In the summer of 2019 CTH noted: “The problem for Attorney General Bill Barr is not  investigating what we don’t know, but rather navigating through what ‘We The People’ are already aware of.”

Six months later, specifically citing the problem for Bill Barr that Michael Flynn’s prosecution represented, we again cautioned against projecting an altruistic motive toward the AG, because there was more evidence the DOJ priority was institutional preservation than any arbitrary quest for justice.  The problem is BIG:

[…] At the heart of the matter, in the real activity that took place, there was a multi-branch seditious effort to remove President Donald J Trump. From the perspective of those charged with the actual administration of justice – there is no way to put this in front of the American public and have the institutions survive. What we are witnessing is a dance between increasingly narrowing rails and the DOJ trying to find an exit. (more)

With Michael Flynn trapped on the burning roof of a corrupt institution the problem for Barr was how to rescue Flynn without admitting Main Justice and the FBI is on fire.  Fortuitously in January 2020 the FISA Court provided cover, an escape route, for Bill Barr to deal with the problem:

….[LINK] The only way I can see out of this mess; the one crack in the current lock box; is the FISA court order for the DOJ to present the identified downstream consequences from fraud upon the court. The FISC might actually be the ladder truck here. With the DOJ and FBI currently assembling the investigative consequences, ie. the sequestration material, Flynn’s current legal status might be identified as an outcropping of fraud…

That appears to be exactly what happened.

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National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appears on Fox Business to discuss today’s report on jobs from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

The estimated  unemployment rate jumped to 14.7 percent. Kudlow brings up a good point: allow people to take a tax deduction for COVID-19 expenses.

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Earlier this afternoon Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard “Ric” Grenell  delivered a satchel of declassified documents to Attorney General Bill Barr.  According to DC sources the content could possibly be released tomorrow in an explosive Friday document dump.  Stay tuned…

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What a difference one man on a mission can make. Ric Grenell is top shelf.

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The back-and-forth between shifty Adam Schiff and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence continues today as acting DNI Ric Grenell sends Shifty a letter saying if he doesn’t release the requested transcripts to congress, then Grenell can/will do it.

h/t Catherine Herridge.

After taking control of the House Adam Schiff did not want to see the 2018 investigative transcripts released from HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes tenure as head of the committee. Becoming HPSCI chairman, Schiff told then DNI Dan Coats the transcripts were property of the House Intel Committee and must not be released.   When Ric Grenell took over as acting DNI he fast-tracked the declassification review of the transcripts and prepared them for release…. Shifty went bananas.

This week Jim Jordan is again asking for the release of the transcripts, and that’s where Grenell come back into the picture willing to release them.  Chairman Schiff now says his committee will re-re-review the declassification, to make sure Grenell didn’t reveal too much damaging information about the plot to take down President Trump.

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U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Elizabeth Truss announced today [joint statement] the beginning of a series of fast-tracked trade negotiations toward a new free trade agreement. [USTR Release]

In the foreground is a trade agreement between the U.S. and the United Kingdom. However, in the more strategic background context these negotiations create leverage for the U.K. in their post-Brexit negotiations with the European Union. First from today:

LIGHTHIZER – […] The US negotiating team will be led by Dan Mullaney, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East; and the UK negotiating team will be led by Oliver Griffiths, Director for US Negotiations at the Department for International Trade. Over 200 staff from U.S. and UK government agencies and departments are expected to take part in the negotiations.

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It doesn’t come as a shock but it is ridiculous in the extreme. A Dallas County Texas salon owner has been sentenced to a week in jail for defying the order to keep her business closed.  “I couldn’t feed my family and my stylists couldn’t feed their families” Ms. Shelly Luther testified.  The court didn’t care.

The stakes are escalating daily as economic desperation takes over and the oppressive hand of the authoritarian government officials refuse to loosen their grip on their new found power over the population.  Confrontation is likely to get much worse quickly.

TEXAS – A Dallas salon owner will spend a week in jail after she was found in contempt of court Tuesday for violating a court order to close her salon during the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to the jail time, Shelley Luther was fined at least $3,500 for continuing to operate her business, Salon à la Mode, in violation of a temporary restraining order issued against the business.

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Senator Tom Cotton appears on Fox News to discuss the latest revelations that COVID-19 came out of a laboratory in Wuhan, China.  Martha MacCallum attempts to push the Beijing propaganda of wounded panda as a victim; Senator Cotton outlines the importance of accepting that China is a communist totalitarian state.

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White House Manufacturing Policy Advisor and lead on execution of the Defense Production Act, Peter Navarro, appears on Fox News to discuss the ongoing initiatives to secure, produce and/or manufacture critical healthcare products in the U.S.

There are multiple reports in media today about the White House assembling a variety of new policies and regulations to go full wolverine on ‘America-First’.  USTR Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross are leading the effort.

Additionally, Navarro notes FEMA, HHS and DoD will soon have rules requiring USA manufactured purchases for their government contracts.

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Wall Street’s U.S. multinationals moved the majority of U.S. apparel manufacturing to southeast Asia for the past several decades; as a result they virtually wiped out major apparel hubs in the United States.  Now those same multinationals are claiming their production shift to making masks and PPE in China means the tariffs on imports should be lifted; and they are sending their corporate lobbyists into DC to pitch that message.

Nonsense.

There are no tariffs on U.S. healthcare products made in the USA.  If the apparel industry wants to avoid tariffs, then bring the manufacturing back home.  Critical manufacturing in the United States is what U.S. consumers of those and other goods want.

President Trump should not lower tariffs on imported PPE, he should actually raise those tariffs as high as needed to shift that manufacturing back to the U.S.

The time is now to wage battle against the Wall Street manufacturers & K-St lobbyists.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration is “turbocharging” an initiative to remove global industrial supply chains from China as it weighs new tariffs to punish Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, according to officials familiar with U.S. planning.

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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears for a wide-ranging interview with Maria Bartiromo. Topics include international travel, the Paycheck Protection Program progress, small business relief, and overall rebuilding of the U.S. economy amid COVID-19 mitigation.

The first few minutes of the interview are weird because Bartiromo doesn’t seem to recognize the PPP program is essentially a grant to small business to keep their employees on payroll. Ms. Bartiromo appears to want the PPP grants to be shifted to free money to replace business revenue, and she’s pushing hard for her Wall St buddies.

Secretary Mnuchin tries to remind Bartiromo that businesses can apply for bridge loans, but the PPP is actually a grant. Bartiromo argues that all businesses should have free money bailouts to replace revenues; an impossible suggestion.

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