STATUS CHECK COMMENTARY- EMPTY CLASSROOMS AGAIN; MORE COMING
WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Wednesday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
- The order to close New York City schools beginning Thursday was unwelcome in the extreme but Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was necessary. The city’s rate of positive virus tests had reached the 3% danger rate. U.S. stocks, with investors also fretting about the lack of pandemic relief legislation, were knocked into negative territory. Fox News gleefully ran clips of N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo doing a very Trump-like turn of criticizing a reporter for his “obnoxious and offensive tone” in a news conference that was somewhat confusing about how the “orange zone” state designation, already applied to some counties, could be applied to the city, with its additional restrictions on churches, restaurants and gatherings. The state measures positivity in a way that makes it lower than New York City’s methodology so it was uncertain how long it might take to go the next step. The school closing reinforced the bad news from around the country of closings, restrictions and a deepening corona virus crisis surpassing anything that’s come before.
- One particularly negative reaction came on Fox News. Laura Ingraham said, “It’s child abuse.” She added, “I’m so outraged by this.” Her guests at that point, mask skeptics Dr. William Grace and Alex Berenson, agreed. “Masks are basically useless as a protective measure,” Grace repeated, and suggested for de Blasio there “may have been political motives.”. And school closings are “interfering with herd immunity.” For good measure they registered disappointment with Kentucky Gov.Andy Beshear for, they said, abandoning his mantle of being a moderate Democrat, because he is limiting household gatherings to eight people beginning just before Thanksgiving. Outside the house, no restaurant dining or bars serving indoors. For his part, Beshear said, “Inaction is deadly” as many other governors, like Michigan’s, are realizing as well.
- President-Elect Joe Biden kept up his criticism of the president for denying him the opportunity to liaise with Operation Warp Speed on vaccine distribution details. “ I promise you I will be using the Defense Authorization Acct. I will be using the bully pulpit” to fight the virus, he said. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar answered a question at a Warp Speed briefing by saying that if the General Services Administration determines Biden is actually going to be president then a professional transition will occur. The briefing detailed how ultra-cold refrigeration and dry ice are at the ready.to receive vaccine shipments as soon as they get the FDA’s emergency use authorization. That, it appears, may take a couple more weeks. Pfizer/BioNTech’s candidate appears to be 95% effective, the company said Wednesday, and Moderna’s at 94.5% suggested the new technology they used might work on an array of other diseases caused by coronaviruses.
- Every day increases speculation about how President Trump will eventually acknowledge that he will be succeeded by Biden, turning attention to Sept. 16, 2016. ”Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started .the birther controversey. I finished it,” Donald Trump said that day to the applause of the assembled crowd. “I finished it,” he repeated. “You know what I mean. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.” So Hillary and everyone else who followed years of birtherism were surprised to hear it was all her fault. Suggesting that perhaps there is someone else Trump can eventually find to blame for holding up his recognition of Joe Biden’s impending presidency.
- Speaking of Donald Trump, another quiet day at the White House, with nothing on the public schedule. Like all the days except two after the election. There was the Veterans Day appearance at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and President Trump’s White House statement on Operation Warp Speed. And Thursday’s White House schedule has, again, nothing, a string of quiet days remarkable for this president. For nearly four years he brought reporters into the Oval for unscheduled Q&A,, engaged with them on the ropeline,and criticized them from the MAGA rally lecterns. Are some reporters missing being called enemies of the people every day, or malicious originators of fake news? Maybe not. Only the tweets remain. None of them Wednesday fired anyone. Some Republicans had criticized his firing Tuesday night the DHS official who posted the declaration of a no-fraud election. More Republicans, including Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, had criticized the firing of Pentagon chief Mark Esper as well as Tuesday’s imminent drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Several of the latest tweets that again challenged the vote counts were labeled as “disputed” by Twitter. As Twitter chief Jack Dorsey testified this week, only heads of state get to tweet things that aren’t true with only a “disputed” tag. Once out of the White House, such tweets will be blocked.
- Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani Tuesday had returned to a courtroom for the first time in nearly three decades to argue before a Williamsport, Pa. judge that a Democratic conspiracy across several states cost Trump Electoral College votes. He explained what was widely viewed as sub par performance by saying his goal is to get appeals before the Supreme Court. Judging by the more than a dozen Trump campaign lawsuit challenges thrown out or withdrawn, the ultimate hope for the effort to delegitimize the Biden vote majority may indeed rest with the high court. In the latest development from Detroit’s Wayne County, Michigan, where the board of electors first refused to certify a sizable block of votes, then late Tuesday flipped to certify after all, has, according to Fox News, muddied the water Wednesday with one of two Republicans in the four-person board withdrawing her certification vote. CNN meanwhile reported the second Republican had a history of questionable posts, one of which was blocked by Facebook Wednesday. Stay tuned.
- The House of Representatives was unanimous in some foreign policy messaging Wednesday. “Unanimous” is a word so seldom used in the same sentence as the House of Representatives. The rare agreement was about keeping Russia out of the G7. The fate of the legislation in the Senate, that is occupied with many other topics, is unknown and whether the U.S. can dictate membership in the G7 or prevent it from again becoming the G8 is a matter of conjecture. Nevertheless it was a mild rebuke of President Trump, who alone has suggested welcoming Russia back into the fold.
- Upcoming economic statistics include the weekly total of new jobless benefit claims at 8:30a ET along with the Philly Fed manufacturing index, then the NAR’s existing homes sales at 10a with the latest leading economic indicators. The morning’s housing starts report reflected an October surge led by 6.4% increase in single family homes.
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- Contact this reporter: denny@macenews.com.