With caution applied, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced around 2:00am ET a deal had been reached for the nearly $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) bill.

The final language for “HR.748” (stripped and newly assembled) will take place today.  Looks like the senate is using an old bill, previously passed by the House, so the House can deem and pass, without formally reconvening. There are ten republican amendments. Speaking from the floor, both McConnell and Schumer made remarks describing the bill.

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Thank you Greg Abbott.  This is the first smart move by a state leader recognizing the realities of the system at hand.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed a waiver allowing restaurants to sell their bulk food directly to retail customers.

Amid all of the reactionary decisions by elected officials, this is a smart, and temporary move that can take pressure off the retail supply chain.  Hopefully others will follow.

Leadership is often about recognizing the unique landscape and taking ‘outside the box’ action in response to current conditions.  Greg Abbott recognizes there are two distinctly different supply-chains, and this modification can open one distribution valve.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Stephanie Grisham Twitter @StephGrisham45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

This is almost unbelievable, if it wasn’t for the fact the governor is a democrat.  Hopefully voters are paying close attention to this stuff and will remember in November.  All of these authoritarian tendencies are being triggered by the opportunity known as COVID-19.

The DEMOCRAT governor of Nevada has signed an executive order banning the use of hydroxychloroquine as a medical treatment for those suffering from the coronavirus.

LAS VEGAS — Nevada’s governor has signed an emergency order barring the use of anti-malaria drugs for someone who has the coronavirus.

Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak’s order Tuesday restricting chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine comes after President Donald Trump touted the medication as a treatment for the virus. (read more)

This level of severe Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) will immediately open a black-market for people to travel across state lines to obtain their medical needs.  Great job idiot.

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First they released 1,700 inmates.  Then the LA Sheriff shut down all the gun stores, saying they were not essential services…. Now LA Mayor Garcetti announces he will shut down water and electricity for anyone who attempts to defy the stay at home edicts.

…”The easiest way to avoid a visit” from the LA storm-troopers “is to follow the rules”… “Your behavior can save a life” Garcetti said, “And that life could be yours.”…

The official “neighborhood prosecutors” have been assigned. The LA Directorate of Coronavirus Compliance has now been activated.  Choose carefully comrade citizen.  That’s a nice place you’ve got there, it’d be a shame if anything happened to it..

Los Angeles – […] He reminded young people that the virus can hit them too, urging them to stay at home and practice social distancing.

“Your behavior can save a life and take a life,” Garcetti said. “And that life could be yours.”

The mayor addressed President Trump’s remarks from earlier Tuesday about having the nation “opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” Garcetti said he didn’t think L.A. would be back to normal “in that short time.”

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Here’s the transcript from the President Trump COVID-19 Task Force town hall event earlier today.

[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Bill.

Q Unusual circumstances, where you’re trying to communicate with the American people and we’re trying to maybe bring the American people a little closer to you and get some answers.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, that’s true.

Q To you, Mr. President, when was the moment that you thought, “We got to move on this”?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think when I started seeing and reading about China, and seeing what was going on in China — Wuhan, specifically. It seemed to come mostly out of there — that area, the province.

And when I saw that, and I saw the kind of death they were, you know, talking about on television, in the papers, and I started reading a lot about it. And, really, when I had to make a decision: Do I stop people from China and specifically that area — but from China — to come into the country? And everybody was against it. Almost everybody, I would say, was just absolutely against it. We’ve never done it before. We never made a decision like that.

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National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow explains the overall picture of the legislative package as coordinated by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and the White House economic team.   The overall financial package is $6 trillion.  $4 trillion of that amount is federal reserve lending authority in case needed.  $2 trillion is direct economic assistance.

Democrats are still attempting to add their K-Street pet projects (foreign aid grants, performing arts contributions, union payoffs, election modifications, funds to expand abortion services, subsidies for wind farms, restrictions on cow flatulence, funds for Hollywood productions, airline emissions, turtle training classes and various social engineering topics) to the spending package. That battle continues….

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“Rally to the standard” is a call to arms when a situation is critical, there is no time for lengthy debate, and optimal solutions are needed.  Americans are rallying to the standard.

President Trump is subjecting himself to ridiculous attacks by an insufferable corporate media press corps during daily press briefings. The result is helping to expose a resistance ideology that rots the nation; and Americans are rallying behind him.

President Trump has surrounded himself with health experts, and subject expertise from the medical community; however, he also cuts through the complex aspects with common sense answers the American public can understand.  POTUS is really good at skipping the pontificating elocution & relating, conveying, the challenges to middle-America on terms that everyone can see.

As a result of Americans seeing a direct and accountable, solution-driven, business approach being applied to a national emergency, the approval ratings for President Trump have jumped significantly.  Optimal solutions are not always perfect; but in times of crisis, great leaders know to generate optimal solutions.   The entire administration is focused on achieving optimal solutions for every part of the coronavirus challenge as they surface.

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Earlier today New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted FEMA during a press conference for sending 400 medical ventilators when his state needs 30,000.  WATCH:

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However, in 2015 the New York State Department of Health specifically studied the issue, warned about a critical lack of ventilators during a pandemic, and the New York Governor made a specific decision NOT to order them: [pdf link here]

So Andrew Cuomo is blasting FEMA today for not providing something he choose not to order and prepare for in 2015.  That’s a little bit unfair and hypocritical, no?