Suffice to say 3M CEO Mike Roman will not be sending a Christmas card to the White House this year.  White House manufacturing advisor, and policy lead for the execution of the Defense Production Act, Peter Navarro, tells 3M to stop with the PC excuses and just do their damned job….  Perfect.

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Hopefully the advanced information CTH provided on the food supply-chain has helped to understand the issues, challenges and demands many are seeing.  Inside the food manufacturing industry the impacts of COVID-19 are stunning; crazy increases in business; and there are going to be interim shortages on popular products.

To understand the ongoing issues with empty shelves, and also prepare for future shortages on specific products (hint: buy extra pet food now), here’s some interesting background:

Champaign, Illinois – […] “We can’t make enough mac and cheese right now,” said Dilton “Dee” Gibbs, plant manager at the facility that makes half of the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese sold in the U.S., as well as A-1 steak sauce, mayonnaise and salad dressings.

The packaged food giant, along with many of its peers, has had to ramp up production amid an abrupt reversal in consumer trends. Shoppers who in recent years shunned processed foods in favor of fresher, healthier and more premium products are now loading up on shelf-stable standbys as shelter-in-place orders force vast swaths of the nation’s population to prepare for a long stretch of cooking at home.

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Things are getting interesting, potential ramifications are growing, as the FISA Court responds to the latest information from the DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG).

After a review of 29 FISA applications, from eight FBI field offices, the OIG informed the FBI and DOJ that none of the surveillance applications were compliant with the Woods procedures. Meaning zero applications had FBI evidence to support the validity of the claims within the FISA warrants.  That’s a very big problem if those FISA warrants were used to gather evidence used to prosecute the 29 targets of the applications.

In a FISC order released today [pdf here] presiding Judge James Boasberg is ordering the FBI to identify who those targets were; and asking the DOJ to explain what they did with the evidence gathered as a result of the fraudulently obtained FISA warrants.  Big.

[pdf here]

If evidence obtained by execution of a fraudulently obtained warrant was used in the prosecution of any of those targets; there’s a possibility those cases will be reopened.

Considering the twenty nine applications from the OIG go back to 2015, there’s a lot of potential for some downstream consequences not only for those 29 applications, but also for all FBI FISA applications with a similar level of neglect.

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The lack of independent control over critical healthcare products is highlighting exactly why Donald J Trump has been demanding U.S. manufacturing firms return production to this nation for years.  White House trade advisor Peter Navarro drove home the point yesterday:

[Transcript] – Q: Mr. Navarro, what’s the status of the “Buy American” executive order?

MR. NAVARRO: “One of the — one of the things that this crisis has taught us, sir, is that we are dangerously over-dependent on a global supply chain for our medicines, like penicillin; our medical supplies, like masks; and our medical equipment, like ventilators.

We have — right now as we speak, over 50 countries have already imposed some forms of export restrictions in their country against the rest of the world. And what we’ve — what we’re learning from that is that no matter how many treaties you have, no matter how many alliances, no matter how many phone calls, when push comes to shove you run the risk, as a nation, of not having what you need.”

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Everything you would ever need to know about a slimy multinational corporate executive is laid out in this interview with 3M CEO Mike Roman.  While answering questions globalist Roman tries to hide what 3M is doing by stuttering and stammering around cover words.

Keep in mind, 3M is a U.S. owned company doing manufacturing business inside China. However, Beijing took control over 3M and nationalized their manufacturing facilities.  But Roman doesn’t want to admit what happened. Listen carefully at 03:00:

“we have produced millions of respirators and now we have arranged to import more masks from China.  We have an agreement to allow us to export ten million additional masks a month out of China”…

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….Sometimes within a 24 hour period Fauci will make a statement, then contradict the initial assertion, then attempt to cloud his own conflict with obtuse and wordy explanations…

CTH noted yesterday that Dr. Fauci was once again talking nonsense on a level that is almost incredible; but we needed to see it in the official transcript to be certain.

During the coronavirus briefing on Wednesday April 1st, Dr. Fauci stated -and no media challenged him- that CDC guidelines for “stay-at-home” directives would remain in place until all new cases ceased, & deaths were no longer happening.  This could take years.

[Transcript (emphasis mine)]  – Q Thanks, Mr. President. A question for Dr. Fauci. Looking beyond, when we’re on the other side of this curve, are we looking at living with some sort of social distancing guidelines essentially until there’s treatment or a vaccine? For example, people looking forward to the summer talk about, you know, going to baseball games, going to concerts. We have political conventions over the summer. Are things like that possible or safe without a vaccine or a treatment in place?

DR. FAUCI: Yeah, I think if we get to the part of the curve that Dr. Birx showed yesterday when it goes down to essentially no new cases, no deaths at a period of time, I think it makes sense that you’re going to have to relax social distancing.

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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin provided additional information at the white house briefing today including an important new point:  Social Security recipients will not need to file an income tax return to see a direct deposit.

After instruction from President Trump all SSI recipients will participate in the economic relief programs without taking further action.  WATCH:

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Apparently it took the invocation of the Defense Production Act to stop 3M from selling masks and PPE to cash paying foreign governments; forcing them to supply the U.S. federal government and states instead.  WATCH:

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The always political Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to President Trump today saying it was “long past the time” to name a senior military officer to lead the supply-chain effort.

Senator Schumer was attempting to construct a political narrative around the administration not taking action to secure U.S. supply needs combating COVID-19.

The letter was/is ridiculous; and built upon an entirely false premise; because Admiral John Polowczyk is already in that supply-chain procurement and distribution position working closely with Peter Navarro after the invocation of the Defense Production Act.

Replying to the ridiculous Schumer letter, President Trump calls out his stupidity:

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Comrades, the administrative state will take care of all your food needs.  There is no reason to be self-sufficient in the production of food products.  As a result Vermont has designated the selling of seeds as “non-essential” and blocked from purchase:

It is more than a little alarming to see state officials now beginning to drill down into products that stores will be permitted to sell, or not sell, within businesses that are permitted to remain open during the COVID-19 mitigation effort.

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