..And it begins; right on cue.
The DNC and CNN collaborate to provide Joe Biden with his preferred comfort format for the next debate on March 15th between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.   The Club knows Biden does best in debate formats when sitting down at a desk; just like the 2012 debate between Biden and Paul Ryan.
CNN is hosting the debate, and CNN is the most friendly control operation for the needs of the Club.  So what happens… CNN and The Club agree to a small venue town hall format where Joe Biden will be sitting down at a desk to debate Bernie Sanders.
It is all predictable in the extreme:

(Politico) Bernie Sanders wants to stand up at the next debate — and his campaign is accusing Joe Biden of wanting to sit down.

After a private call Friday with CNN, which is moderating the March 15 debate with the Democratic National Committee, Sanders’ team balked at a new proposed format for debate, saying it gives his opponent Biden too much of a break in their first one-on-one face-off. Biden’s camp denied that it was pressing for a sit-down debate.

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First, the background… On Super Tuesday the biggest shock was that Joe Biden won Texas in the Democrat presidential primary.
Specifically, it was the moment when results from Dallas County, Texas, were reported when the media narrative of a Biden win began to be broadcast. Go back to election night, re-watch the coverage, and you’ll see all media broadcasting pointing to Dallas County, Texas, as the Biden inflection point.
Now this:

Sketchy as heck. These are not Russians; these are U.S. election officials.

TEXAS – Dallas County Elections Administrator Toni Pippins-Poole discovered her office did not count about 10% of the ballots that voters cast on Super Tuesday.
She is now asking a court to let her conduct a manual recount of the votes, after she discovered 44 thumb drives containing ballots that were not included in the final results.

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In November of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.  As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020.

~ Something has to happen this week

The Senate is scheduled to recess March 13, 2020.  Additionally, the DOJ/FBI response to the FISA court order (due February 5th) has still not been made public.  If congress is going to reauthorize the controversial FISA provisions, they now have only *FIVE* days; and the good news today is Doug Collins confirming the House does not have enough votes to support a “clean reauthorization.” Hopefully, that means FISA is going to change.

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According to Senator Rand Paul, President Trump is committed to seeing that FISA is not reauthorized without “significant” reform. Senator Paul has proposed to significantly change the FISA process by forcing the DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community to apply for search and surveillance warrants to Title-3 courts in order to access any NSA database containing private information of American citizens.
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If you want to know what those inside the DNC Club are thinking watch one of the club insiders, George Stephanopoulos.   In this interview Stephanopoulos tries to blur the lines between Biden and Bernie by saying their policies are identical.  Nice trick.
Stephanopoulos asks Bernie when will he drop out; and if the senator will keep campaigning even after it becomes mathematically impossible to get to the convention with most delegates.

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Michigan is a key state for the presidential primary contest between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Michigan (125 delegates), Idaho (20), Mississippi (36), Missouri (68), North Dakota (14), and Washington State (89) all vote this upcoming Tuesday, March 10th.
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Yesterday President Trump toured the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia.  At the conclusion of the tour and briefing the President delivers remarks to the media and holds a press conference. [Video and Lengthy Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: I said, “I’d like to walk the press down the hall to see how professional this is.” It’s incredible. If you people would like, we would do that. Are they able to do that, Doctor? Can they do that?
DR. MONROE: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Yes. (Laughter.) Why don’t you tell them a little bit about what you’re doing and how it’s going? And here they are, right over there. They’re actually very nice people. But they’re told not be (inaudible) by the editors.
Dr. Monroe is a tremendously talented man. They’ve done tremendous work here. Doctor, please.
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An interesting on-the-fly interview with Mark Meadows on the topics of FISA renewal and the nomination of John Ratcliffe for DNI.  The incoming White House chief-of-staff notes an internal executive debate is still happening about how best to reform the FISA process as it is used upon/against American citizens.
AG Barr, Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham insufferably want a clean renewal.  President Trump, the righteous House team and Senators Paul, Lee and Cruz want far more substantial reform.  Senator Paul has the best proposal which is to force the DOJ, FBI or domestic intelligence apparatus to go before a traditional Title-3 court any time a U.S. citizen is identified as a target for surveillance.  Save FISA for foreign targets.
Additionally, Meadows notes the shift in support for John Ratcliffe as DNI comes as an outcome of SSCI Chairman Richard Burr likely supporting the nomination.  Unspoken, albeit obvious implication: McConnell green-lighted Burr to support Ratcliffe.

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Most people are aware the Wuhan coronavirus has become an economic contagion within China. However, the scale of the contraction is only now being quantified and the data doesn’t match the visible reality.
When evaluating the data showing drops in exports from China is worthwhile to consider the lack of visible supply-chain disruption formerly predicted by global economic “analysts”.  According to Reuters; to the extent data can be gathered from within a closed communist system; total exports from China dropped 17.2% in January and February.

The lack of factory production has cut the estimated growth rate within China by half.  However, is that a cause?  – or – Is that a cover?  For decades corporations have moved to a supply chain process known as Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory.
If Chinese component manufactured goods were part of a critical corporate supply chain, and with more than 30-days of source disruption quantified, there would be impacts by now. Where are the crippled customers?  There are no measurable, demonstrable, citations for missing component parts making downstream finished goods impossible.  There are lots of anticipatory declarations, but no shortage has materialized.
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7:30pm – THE PRESIDENT participates in a working dinner with the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil

White House – President Donald J. Trump will meet President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, March 7, 2020. President Trump and President Bolsonaro will discuss opportunities to build a more prosperous, secure, and democratic world.

As leaders of the Hemisphere’s two largest economies, they will also discuss opportunities for restoring democracy in Venezuela, bringing peace to the Middle East, implementing pro-growth trade policies, and investing in infrastructure. The President will use this meeting as an opportunity to thank Brazil for its strong alliance with the United States. (link)

A couple of recent data points highlights a purposeful plan where the DNC Club wants Bernie Sanders crushed this month, well ahead of the Milwaukee DNC convention.
Last night the New York Times posted a blistering expose’ on Bernie, complete with journalists traveling to the former Soviet Union city of Yaroslavl Russia, to dig up opposition research they could deploy framing Senator Sanders as a comrade to Russian interests. The Times research team presented an 89-page “Bernie Dossier” of sorts.

NYT […] The New York Times examined 89 pages of letters, telegrams and internal Soviet government documents revealing in far greater detail the extent of Mr. Sanders’s personal effort to establish ties between his city and a country many Americans then still considered an enemy despite the reforms being initiated at the time under Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet general secretary.
[…]  The documents are part of a government archive in Yaroslavl, Russia, which became the sister city of Burlington. The files are open to the public, though archivists there said that, until now, no one had asked to see them. (more)

Interestingly, Comrade Sanders was a presidential candidate in 2016 competing against Hillary Clinton; but the New York Times didn’t feel the need to track down the records during that campaign?… But they did in 2020?…
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Yesterday Federal Judge Reggie Walton questioned the credibility and truthfulness of Attorney General Bill Barr.  [SEE HERE]  Today AG Barr responded:

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