A message from Vice President Mike Pence…

Mike Pence: In the fight against the coronavirus, the Trump administration is not just taking a whole of government approach, but a whole of America approach.

We’ve worked seamlessly with state and local leaders from both political parties. Since January, we’ve held 36 briefings with more than 15,000 state, local and tribal leaders from every state and territory in America. And that is in addition to thousands of individual conversations with state, local, and tribal officials.

A vaccine for the coronavirus has already begun a phase 1 clinical trial. The president has dramatically expanded access to telemedicine for seniors on Medicare. And the Health and Human Services Department is collaborating with Johnson & Johnson to develop treatments for coronavirus infections, while actively soliciting proposals for other medical products to help combat the virus.

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This is a big sector hit to the U.S. economy.  All of the major U.S. auto manufacturers have agreed to shut down all production facilities, through March 30th, in the latest thunder-shock to the economy.

DETROIT – Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Fiat-Chrysler will close their plants due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Ford said in a statement Wednesday that its U.S., Canadian and Mexican manufacturing facilities will be halted after Thursday evening’s shifts through March 30 to “thoroughly clean and sanitize the company’s plants.”

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The entire nation is being impacted by a multitude of consequences from coronavirus; millions of Americans concerned about lost work, lost wages and possibly lost jobs; the largest economy in the world at a near standstill; trillions of wealth lost and rippling economic consequences yet to be properly quantified;…. and yet the White House press pool is worried about calling COVID-19 the “Chinese coronavirus”?

Amid all of the seemingly unending and insufferable nonsense from American journalists, this is, yet again, reaching an all time high of stupidity.  WATCH:

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Nuts !

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White House trade adviser Peter Navarro outlines some of the ongoing supply chain initiatives to meet ongoing demands of the corovirus effort.  Navarro highlights the cooperation between US government and private enterprise.  WATCH:

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As an outcome of short-sighted coronavirus issues, the Philadelphia police department has announced they will no longer be arresting suspects for retail theft, auto theft, burglary, narcotics or other “non violent” offenses.  Instead they will write tickets, release the suspects and address the criminality later on.  Now watch what happens.

CTH saw the instructions earlier today (see below) but we did not want to immediately distribute the information.  It should be remembered the current Philadelphia police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw (pictured left), is a social justice  activist from Portland, Oregon.

Unfortunately, there is a predictive element to this.  Perhaps some are familiar with the post Hurricane Andrew experience in Homestead and Miami-Dade.

The only thing standing between law-abiding citizens and those who would take their possessions is an ability to defend your own property.  This is now the Philadelphia reality.

PHILADELPHIA – In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Philadelphia police officers have been instructed to stop making arrests for certain non-violent crimes.

The department said individuals who would normally be arrested and processed at a detective division, will be temporarily detained to confirm identification and complete necessary paperwork. The individual will then be a arrested at a later date on an arrest warrant. (read more)

Beware, the law of unintended consequences.

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Earlier today President Trump met with executives from the U.S. tourism industry to discuss how their operation are impacted by the various COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

Participants included: Roger Dow, President & CEO, Travel Association; Chip Rogers, President & CEO, American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA); Jon Bortz, President and CEO, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and AHLA Chairman; Elie Maalouf, President, The Americas, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG); Christopher Nassetta, President & CEO, Hilton; Arne Sorenson, President & CEO, Marriott International; Richard Bates, EVP, Disney; Mark Hoplamazian, President & CEO, Hyatt Hotels Corporation; John Sprouls, Chief Administrative Officer, Universal Parks and Resorts; Patrick Pacious, President and CEO, Choice Hotels International; David Kong, CEO, Best Western Hotels and Resorts; Jim Murren, President & CEO, MGM  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. We have the tourism industry executives, the biggest anywhere in the world. These are the great ones, and they’re going to say a couple of little words pretty soon, I think. We’ll talk about their company quickly and the number of employees and what’s happened since the Chinese virus came about. And they’ll be discussing that.

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CTH is spending time on this issue because the food distribution sector is the most important sector in all commerce. Having some familiarity with the supply chain might help people to understand the challenges; and possibly help you locate product.

The Inversion – Big chain markets; those who spent millions developing their own proprietary ‘just-in-time’ distribution networks and automated ordering systems; are currently the least equipped to deal with the level of demand.  Meanwhile smaller chains, or mom-and-pops, who rely on third-party brokered distribution are faster to respond.

Several factors have increased retail market demand for food products and non-perishables.  People stocking up, kids out of school, some panic shopping (example toilet paper) and now curfews/quarantines have people purchasing more for ‘meals prepared at home’.  Add in a level of closed restaurants and the demand on retail food markets is severely stressed.

In major urban areas the larger retailers are unable to keep up with demand.  This is creating an outward spread as people drive further and further distances to find their needs.  Those who travel a distance ultimately stock-up more; thus the outward spider web-cycle is created.  Based on ground reports Atlanta Georgia is a prime example.

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President Trump, Vice-President Pence and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin lead the daily coronavirus briefing on COVID-19 mitigation efforts from the White House.

[Video Below – Transcript Added]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you. Progress being made. And I appreciate you all joining us.

Last night, the FDA announced groundbreaking new policies to further increase testing very substantially so. All states can now authorize tests developed and used within their borders, in addition to the FDA. So the states are very much involved. They have been involved from the beginning. But we’re stepping it up as much as we can, and the testing procedures are going well.

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Earlier today President Trump held a conference call with a who’s-who of executives in the restaurant industry.  One of the key aspects to the call was President Trump asking the CEO’s to continue food service operations despite the dine-in closures.  The reason is simple: the alternative, the retail supermarket industry nationwide, cannot compensate for the closure of restaurants in the total food production supply chain. [Ground Reports]

(WHITE HOUSE) – Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke by telephone with restaurant executives representing hundreds of thousands of hardworking Americans about the response to COVID-19. The executives thanked President Trump and his Administration for the whole-of-government response and for his efforts to ensure the public has the most accurate and up-to-date information.

The President reminded the restaurants that they can help flatten the curve and slow the spread of this virus in communities across the country by encouraging their customers to use drive-thru, pickup, or delivery options.

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By today the closure of dine-in restaurants should be in full swing across almost all areas. Understandably there’s going to be an operational lag as many of those restaurants don’t have the systems or equipment in place for exclusive take-out or pick-up services (ie. carry-out containers); though hopefully many are responding quickly to the changes.

The upstream consequence of the restaurant disruption is going to be even more pressure on grocery outlets already seeing additional traffic. Many people now shifting from meals “outside the home”, back to the more traditional “home-cooked” meals etc. Which brings up the question of the retail supermarket capacity to meet that extra demand.

This coronavirus event is like a nationwide pre-Hurricane shopping experience.

There have been numerous reports of wide-scale shortages in retail food markets. On the positive side this experienced supply chain has the ability to scale-up very fast (depending on region). However, on a national scale this is the first time the entire country has needed this level of increased retail food distribution simultaneously. To cope with the volume most stores appear to have reduced their hours of operation.

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