WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Wednesday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
- Veterans Day saw the opening of the National Museum of the United States Army, a beautiful huge structure situated in the immense Fort Belvoir, one of the U.S. military’s most high tech installations with its satellite dishes downloading spy satellite data. The museum’s exhibits capture 245 years of Army history and its traditions. The web site will soon be able to show the exhibits but the message is that tradition counts.
- Such a contrast to President Trump, whose message may be in large part that tradition doesn’t count for much. He and First Lady Melania did observe the Veterans Day tradition of saluting the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The appearance broke the longest string of consecutive days, six, that he’s been out of the public eye in his presidency. It was a day when not only fallen heroes were remembered but the fallen victims of a pandemic whose numbers are increasing at an alarming rate. In fact, infections are multiplying at a record rate. So it has to be noted that the president and vice president ignored Arlington’s order to all visitors to wear a mask and socially distance. A large part of President Trump’s legacy will, after all, be that he poisoned the well on masks, offsetting to some extent whatever positives he leaves behind. In El Paso, where refrigeration trucks have to provide extra capacity for the packed morgue, even now there is a constant dispute over a mask mandate. The same in the Dakotas and in many of the other states where the virus is now out of control. South Dakota’s positivity rate in nearly 55%, not 5.5% or like New York’s, 2.9% and rising. Minnesota deaths were an all-time high Tuesday.
- President-Elect Joe Biden and wife Jill carried a wreath at Philadelphia’s Korean War Memorial. Like Trump, he did not speak at the commemoration. He might have been hard to hear since it appeared he was wearing two masks. Several reporters looking for story lines had to settle for the standard issue speculation about who will be in Biden’s Cabinet. Will Bernie Sanders be Labor Secretary, a post he confirmed he would accept? Will the Fed’s Lael Brainard be the first Treasury secretary raised in Communist Poland? As Treasury’s Under Secretary for International Affairs she had the benefit of a close adviser’s views of China and other Asian eonomies. Her husband is the head of the Asia Society. Can Elizabeth Warren be pulled out of the Senate when every vote there is vital, when a Republican governor would pick a successor? Particularly before those Georgia Senate race runoffs decide whether Biden’s vice president will be able break those ties and determine what a Biden presidency can accomplish? Delaware’s Sen. Chris Coons doesn’t have that impediment so where will he land? The one announcement that was made was of former Biden top aide Ron Klain being named chief of staff, as expected.
- Georgia is conducting a hand recount of ballots where Biden’s 14,000 vote lead is seen unlikely to be toppled. Even if that were otherwise, there are other states, like Pennsylvania, that would assure enough Electoral College votes. President Trump, at 10p ET, retweeted one of his own tweets saying, “I will win.”
- The coronavirus inevitably becomes a bigger and bigger national concern again, moving back up the news hierarchy with still many months remaining until the population begins to get vaccinated en masse. Russia’s vaccine candidate for which 92% effectiveness is being claimed doesn’t have to be shipped in a cold chain around 100 degrees below zero. It is already being administered to health care personnel. There is zero chance it will be allowed in the United States. Moderna’s vaccine candidate, using the same advanced technology as that of Pfizer/BioNTech, may get its first public announcement of efficacy in a couple of weeks.
- In the alternate universe over on Fox, Laura Ingraham was lamenting Wednesday night how she said Black Lives Matter is “indoctrinating” school children in Burlington, Wisconsin while trying to defund the police. “This is what the fascists do,” she said. Dekalb Country, Georgia, schools declared a “Black Lives Matter” week and, she said, Biden will impose that nationally. Her guest said Black Lives Matter is “against everything we believe in.” Another guest played a video mocking Biden pausing in the middle of a sentence. Biden’s choice of Klain as chief of staff? A “swamp creature,” she said. Fox News meanwhile was reporting a tweet that claimed antifa was going to gather for a protest in downtown Portland. Fox;s in-house physician warned against “letting our charitable instincts get the better of us” so that the Biden administration would consider exporting any vaccine to other countries. On the down side, CNN claimed its election week ratings beat Fox’s.
- It’s back to work for the government and on the menu of economic data is the Consumer Price Index and the weekly report on how new layoffs are affecting claims for unemployment benefit, both at 8:30a ET. Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell is on a panel with ECB President Christine Lagarde at 11:45a. The monthly read of the government’s budget balance or imbalance is at 2p.