White House trade and manufacturing policy advisor Peter Navarro appears on Fox News to discuss two key economic and trade issues: (1) the current status of U.S-China trade discussions “round one”; and (2) the status of USMCA ratification (Pelosi’s delay).
Nothing in the China trade discussion is solid, until everything in the China trade discussion is settled; this is one of the key aspects to President Trump’s directive to USTR Robert Lighthizer.  No deal is a more favorable outcome than the construct of a trade deal that cannot be enforced.
On the USMCA ratification, again it all falls upon the politics of Pelosi.  The agreement would pass tomorrow if it were put up to a vote; there is no controversy.  Speaker Pelosi is holding back the ratification vote for pure political purposes.

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USMCA ratification is the first domino in long-chain of ‘America First’ economic benefits. As soon as USMCA passes a wave of North American investment will surge. The downstream consequences includes leverage for U.S-China, U.S-Europe, U.S-India and U.S-U.K trade agreements.
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Representative Doug Collins appears with Maria Bartiromo and points out a position on FISA reauthorization that is hopefully carried by the majority of Republicans.  Collins states an approach where he, perhaps others, would advance a “short-term” FISA extension pending a full review of the upcoming FISA report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz, prior to any longer term reauthorization.
FISA-702 authority, bulk U.S. person metadata collection, storage and surveillance, is set to terminally expire December 15th.  The last FISC report from Judge Boasberg stated that all violations of FISA law are still ongoing and there have been no substantive corrections by the intelligence community to fix the abuse issues. The Judge Boasberg report was written in September of 2018 but not released (redacted) until last month. {Go Deep}
The Intelligence Community (writ large), the FBI and the DOJ are all seeking a permanent reauthorization.  In my humble opinion this FISA reauthorization is the cornerstone motive for an IG report delay.  There is an alignment of interests.

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We know what the FBI and “contractors” were doing in 2016; and given how invested the intelligence community is within the current stop-trump operations (writ large); and given the political stakes for the intelligence community; well, would there be a reason they would just stop electronic surveillance in January 2017 when President Trump was inaugurated?
Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein authorized Mueller to investigate the Steele Dossier in the second scope memo (August 2017). If my suspicions are accurate, the reason Mueller wanted the dossier included would be to maintain Mueller’s investigation as a counterintelligence operation. [An extension of Crossfire Hurricane] More importantly, as a result, all previous FBI exploits using FISA(702) database searches would be authorized.
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Representative Jim Jordan appears on CBS Face The Nation to discuss the ongoing impeachment fiasco. Ms. Brennan struggles to define a new journalistic concept for “first-hand” information as she claims David Holmes, who claims to have overheard half of a phone conversation that two other people were having, is a “first-hand” witness.
Jordan points out that Ms. Brennan is quoting from a seal transcript given to her by Adam Schiff that has not been released. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re back now with Republican Congressman Jim Jordan. Good morning to you.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Morning. Good to be with you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s good to have you here in person. And- and before we get going, the cut above your eye. You didn’t get into a fistfight. This was just a run in–
REP. JORDAN: No I- I- I got between Adam Schiff and a camera. How bout that? No, actually, it’s somewhat embarrassing. But the door to the Intelligence Committee hearing room–
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Earlier today Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appeared for an interview with Maria Bartiromo on the status of phase-one for the U.S-China trade deal, Huawei and ZTE national security concerns, and Speaker Pelosi blocking ratification of the USMCA agreement.
Secretary Ross cautions the Chinese deal is contingent on some very particular and important enforcement details. Additionally Ross discusses the potential national security issues with 5G network and AG Bill Barr having strong concerns about Huawei and ZTE.

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The preferred impeachment narrative amid Democrat party leadership surrounds creating articles of impeachment that are based on constitutional principles, not hard-line partisan politics.  However, with the latest shift by Speaker Pelosi to focus on the word “bribery” it is now discovered the reason for the impeachment change was a political focus-group:

(Washington Post Article Link)

By focus-group testing the impeachment design the Democrats are admitting the entirety of their construct is based on political motives and intents.
Focus-group polling and testing was the preeminent approach for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election campaign.  Candidate Clinton used the focus groups to test each of the talking points used by her campaign.  It would appear that same approach is now being applied to Speaker Pelosi’s impeachment effort.
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Within the current claims of the Democrats there is a baseline action that needs to exist for any “bribery” or “undue influence” claim to exist. Meaning there had to be pressure by President Trump upon the government of Ukraine to initiate an investigation of Joe Biden.

The call transcript between President Trump and President Zelenskyy doesn’t show such a request.  Ukraine President Zelenskyy said there was never such a request by President Trump; and now Ukraine Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko says there was never such a request from U.S. Ambassador Sondland on behalf of President Trump:

(Via Daily Mail) The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vadym Prystaiko told Ukrainian reporters a day after the first public impeachment hearing that Ambassador Gordon Sondland did not detail any relationship between the assistance and probe, according to Interfax, a Ukrainian news agency.

‘Ambassador Sondland did not tell us, and did not tell me exactly, about the relation between the [military] assistance and the investigations,’ Prystaiko told journalists in Kiev. ‘You should ask him. I do not recall any conversation with me as with foreign minister. It was not we, the Ukrainian officials (who were told this).’

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Leader Kevin McCarthy just put some specific dates to a sequence we anticipated several months ago.
During a Fox interview with Laura Ingraham (I’ll look for video) McCarthy predicts Speaker Pelosi will bring up the impeachment vote on/around December 16th; then follow-up the impeachment vote with USMCA ratification and the budget passage on/around December 20th allowing the Democrats to go home for the holidays with all three goals accomplished.
This prediction by Leader McCarthy is very likely. Earlier today Speaker Poli-Grip said passing the USMCA was “imminent“.  In essence, she’s holding the USMCA vote as an ace to highlight a bipartisan legislative accomplishment by her party.
We noted last month: Nancy Pelosi will bring the USMCA to a vote timed with the impeachment vote. This plan allows democrats to try and dilute the political nature of the impeachment scheme by referencing the Trump administration USMCA vote as an example of Democrats not being political. This is how they scheme.

…’See, we’re not politically motivated, we’re giving the same president we are impeaching a win; because this trade deal is in the best interest of America.  Just like the impeachment of this corrupt president is in the best interest of America’….

Plan-A  “collusion” didn’t work, because it never happened; no Americans colluded or conspired with Russia.
Plan-B “obstruction” didn’t work, because it never happened; the FBI and Robert Mueller completed their investigations without impediment.
Plan-C “whistleblower” doesn’t work, because the hearsay claims never happened.  The request to investigate corruption and potential Ukraine interference with the 2016 U.S. election was actually requested by many U.S. officials prior to President Trump.
Today Speaker Poli-Grip Pelosi moves to Plan-D, “bribery”.  See if you can make heads-or-tails of this logic:

 
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A very strong jobs market, and wage growth for the middle-class at the highest rate in decades, continues to benefit Main Street USA.  As noted within the sales and earnings report from Walmart today, the U.S. middle-class continues to thrive in a MAGA-driven U.S. economy.

(Reuters) […] Consumer spending going in to the crucial holiday season remains healthy, Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Retailers earn a sizeable chunk of their annual revenue during November and December.
“The consumer remains in pretty good shape, employment situation is good, fuel prices are low … wage growth is pretty good,” he said. (more)

It is easy to forget how two-years-ago the doomsayers and financial pundits were claiming President Trump’s tariff policies were going to create massive price increases.  They were completely wrong in their predictions.  The latest U.S. inflation reports show low inflation at 1.8 percent year-over-year.
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After the 2018 mid-terms, and in preparation for the “impeachment” strategy, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler hired Lawfare group members to become House committee staff.

In 2018 Chairman Adam Schiff hired former SDNY U.S. Attorney Daniel Goldman (link).  You probably saw Goldman doing the questioning for Schiff during the first public impeachment hearing (above).  Meanwhile Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler hired Obama Administration lawyer Norm Eisen and criminal defense attorney Barry Berke (link).
However, with a horrible start to the impeachment construct; an outcome of day-one hearings where State Department officials George Kent and Bill Taylor provided no baseline for the impeachment narrative to build upon; Pelosi and Schiff are going outside for more legal assistance.  Per Chad Pergram:

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