The odds of a brokered Democrat convention have increased significantly after a big win by Joe Biden in South Carolina; not as much because of the vote result, but more as an outcome of watching how the Club coalesced the background narrative.
As a result of his overwhelming win in the palmetto state Joe Biden now has more primary votes cast for him than Sanders. At this moment, Biden is winning the popular vote.

With Bloomberg’s fatally flawed debate performances helping to move the non-Bernie voters toward Joe Biden; and with the fingerprints of the party apparatus visible in the way South Carolina rolled out; it is clear Biden is now the DNC Club’s preferred candidate to stop Bernie ‘Fidel‘ Sanders.
Most of the thirteen Super Tuesday states will likely be significant wins for Fidel Sanders.  California and Texas will provide major delegates toward his primary effort, and he will likely receive additional delegates from strong finishes in every state he doesn’t win.  However, Biden is now going to be pushed hard, and financially fueled by the Club apparatus.
As the Club begins to put the players into position, Senator Amy Klobuchar will stay in the race until after her home state of Minnesota votes Tuesday to keep Bernie from additional lift.  Amy will likely endorse Biden on Wednesday.  Buttigieg soon thereafter.  The Club officers, or the DNC establishment per se’, will put pressure on all club members.
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Billionaire Tom Steyer has quit the Democrat race for president after spending $200+ million in South Carolina, more than $250 million overall, and coming in a distant third place without a single delegate.

(Via NBC) – Tom Steyer, the California activist billionaire who has largely been a nonfactor in the Democratic primary campaign, dropped out of the race on Saturday night.
Steyer’s departure came after a disappointing finish in the South Carolina Democratic primary. With 56 percent of the vote in, Steyer had just 11.7 percent of the vote — despite spending millions of dollars on campaigning there. (read more)

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Polls close 7:00pm ET today in South Carolina for the important Democrat presidential primary contest.  The state is seen as a must win for Joe Biden; and if successful, his future viability will be measured by the size of the victory. A narrow win won’t put voter doubts to rest, but a double-digit win will signal to The Club that he’s back in it.
Candidates must win 15 percent of South Carolina votes to get any of the 54 delegates. If the polling was accurate Buttigieg, Warren, Klobuchar and Steyer could be locked out.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not on the ballot; however, mini-mike’s prospects of success going into Super Tuesday hinge on Biden failing.  Bloomberg and Biden represent The Club’s best hope to head-off Bernie Sanders.  But Fidel Sanders is well positioned.

South Carolina State Election Site Results Here

New York Times Election Results Here

CNN Election Results Here

UPDATE: With 28% Reporting – Biden is the big winner:

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News to discuss his outlook on the nomination of John Ratcliffe as Director of National Intelligence.
Additionally, Nunes discusses how the Democrats are attempting to weaponize the Coronavirus scare and information about a new Ukrainian investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden and their corrupt influence scheme surrounding Burisma.

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During a broadcast segment on MSNBC Chris Matthews is discussing 2020 politics while a monitor displays the live broadcast of the Trump rally in South Carolina. Then things get really squirly, uncomfortable and weird.  Cringeworthy.
Matthews has Democrat senate candidate Jamie Harrison on satellite feed to participate in the interview and somehow confuses Senator Tim Scott on the monitor with Jamie Harrison because, well, apparently… all black guys look alike, or something.  WATCH:
[wpvideo xUau8vqF]
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Quite a bit to unpack here, and most of it is very good news.  First, this re-nomination was almost predictable when you look at the totality of the landscape:

President Trump needed to generate an official DNI nomination in order to retain the current acting DNI authorities for Richard “Ric” Grenell; so that’s one aspect.
However, beyond the procedural move there’s the larger background of the FISA reauthorization; and, in my opinion, that larger dynamic is the majority consideration.
The FISA reauthorization and the need for President Trump to support any type of reauthorization that eventually gets through the complex political dynamics within congress; and considering Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell traveled to the White House to discuss this issue yesterday; the outcome is considerable leverage for Trump.
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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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Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses the coronavirus impacts on his specific business and his view on the short-term impacts from disruptions in China.  While retail stores and some manufacturing are closed in the short-term, overall Cook sees very little change in the outlook for Apple business once the short-term impacts are removed.
Tim Cook also discusses his relationship with President Trump working together on jobs and education programs. Cook notes President Trump was able to influence Prime Minister Modi of India to allow Apple to enter the Indian market.

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PS. if you are following the tiered and strategic deployment of COVID-19 hype, you’ll note the next round of heavy artillery (the WHO/CDC have been saving) is the announcement of an official global “pandemic status” being reached.  That will be worth a week of panic media and perhaps another thousand point drop for U.S. stock market.
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Completely agree with Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton here. During a discussion of congress trying to pass a clean FISA reauthorization or a reform version, Tom Fitton says the only way to really reform the process is to arrest, prosecute & jail those who abused it.
Fitton’s point is similar to the CTH argument surrounding SSCI leaker James Wolfe.  If the DOJ had prosecuted Wolfe for the criminal leaks of classified intelligence, the landscape of an adversarial intelligence apparatus over the past two years would be completely different.   The same general perspective applies to the FISA abuse issue.

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The media is attempting to initiate panic about the Coronavirus in 2020 the same way the media attempted to manufacture panic about an upcoming U.S. recession in 2019.
Earlier today Vice President Mike Pence led a meeting of members of the COVID-19 taskforce.   The segment with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, is interesting.
Dr. Fauci discusses the evolution of novel-coronavirus’ from SARS to MERS to the latest version in COVID-19.  Fauci’s remarks begin at 01:06 of the video below:

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