WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Monday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes
- The beginning of the week and instead of a nice orderly prioritization of the day’s key events, a mélange of the sometimes sober, sometimes hard to believe, sometimes truly absurd happenings that were the components of the day’s reality.
- On the sober side, a federal court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California where the Trump administration has often lost, went the other way Monday and gave the go ahead to deport thousands of immigrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Haiti and Sudan and maybe later those of Nepal and Honduras, originally given shelter from oppressive and even deadly conditions in their home countries. The 45,000 Salvadorans who received Temporary Protective Status would have to leave by Nov. 5 of next year and the rest, perhaps 250,000, earlier, by March 5. Their American-born children would be left behind. Some have been living in the U.S. for three decades. The Texas Tribune said those located in Texas alone add more than $2 billion a year to the state’s economy. The case will undoubtedly go to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, continuing anxiety for a lot of people.
- Also serious, the rising death toll from the dozens West Coast fires, at least 35 confirmed dead in California and, in Oregon, 10 confirmed dead, perhaps another 24 missing. And weeks to go before the peak fire season. At McLellan Park, California, President Trump was cordial despite being surrounded by Democrats, many of whom, including California Gov.Gavin Newsom, expressed gratitude for the president’s emergency declaration. During his FEMA briefing Trump was smiling as he delivered one of those exchanges that the cable channels thank Providence for providing. It was played so many times Monday it’s hardly necessary to repeat it. But we’ll do it anyway:
First California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot:
“If we ignore that science and sort of put our head in the sand and think it’s all about vegetation management, we’re not going to succeed together protecting Californians.”
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. It’ll start getting cooler.
MR. CROWFOOT: I wish —
THE PRESIDENT: You just watch.
MR. CROWFOOT: I wish science agreed with you.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t think science knows, actually.
Newsom told the president, who repeated the state should have done a better job of clearing the inflammable underbrush, that 57% of the land is owned by the federal government and only 3% by the state.
- On the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Sally slowed down off shore, wandering as it shakes off its steering currents, and leaving uncertain exactly when or where it will make landfall. It may be another 24 hours or even longer. Elsewhere, four other named storms, the most simultaneous named storms in many decades.
- Next, more from Bob Woodward, who said Monday that blocking entrants from China was not President Trump’s idea after all. His advisers, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, told him to do it. Promoting his book “Rage,” Woodward played on NBC’s “Today” show, a recording in which Trump said of other world leaders, “I can tell you the relationships I have, the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them,” He added, “The easy ones I don’t like as much or don’t get along with as much.”
- Miles Taylor, the former Department of Homeland Security official who quit in protest of the president, told CNN that in a briefing on California fires, the president said he wanted to block aid because the state had not supported him.
- In Nevada Sunday, at his first indoor MAGA rally in several months, President Trump told a local reporter he wasn’t afraid of catching COVID-19 because he was distanced from the crowd up on a stage, another video clip that was a cable channel favorite during the day. The large crowd, however, took no social distancing precautions nor did most wear masks and Monday Trump was widely criticized for flouting the state’s size limit on gatherings. The governor said it put lives at risk. On CNN reporter Carl Bernstein said Trump had become a “homicidal president.” Monday night, an even more crowded MAGA rally indoors, in Phoenix.
- Meanwhile Trump’s opponent Joe Biden got appreciably less coverage for his home-town speech in which he called the president a “climate arsonist.” In contrast to a MAGA rally, the event was covered by a relatively few reporters all of whom had to wear masks and gloves and to keep their distance from each other.
- At the far end of the crazy spectrum, the recently appointed spokesman for the Department of Health and Human services who Monday night still held the job despite his strange rant on a Facebook Live feed which on Monday he confirmed was as described by The New York Times. Michael Caputo was already being criticized for having his office alter CDC weekly morbidity reports to make them better jibe with presidential statements. In his rant. The former protégé of Trump long-time political operative Roger Stone said, echoing Trump, “There are scientists who work for this government who do not want America to get well, not until after Joe Biden is president.” But he went far beyond that in his 26-minute social media broadcast. Caputo said, according to the Times, “that the president would win re-election in November, but that his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., would refuse to concede, leading to violence. “And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin,” he said. “The drills that you’ve seen are nothing.” His advice to Trump supporters, “Buy ammunition” because it will be increasingly hard to find.
- The big event Tuesday at the White House, after the president’s midnight return from his three-day western tour, are the signings that will formalize the normalization of diplomatic relations among the UAE, Bahrain and Israel. The Emeratis and the Israels will sign one document, then the Bahrainis and the Israelis will sign another document, a White House briefer said. Then all three will sign a third document. Then everyone gets together for a celebratory lunch.
- In upcoming economic statistics, the New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing index is at 8:30a ET along with import and export prices. Then the weekly Redbook retail same-store sales reading at 8:55a and the Red’s industrial production report at 9:15a. Again, Fed correspondent Steve Beckner has looked closely and at length at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting that begins Tuesday morning in the context of the central bank’s new policy framework.The analysis is repeated elsewhere on this macenews.com site.
—
Content may appear first or exclusively on the Mace News premium service. For real-time email delivery contact tony@macenews.com. Twitter headlines @macenewsmacro.