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.

Tonight President Trump travels to Phoenix, AZ to attend a Keep America Great rally at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. President Trump is expected to speak at 9:00pm ET.  Livestream links below.  VIDEO ADDED:

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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If you stay out of the weeds and look at the bigger picture it is clear to see the media are all-in, desperate to retain the Big Lie that Russia was responsible for hacking the DNC servers and releasing the DNC emails.  The reason is simple: the ‘Russia hack of the DNC’ is the foundation for the Russia election interference narrative.
Any review, discussion or investigation (Durham) that starts to question the fraudulent foundation is immediately controversialized.  Today is no different.

(Via NBC) It is being reported that lawyers for Julian Assange noted in court arguments that U.S. officials had offered a potential pardon in exchange for Assange telling the truth about how he obtained the DNC emails.  Immediately the media goes bananas.
President Donald Trump offered a pardon through an intermediary to Julian Assange if the WikiLeaks chief agreed to say that Russia was not involved in hacking emails from Democrats during the 2016 presidential election, a lawyer for Assange reportedly told a court in London on Wednesday.

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Today President Trump will deliver remarks on water access in Bakersfield, California. The president was in the valley earlier today for a fundraiser hosted by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and will deliver remarks from Bakersfield at approximately 5:30pm ET.
White House Livestream – Fox Business Livestream – Alternate Livestream

First, the “report” comes from the pathetic beltway crowd of journolist narrative engineers; so there’s likely little-to-no substance to the construct.  However, that said, if Bill Barr is so weak, pathetic and incapable of doing his job, that he needs to threaten to resign if President Trump tweets his opinion, then Barr is in the wrong profession.
…Unless, of course, President Trump’s pressure on Bill Barr is actually forcing the Attorney General to do something the AG is predisposed not to undertake.  Which, given the background history of Bill Barr, is also entirely possible.

Right around this moment-in-time is where a multitude of mutually aligned beltway quisling pundits will declare that Bill Barr’s delicate sensibilities are being wounded by a President who demands forceful accountability; ie. traditional DC republican pundits [insert Laura Ingraham and Max Boot here].
The bottom line is President Trump is doing absolutely nothing to impede Bill Barr from doing his job; if the U.S. Attorney General is factually intent on doing that job.
Ever since he assumed office the Attorney General has been praising the likes of Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller and Christopher Wray.  Given the nature of what is widely available in review, that level of logical disconnect is not representative of an individual who possesses reasonable judgement in the quest for deliberate justice…. just sayin’.
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It’s magic… serendipity even.  On the eve of the Nevada Democrat presidential primary debate, the financier of the 2020 DNC Club magically happens to qualify thanks to an NBC poll.  You couldn’t write a more transparently obvious DNC Club road-map, and get people to believe it…

Bernie 31%, Bloomberg 19%, Biden 15%, Warren 12%, Klobuchar 9%, Buttigieg 8%

NEVADA – Michael Bloomberg has qualified to appear in his first Democratic presidential debate — Wednesday night’s, in Las Vegas.
The multi-billionaire former New York City mayor needed to rank high enough in one more poll to make the cut, and he did it in impressive fashion in an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey released early Tuesday.

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