WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Monday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
· How many “gotchas” to go? Mockery and sarcasm, let’s go before time runs out. And above all, let’s not be too introspective and examine some of the fundamental assumptions American society has embraced over the last couple hundred years that makes the country exceptional, and now, exceptionally vulnerable. Are we talking about a tolerance for big debt? Not really, that’s a fairly recent flaw that is out in the open, not deeply embedded in the culture and so never brought to the surface. Besides, there’s a corrective mechanism that suddenly appears when least convenient as the markets move against a currency and credit dries up and a population learns the meaning of austerity and how long it takes to crawl back. No, more hidden and subtle are the hazards of wide open spaces. Like countries that are prisoners of their oil reserves, the United States became a prisoner of its limitless frontiers goes the argument. Not just rugged individualism, but hyper rugged individualism is down deep the reverse glue, the repulsive force that courses through the cowboy mystique that makes a lot of people immune to cooperation on any large scale. Ayn Rand and her acolytes helped embed the impulse that nourishes the allergy to mask wearing. It’s not that some future foreign germ warrior will prey on the widespread U.S. aversion to masks, to distancing, to cooperation to save others. It’s the purely domestic suppression of empathy that is a fracture, a vulnerability that goes far beyond partisan politics.
· Watching the White House gathering Monday night, there is the reassuring sight of Marine guards, wearing masks. Whups, Amy Coney Barrett isn’t wearing a mask, nor the First Lady and of course, not the president of the United States. Let’s cut them a break, though. All three have had Covid-19 and recovered and the night’s photos must last into history and beyond the plague. Most of the audience members are wearing masks for a change and their folding chairs are somewhat separated. Vice President Mike Pence wasn’t there, nor was Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell who helped make the new Associate Justice possible, Pence in a very partial quarantine given his proximity to the newly tested positives in his office, McConnell out of a wise sense of caution. The swearing in, so soon after the 52-48 Senate vote, wastes no time in a Washington now operating at light speed, moving toward Nov. 3. Justice Clarence Thomas said the words, “I, Amy Coney Barrett …” which she repeated, and “without any mental reservation” assumed some of the weightiest responsibilities of any job, anywhere.
· “I will do my job without any fear or favor,” Justice Barrett pledged, having said she appreciates now more than ever how the senators must do their duty to pursue policy preferences while judges must always resist the lure of policy preferences. On Tuesday she will once again by sworn in, by Chief Justice John Roberts, within the halls of justice.
· “I have been living in fear,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said, afraid the new justice would be subjected to the bitter personal attacks Justice Brett Kavanaugh endured in his confirmation process.
· Fox’s Sean Hannity, not quite as sensitive to the evils of personal attacks, expressed his pity for “weak and frail” Joe Biden. And let’s run that clip again of Biden’s promise to destroy the oil and gas industry, one of those truths that Fox News is so expert at ferreting out amid all the Biden “lying” as illustrated in another clip with “Bolshevik” Bernie. Yes, though Biden qualifies his intentions by saying not until 2050, and meanwhile he’ll attack only government subsidies for fossil fuels and remove fracking only from public lands, he was caught in an admission that he would like to see fossil fuels disappear. Elsewhere in much of the world, oil’s carbon emissions that reflect heat back into the lower atmosphere are acknowledged to be a threat to the human race. But Biden is not running for office in the rest of the world.
· Upcoming economic data includes the report on durable goods orders at 8:30a ET and the Johnson-Redbook read on same-store retail activity at 8:55a. The morning’s report on new-home sales was a disappointment, as reflected on the @macenewsmacro account.
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