Pete Buttigieg, aka Alfred E. Newman, has suspended his bid for the Presidency.

…”a person briefed on Mr. Buttigieg’s plans said on Sunday, following a crushing loss in the South Carolina primary where his poor performance with black Democrats signaled an inability to build a broad coalition of voters.” (link)

The move to drop out makes sense within the most likely Club pattern to support Joe Biden.  Buttigieg drops out now ahead of Super-Tuesday allowing less fragmentation of the vote.  It will be interesting to see if he follows a Club plan to endorse Joe Biden because Buttigieg previously wrote high praise for Bernie Sanders.
Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar will stay-in to block Bernie’s delegate count in Massachusetts and Minnesota respectively (both states vote on Super Tuesday).  Klobuchar will likely drop-out after Tuesday.  Warren might follow.

Coronavirus As An Economic Contagion

Steve Bannon discusses the Chinese Coronavirus as an economic contagion and how the Trump economic security doctrine applies to the current downstream impacts.  Even before the Coronavirus surfaced in China there was lower manufacturing factory activity within the Chinese economy.  The necessary response within China to control the spread of the Coronavirus was to shut down most commerce.  Factories, schools &  businesses throughout China were impacted as various containment measures took hold.

Economic Nationalism -vs- Economic Globalism

Despite the intense doomsayer predictions surrounding the ‘Coronavirus as an economic contagion’ narrative, the U.S. economy remains strong. When evaluating economic impacts for the USA it is important to remember 80 percent of all activity within the U.S. is internal. We create and consume eighty percent of our own production.
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HHS Secretary Alex Azar appears on Face The Nation with professional drama queen Margaret Brennan to discuss ongoing Coronavirus mitigation efforts.  Ms. Brennan uses her best dramatic voice, and a recently attained expertise in virology, to advance her network’s emotional hunches that all hope is lost.  Ms. Brennan is verklempt.
The drama and anxiety riddled questioning is so stunningly over-the-top, mid-way through the segment the interview becomes a parody unto itself.  WATCH:

The media is initiating panic about the Coronavirus in 2020 the same way the media attempted to manufacture panic about an upcoming U.S. recession in 2019.
Everything about Coronavirus is hyped with purpose. The CDC official who lit the fuse to create the panic was Dr. Nancy Messonnier who read a script handed to her by resistance operatives inside government.  Dr. Messonnier is Rod Rosenstein’s sister.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar appears on Fox News to discuss Coronavirus (COVID-19) while a gleeful Chris Wallace excitedly questions Azar about “millions of people hoarding food”, and  how the virus will eliminate all life on planet Earth by Tuesday.

The odds of a brokered Democrat convention have increased significantly after a big win by Joe Biden in South Carolina; not as much because of the vote result, but more as an outcome of watching how the Club coalesced the background narrative.
As a result of his overwhelming win in the palmetto state Joe Biden now has more primary votes cast for him than Sanders. At this moment, Biden is winning the popular vote.

With Bloomberg’s fatally flawed debate performances helping to move the non-Bernie voters toward Joe Biden; and with the fingerprints of the party apparatus visible in the way South Carolina rolled out; it is clear Biden is now the DNC Club’s preferred candidate to stop Bernie ‘Fidel‘ Sanders.
Most of the thirteen Super Tuesday states will likely be significant wins for Fidel Sanders.  California and Texas will provide major delegates toward his primary effort, and he will likely receive additional delegates from strong finishes in every state he doesn’t win.  However, Biden is now going to be pushed hard, and financially fueled by the Club apparatus.
As the Club begins to put the players into position, Senator Amy Klobuchar will stay in the race until after her home state of Minnesota votes Tuesday to keep Bernie from additional lift.  Amy will likely endorse Biden on Wednesday.  Buttigieg soon thereafter.  The Club officers, or the DNC establishment per se’, will put pressure on all club members.
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Billionaire Tom Steyer has quit the Democrat race for president after spending $200+ million in South Carolina, more than $250 million overall, and coming in a distant third place without a single delegate.

(Via NBC) – Tom Steyer, the California activist billionaire who has largely been a nonfactor in the Democratic primary campaign, dropped out of the race on Saturday night.
Steyer’s departure came after a disappointing finish in the South Carolina Democratic primary. With 56 percent of the vote in, Steyer had just 11.7 percent of the vote — despite spending millions of dollars on campaigning there. (read more)

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Polls close 7:00pm ET today in South Carolina for the important Democrat presidential primary contest.  The state is seen as a must win for Joe Biden; and if successful, his future viability will be measured by the size of the victory. A narrow win won’t put voter doubts to rest, but a double-digit win will signal to The Club that he’s back in it.
Candidates must win 15 percent of South Carolina votes to get any of the 54 delegates. If the polling was accurate Buttigieg, Warren, Klobuchar and Steyer could be locked out.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not on the ballot; however, mini-mike’s prospects of success going into Super Tuesday hinge on Biden failing.  Bloomberg and Biden represent The Club’s best hope to head-off Bernie Sanders.  But Fidel Sanders is well positioned.

South Carolina State Election Site Results Here

New York Times Election Results Here

CNN Election Results Here

UPDATE: With 28% Reporting – Biden is the big winner:

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News to discuss his outlook on the nomination of John Ratcliffe as Director of National Intelligence.
Additionally, Nunes discusses how the Democrats are attempting to weaponize the Coronavirus scare and information about a new Ukrainian investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden and their corrupt influence scheme surrounding Burisma.

During a broadcast segment on MSNBC Chris Matthews is discussing 2020 politics while a monitor displays the live broadcast of the Trump rally in South Carolina. Then things get really squirly, uncomfortable and weird.  Cringeworthy.
Matthews has Democrat senate candidate Jamie Harrison on satellite feed to participate in the interview and somehow confuses Senator Tim Scott on the monitor with Jamie Harrison because, well, apparently… all black guys look alike, or something.  WATCH:
[wpvideo xUau8vqF]
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Quite a bit to unpack here, and most of it is very good news.  First, this re-nomination was almost predictable when you look at the totality of the landscape:

President Trump needed to generate an official DNI nomination in order to retain the current acting DNI authorities for Richard “Ric” Grenell; so that’s one aspect.
However, beyond the procedural move there’s the larger background of the FISA reauthorization; and, in my opinion, that larger dynamic is the majority consideration.
The FISA reauthorization and the need for President Trump to support any type of reauthorization that eventually gets through the complex political dynamics within congress; and considering Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell traveled to the White House to discuss this issue yesterday; the outcome is considerable leverage for Trump.
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