The closed-door sessions with Adam Schiff and his Lawfare-contracted legal aide, Daniel Goldman, were pre-planned.  The process was designed last year.  The current HPSCI legislative impeachment process, and every little aspect within it, is the execution of a plan, just like the DOJ/FBI plan was before it in 2016, 2017 & 2018.
Today democrat Representative Eric Swalwell appears on Face The Nation to discuss his ongoing efforts as part of the impeachment agenda.  Within the interview Swalwell has a little Freudian slip highlighting how the House is manufacturing witness testimony:

[@01:17] REP. SWALWELL: These witnesses have been fairly consistent. And for the most part, they’ve not been coordinating or talking to each other.

Whoops: “for the most part“?  Thereby Mr. Swalwell admits the witnesses are coordinating some testimony.  [Transcript Available Here]

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In a refreshing change from Fox News Interruptus interviews, where the pundits talk more than the guests, HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes appears for an interview with Mike Huckabee on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) to discuss the impeachment dynamic.
Within the interview Mr. Nunes walks through the Chairman Schiff impeachment team and then expands with details of the prior witnesses brought to the committee.

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HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff responds to the republican witness request list.  In the final paragraph of the letter, Schiff announces the “whistleblower”, the person Chairman Schiff coordinated with to initiate the impeachment, will never be called to deliver testimony:

(Source Link)

Chairman Adam Schiff is leading the impeachment inquiry into President Trump and told republicans they had a deadline of yesterday for any requests for witnesses for the upcoming public hearings.
Schiff has stated he will arbitrarily approve or deny any request from the House republicans.
Today House republicans released a list of eight witnesses they want to see called to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry (full pdf below).  Included in the list is the anonymous CIA “whistleblower”, Hunter Biden, Alexandra Chalupa (DNC operative who met with Ukrainian officials in 2016), and Nellie Ohr who was doing the Fusion-GPS 2016 opposition research using Ukrainian contacts and sources.
[scribd id=434181420 key=key-YLU3Zjze5CgFeBpJHm1h mode=scroll]
 
The full list includes: Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, Alexandra Chalupa, Tim Morrison, David Hale, Kurt Volker, Nellie Ohr and the “Whistleblower”.  [Direct House pdf Link]
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HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes has sent a letter to HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff formally requesting his testimony prior to the public impeachment hearings next week.
On its face this might seem like a stunt; and it might indeed be dismissed by Adam Schiff; however, at the heart of the issue is something quite serious and quite factual.  There is mounting evidence the entirety of the Pelosi, Lawfare-Schiff proceeding is a collaborative event that includes the coordination with a CIA ‘whistleblower’.
Specifically because the issues in/around the originating ‘whistleblower’ have become a risk to the effort, and in a complete reversal from the original premise, Adam Schiff is now refusing to present testimony from the originating whistleblower.   Nunes is now engaging in a process with the goal make the political coordination self-evident:

(Source – pdf)

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Earlier today Lawfare founder Benjamin Wittes sent a curious tweet appearing to defend former DOJ lawyer Lisa Page; who was previously assigned to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.   The tweet comes out of the blue; and there’s nothing currently in the public sphere or headlines about Ms. Page.   It seems rather odd:

(Link to Tweet)

My hunch is Ms. Page may have spoken honestly to Horowitz or Durham about her experience as part of the ‘small group’.  If accurate, and considering McCabe threw Page under the bus to protect himself against an internal investigation about his media leaks, Ms. Page’s current disposition may very well be adverse to the interests of the coup plotters.   [Additionally, Ms. Page had no involvement with the FBI FISA construct.]
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a statement out today that underlines why so many global forces are against President Trump: “there are trillions at stake”.

(Reuters) – An interim U.S.-China trade deal that rolls back some tariffs has the potential to improve the International Monetary Fund’s baseline economic forecasts, which show the two countries’ trade war slowing global growth significantly this year, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday. (read more)

The baseline for the position of the IMF is the open secret amid global economic that few will ever discuss openly.  The U.S. economy generates approximately $21 trillion in total activity; roughly 20 percent of total global economic activity.
When the U.S. maintains a $500 billion per year trade deficit with China, essentially we are sending China trade dollars Beijing then uses to purchase industrial products from the EU an other nations.  Any reduction in the U.S-China deficit means China has less dollars to distribute; as an outcome the global economies have access to less U.S. wealth.
The process to retain U.S. dollars inside our own economy, President Trump’s “America First” economic agenda, is the heart of what most call the global economic slowdown.  As a result the position of the IMF is better when the U.S. maintains a deficit, and the position of the IMF is weakened by any process that stops that exfiltration of wealth.
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*smiles, reminds everyone to check the archives*

It was always going to be thus, and those who refuse to understand the Big Club will never be able to the understand the predictability of it all.  It’s a big club folks, and you ain’t in it.

The 2019 data-harvesting has been good.  Biden’s role is exhausted.  Time for the real owners of the club to assemble.  Michael Bloomberg is entering the Democrat presidential primary race:

New York Times – Michael R. Bloomberg is actively preparing to enter the Democratic presidential primary and is expected to file paperwork this week designating himself as a candidate in at least one state with an early filing deadline, people briefed on Mr. Bloomberg’s plans said.
Mr. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and billionaire businessman, has been privately weighing a bid for the White House for weeks and has not yet made a final decision on whether to run, an adviser said. But in the first sign that he is seriously moving toward a campaign, Mr. Bloomberg has dispatched staffers to Alabama to gather signatures to qualify for the primary there. Though Alabama does not hold an early primary, it has a Friday deadline for candidates to formally enter the race.

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There is a lot of banter amid the punditry class of trade and finance watchers surrounding a statement from Chinese Commerce spokesman Gao Feng claiming that U.S. and China negotiators were discussing a ‘phased’ roll-back of U.S. tariffs as part of a trade deal. However, a note of very strong caution should be applied.

On its face the Beijing-central claim is essentially an accurate portrayal of a dynamic long discussed.  The tariffs were initially imposed to reset the outlook of China.  In any negotiation with China a concession of current status is a non-starter.  By natural disposition Beijing refuses to cede already won ground. This is their historic approach.
Therefore when engaging in any negotiations with China it is necessary to reset the baseline.  China has to naturally feel losses; the economic landscape must be changed around them without their participation; in order for for them to consider negotiation.
The punishing U.S. tariffs accomplished this objective; the Beijing baseline status has been changed.  The bamboo forest is significantly less than it was two years ago, and now China wants to recapture lost position. Their current status indicates exactly that dynamic.
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Oh noes… Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on Fox News to discuss the likelihood of her joining the White House team in some capacity.

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A mechanic is changing the car oil; you walk up to him and hand him a pair of snorkeling fins to complete the job; that look on his face is the same as mine.
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