WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Thursday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
- A day like other days since the election, a president retweeting millions of Trump votes were “deleted” and Twitter tagging that and others as “disputed.” The retweet was from a posting by the OAN network Trump seems to want to promote as an alternative to the Fox News Network which his tweets indicate he believes has betrayed him, although its cadre of Trump supporting evening anchors have kept up their drumbeat of denial that Joe Biden really is president-elect. Always preoccupied with TV ratings Trump wrote that it is “very sad” that Fox “forgot the Golden Goose” which he said has caused its daytime ratings to “have completely collapsed.”
- A;though Fox News ratings may not be top of mind for many people who have a few other things to worry about, there was one Trump supporting interview on the network worth noting. The message was familiar, that court challenges of various vote counts are important to ensure the validity of elections but the messenger identified herself as a campaign spokesperson. The interviewee was Kayleigh McEnany who was as recently as Wednesday identified as the White House press secretary. Much was made on CNN and MSNBC that one of her replies was that a question should be referred to where? The White House. The split official personality, she said, has been cleared by White House lawyers and is somehow not a violation of the Hatch Act’s prohibition of political activities by civil servants. Some had an explanation for the sudden switch which was somewhat sympathetic to McEnany, that some way had to be found to separate her from the Oval Office where she used to be found through much of the day. The Oval Office now is not a comfortable place these days, as President Trump stays out of public sight for a week with the exception of his Veterans Day visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. For Thursday afternoon, even his tweets stopped for an uncommonly long time.
- Elsewhere in the vast reaches of the federal government, a few more forced out of their jobs as the post-election purge continues. CIA Director Gina Haspel keeps being identified as the next major target for not being a team player. That she has not yet been fired is attributed to an internal White House fight over the matter with National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien listed as against a firing. She was on Capitol Hill Wednesday, supposedly infuriating her opponents. Defense Secretary Mark Esper reportedly got five minutes notice so best to keep that cellphone charged. Another official who reportedly believes he is on the chopping block may have accelerated his impending departure. Chris Krebs tweeted that the Department of Homeland Security “can assure you” that it was the most secure election in history. He should know, as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, at least at this moment.
- The bad news about accelerating coronavirus spread has effectively disproved President Trump’s MAGA rally assertions that, being political motivated, media virus coverage would disappear after the election. With even the optimists saying it may be four to five months before a vaccine becomes widely available, the winter months become a huge challenge. The death toll is on an upward trajectory, with more than 1,400 more deaths Thursday, just as projections based on the 60% increase in cases in two weeks suggests will keep happening.
- Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, participating in an ECB forum of central bankers, warned the pre-pandemic-economy is not exactly what we’ll be returning to, a more technology-oriented economy, to the disadvantage of lower income minorities and women. “We’re recovering, but to a different economy,” he said. “There’s going to be a substantial number of workers who are going to need support as they find their way in the post-pandemic economy, because it’s going to be different in fundamental ways.”
- Meanwhile the big question occupying political scientists and possible 2024 Republican presidential aspirants is the character of future Trumpism. One thing on which there is consensus is that it will be a revenue generating enterprise. Beyond books, legal defense funds, speaking fees and rally-related income, there needs to be a more durable fund raising mechanism which a Trump 2024 campaign would furnish. In a larger sense, though. the nature of Trumpism is still to be determined. Headline-generating relevancy is not that easy a posture to maintain so just being a routine post-election presence on the fringes would not be adequate. Being merely a political rabble rouser is not the same as the being the leader of the Republican Party for the next four years, whose reaction to every Biden initiative will be sought, whose every tweet continues to penetrate the news bubble. But it’s time to think big. There might be a still higher calling, to be a combination of Father Divine and William Jennings Bryan, the leader of a socio-political movement, a cultural phenomenon. No, some would say, too much work. But an acolyte, a Ted Cruz or even a Don Jr., could do the heavy lifting while Trump could be the godfather, like the Unification Church’s one-time divine leader, Rev. Moon. Mass marriages among young Republicans? Probably not. But stadium solidarity rallies, who knows? Meanwhile, any concession, even an oblique acknowledgment of Biden’s win, would concede whatever high ground is left to the enemy. Best to wait until every last rogue Electoral College voter is discredited. Just in late Thursday night, CNN calls Arizona for Biden, 10 days after Fox, but significant nonetheless, bringing CNN’s Electoral College count for Biden to 290.
- Upcoming economic statistics includes the reading of October business inflation, the Producer Price Index, at 8:30a ET. Consumer sentiment at 10a. The morning’s report on new jobless benefit claims was as elevated as predicted and the Consumer Price Index shouted disinflation, as Kevin Kastner details elsewhere on this macenews.com site.