

Senator Schumer did as he was instructed.  The relief bill did not pass cloture (60 votes needed), and the three-day effort collapsed.  Immediately the DOW futures dropped 5%.

WASHINGTON DC – “I want everybody to fully understand if we aren’t able to act tomorrow, it will be because of our colleagues on the other side continuing to dicker when the country expects us to come together and address the problem,” McConnell said on the floor. He added that over the last 48 hours there were bipartisan discussions among “regular members of the Senate, not in the Leadership office, not in the speaker’s office for goodness sakes.”

“She’s the Speaker of the House, not the Speaker of the Senate,” McConnell added. “We were doing just fine until that intervention.”  (more)

There are two main points Pelosi is targeting.  First, because COVID-19 creates a MASSIVE SPENDING opportunity, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to include the elimination of college debt, literally wipe out student loans – which ironically and intentionally were created under Obamacare, in the coronavirus bill.

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Today Ohio, Delaware and Louisiana joined California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Illinois by issuing mandatory stay at home orders for their citizens.  A total of eight states now have total coronavirus compliance orders restricting movement.

(Via Reuters) […] “Every piece of evidence that I can lay my hands on indicates that we’re at an absolutely crucial time in this war and what we do now will make all the difference in the world,” said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. “What we do now will slow this invader. It will slow this invader so our health care system … will have time to treat casualties.”

Ohio has 351 cases and three deaths while Louisiana has 837 cases and 20 deaths, several in a senior care facility. Louisiana has the third highest number of cases per capita and saw a 10-fold increase in cases in the past week, Governor John Bel Edwards said.

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The leader of the most powerful nation in the EU, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is now in quarantine after her personal physician tests positive for the Wuhan Virus.

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone into quarantine after being informed that a doctor who administered a vaccine to her has tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Merkel, 65, was informed about the doctor’s test shortly after holding a news conference Sunday announcing new measures to curb the spread of the virus, her spokesman Steffen Seibert said.  He said that Merkel had received a precautionary vaccine Friday against pneumococcal infection.

[…] Merkel on Sunday thanked “the overwhelming majority” of Germans who were following rules on social distancing to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

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White House Trade and Manufacturing Policy Advisor Peter Navarro discusses some of the more granular details behind the COVID-19 mitigation strategy.   The policies are designed to counter the economic impacts, and then use a tactical approach toward the challenges in the supply chain for medical supply needs.

Navarro discusses some of the private sector shifts in production and manufacturing to generate medical supply needs as an outcome of the defense production act.

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President Trump and the coronavirus task force will be updating the public and answering questions from the Brady press room at the White House today at 5:00pm ET.

There may be questions about the DOJ requests for increased authorities to arrest and detain non-compliant citizens without judges/lawyers – Livestreams Below:

WH Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link – State Dept. Livestream Link

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Notice the DNC Club is keeping Joe Biden tucked away while the pantomime is presented.  In the latest production, and do not doubt – this is a full-on created production, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo presents: “I will lead the way’….

This is NOT organic.  WATCH  – This is from today:

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Notice how the graphics appearing on the screen are timed to prompt the oration; and all of it is targeting heart message, emotion over logic.  There is a teleprompter directly in front of and below Cuomo so he can reference the graphics as he gives his press remarks.  You can see him checking the monitor for the next prompt. This is all rehearsed. Everything about this is a production.

A prepared script, graphics with points of emphasis, along with national media interrupting all broadcasts to run these messages, this draft nomination effort is brilliantly designed. People in Ohio, Florida, Arizona and Michigan are wondering why they are watching a New York governor presser every day on their televisions.

You have to admit these are brilliant political operations.

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Steve Bannon appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the U.S. response to the coronavirus.   Bannon advocates for a military style shut-down of the U.S. to shut down everything now and get through the crisis as quickly as possible.

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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears on Fox News to discuss the financial legislation (likely vote tomorrow) to support workers and businesses immediately impacted by President Trump’s proactive shut-down of the U.S. economy.

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The ‘good cop bad cop’ routine with deBlasio just seemed a little too scripted… Then the framework of a usefully constructed contrast narrative started to become clear… Then, as if on cue, all national broadcasts started being interrupted for maximum exposure; again a little odd.

A deep, very deep, connection to Bloomberg reappeared as a little flashing light in the corner of the picture… Then the Murdoch’s started to shape the landscape; curiosity piqued… Followed by positioning that seems a little too centrally located in the political sphere.. Then Hannity and Bannon started singing his praises.  Well, Bannon doesn’t exactly have a good track record of judgement… I digress.  But it really wasn’t until the CIA started publishing their endorsement that things possibly started making sense. WATCH:

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Are they positioning NY Governor Andrew Cuomo to exit the DNC convention as the consensus nominee; the chosen one?  It would take the construct, at least the optics of, a reluctantly drafted candidate to pull it off.  Then again, what is all this – if not that.

Think that’s crazy?…. Let’s keep watching.

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