In the background of the impeachment effort the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) led by Chairman Jerry Nadler was seeking: (1) Mueller grand jury material; (2) a deposition by former White House counsel Don McGahn; and less importantly (3) Trump financial and tax records.  Each of these cases were then argued in federal court, appellate courts (6e and McGahn) and the supreme court (financials/taxes).
In November 2019 activist Federal District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled Don McGahn must appear before Congress; however, she also ruled McGahn retained the ability to “invoke executive privilege where appropriate” during his appearance.
The White House appealed the ruling to the DC appellate court on constitutional grounds.  Today a three judge panel from the DC circuit agreed with the White House position.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump scored a major legal victory on Friday when a federal appeals court panel ruled Democrats have no right to hear testimony from former White House counsel Don McGahn.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s ruling overturned a lower court decision requiring McGahn’s testimony and told the judge presiding over the case to dismiss it outright. The ruling is a blow to House Democrats’ attempts to break the Trump administration’s intransigent stance that it can block Congress from talking to witnesses. (link)

This ruling also undermines the ridiculous “obstruction” article of impeachment because it shows the White House had a justifiable and constitutional argument to make against the House in the judicial branch.  The issue at stake was  whether the legislative branch can penetrate the constitutional firewall which exists within the separation of powers.
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It’s a great time to be watching Democrat politics and the unending efforts of the national media to protect them from themselves.
The leading candidate for the Democrat party is an avowed socialist, Fidel Sanders.
Meanwhile, the strongest fall-back candidate for the party that rails against the rich; the only candidate likely to save them from Fidel; is a former republican billionaire, mini-mike Bloomberg.  The former New York City mayor Bloomberg made himself famous by railing against guns, soda, Slurpees, salt, and hot-dogs at baseball games.  You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said she would be comfortable with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as the Democratic presidential nominee in November.
The congresswoman was asked the question as she was leaving a closed-door meeting in the House basement Wednesday morning.  She replied with one word: “Yes.” (link)

Sending shockwaves through the intelligence community, it was reported yesterday that newly appointed Acting DNI Richard “Ric” Grenell asked the intelligence community, specifically including Shelby Pierson, to produce the underlying intelligence within the briefing she gave to the House Intelligence Committee.
Well, what do you know…. All of a sudden today, anonymous intelligence officials are reporting to CNN that Ms. Pierson “overstepped” her position, was “misleading” in her briefing, and “mischaracterized” the underlying intelligence.   Imagine that.

Washington (CNN)-The US intelligence community’s top election security official appears to have overstated the intelligence community’s formal assessment of Russian interference in the 2020 election, omitting important nuance during a briefing with lawmakers earlier this month, three national security officials told CNN.

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CTH often describes the background DC motives with the phrase: “There are Trillions at Stake.”  Here we take a look at what that really means, and how DC politics is not quite based on the ideas that frame many reference points.
With people taking notice of DC politics for the first time; and with people not as familiar with the purpose of DC politics; we end up within two different references. Perhaps it is valuable to reset the larger frames of reference and provide clarity.
Most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a House or Senate representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past.  There is not a single person in congress writing legislation or laws.
In modern politics not a single member of the House of Representatives or Senator writes a law, or puts pen to paper to write out a legislative construct. This simply doesn’t happen.
Over the past several decades a system of constructing legislation has taken over Washington DC that more resembles a business operation than a legislative body. Here’s how it works right now.
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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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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases the January jobs and labor report and the results are MAGAnificent.  225,000 jobs gained in January; non-supervisory wage growth against exceeds supervisory at 3.2%; and 185,000 workers re-entered the workforce.

The 225,000 new jobs far exceeded expectations. Economists were looking for 160,000. Also the November report was revised up by 5,000 (from +256,000 to +261,000) and the change for December was revised up by 2,000 from (+145,000 to +147,000). With these revisions, employment gains in November and December combined were 7,000 higher than previously reported.
Keep in mind these excellent jobs results are without the domestic investment expected to be produced by the USMCA manufacturing realignment.  As goods producing companies start evaluating the new total production costs, the investment shift toward North America will likely keep a tailwind on our economic growth and jobs.
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Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered remarks from the East room about the impeachment acquittal.  After spending more than three years under investigations by government agencies and operatives of DC politics, President Trump did not hold back in pointing out the corruption behind his opposition. [Transcript Below]

[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Wow. (Applause.) Well, thank you very much, everybody. Wow. We’ve all been through a lot together, and we probably deserve that hand for all of us, because it’s been a very unfair situation.
I invited some of our very good friends. And we have limited room, but everybody wanted to come. We kept it down to a minimum. And believe it or not, this is a minimum.

But a tremendous thing was done over the last number of months, but really, if you go back to it, over the last number of years. We had the witch hunt. It started from the day we came down the elevator, myself and our future First Lady, who’s with us right now. Thank you, Melania. (Applause.)

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A stunning (not really) shift in late Iowa caucus results overnight caused the New York Times to flip their predictions.  Few noticed but Tue/Wed the NYT predicted 97% certainty that Pete Buttigieg would win Iowa.  Last night as more caucus results were released that predictive model flipped and now Bernie Sanders is 54% predicted to win. [LINK]

What’s happening is clear to anyone who knows the Club’s objective.  The DNC Club is attempting to diminish Sanders and elevate any non-Bernie candidate.  Sanders has won the popular vote in Iowa and will likely split national delegates with Buttigieg.
Knowing the ongoing purpose, Sanders, declares victory today and holds a press conference. Immediately after Bernie’s declaration, DNC Club Chairman Tom Perez requests an Iowa recount in an effort to keep ‘never-Bernie‘ Pete Buttigieg elevated.
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President Trump announced yesterday he would be delivering remarks from the White House today discussing the conclusion of the House impeachment effort.  The anticipated start time is Noon today.
UPDATE: Video Added

The House Managers and President Trump defense team have presented their case and defense of impeachment.  Closing arguments are complete.  Today the Senate will finish floor speeches under regular quorum and then re-enter impeachment trial for 4pm vote.
The regular floor speeches are pure partisan politics. Each of the remaining senators is allowed ten minutes for remarks today prior to the impeachment vote at 4:00pm.

• Wednesday: 9:30am Floor speeches resume (regular senate rules). At 4:00pm the Senate re-enters trial phase to vote on two articles of impeachment.

CSPAN Livestream Link – Alternate Livestream 1 – Alternate Livestream 2