WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Tuesday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
- “He had rid himself of the red sickness of battle.” So wrote Stephen Crane, in “The Red Badge of Courage.” Which relates to this presidential tweet: “The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud – including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, “glitches” in the voting machines which changed… …votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more. Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”
- And for no particular reason, other than for contrast, this Wikipedia entry: Administrator Emily W. Murphy was nominated by President Donald J. Trump to lead the U.S. General Services Administration. She was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and sworn in as the administrator of GSA on December 12, 2017. GSA Administrator Murphy leads a staff of more than 11,200 GSA employees nationwide, overseeing more than 370 million square feet of property, approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, 4.9 million government credit and purchase cards, and 225,000 leased vehicles within GSA’s fleet. Under her leadership, GSA has produced more than $20.3 billion in savings and cost avoidance for customer agencies in fiscal years 2018 – 2020.” In other words, a lot to lose.
- Over at the Pentagon, another Chris, the man President Trump brought in nine days ago to get the job done, did Tuesday. That is Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller carried out the president’s order to cut U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not a lot of troops are involved, 2,500 in Afghanistan, 500 in Iraq, and not many will be left, 2,000 in Afghanistan and 500 in Iraq. Which is the point, few U.S. troops left to protect diplomats and the U.S. reputation for not running from a responsibility, especially in a hasty exit. Miller did the deed with enthusiasm, saying he is “celebrating” the move. The troops will be gone by Jan. 15 and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said President Trump hopes they will all be gone by May. Reflecting the bipartisan congressional opposition to the move, Sen. GOP leader Mitch McConnell repeated his warning not to do what President Trump did. The Baghdad’s Green Zone Tuesday took hits from several missiles, killing a child and injuring some others.
- President-Elect Joe Biden organized a bit of protest theater to dramatize President Trump’s refusal to tell the above mentioned Ms. Murphy to please give the incoming chief executive access to intelligence briefings. He organizing his own wall of screens from which private intelligence experts gave him a long briefing. His VP-elect Kamala Harris, who gets her own intelligence briefings as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, listened in for a while but then zipped over to the Senate chamber to cast a vote that blocked the path to the Federal Reserve Board of controversial nominee Judy Shelton. Her vote was crucial as part of unanimous Democratic opposition because the Republican side lacked two votes, that of Senators. Rick Scott and Charles Grassley, at the time both in self imposed quarantine. Later Grassley, 87 and the longest serving member of Congress, said he tested positive and would remain quarantined. That, in turn, seemed to make it more difficult for the Shelton nomination to be resurrected before the Thanksgiving break. On Nov. 30, the Senate gets another Democrat, former astronaut Mark Kelly.
- And still another badge bearer, Rick Bright, forced out of his job at the Department of Health and Human Services for not being a team player, told CNN as a new member of the Biden virus advisory group, there has been no communication with the president’s virus Task Force. He said that instead of 300 million doses of the vaccine expected to be ready by yearend, only 30 million will be available. Distribution is an important challenge and “right now we’re not seeing that kind of leadership” to get that job done, he said. He repeated, “We are in for the darkest winter in American history” since the Trump administration has not taken the necessary steps.
- Stopping in over at Fox News, Sean Hannity was talking about “thousands of missing votes turning up weeks later,” all supporting President Trump’s continuing allegations. The campaign to retain Donald Trump in the Oval Office continues, despite some more setbacks in the courts as Rudy Guiliani takes personal control of the fight. “It’s widespread, nationwide voter fraud, of which this is a part,” he argued in Pennsylvania. Hannity said he hear from more than a few people that Guiliani “was brilliant.” Kayleigh McEnany told Hannity that the Trump campaign will let Wisconsin know Wednesday if it is requesting a recount there. Wayne County, Michigan, Tuesday night split and failed to certify the vote by the deadline, keeping alive Republican hopes of denying Biden Michigan’s electoral votes – which still wouldn’t alter the outcome. Whups, then suddenly that decision was reversed and the Wayne County vote was certified, ultimately another reverse for the Trump campaign.
- Over at the Senate Judiciary Committee Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg were visiting for the second time in three weeks, to field angry questions from both Republicans and Democrats. Accounts of the hearing are only a few keystrokes away. The bottom line, not much. Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham, also on Hannity, said social media has to be throttled or conservatives will be the losers Chances of any legislation to that end any time soon were as minimal after the hearing as before. Graham repeated that his call to the George Secretary of State was not to encourage discarding ballots as the Georgia Republican charged.
- Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell had another talk session Tuesday, this time answering question for the Bay Area Council, repeating the economy ‘s evolution toward more reliance on technology has been accelerated by the pandemic to the disadvantage of lower income minorities and women. More congressional help would be welcome, he said. Senate GOP leader McConnell confirmed got a letter from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer asking for talks on pandemic relief to be restarted. McConnell said he’s still open to a $500 billion bill. The Thanksgiving congressional break beckons with no real signs a relief bill can be put together that McConnell, Pelosi and Trump would agree on. There were also hints during the day from Powell and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic that Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin is still pondering whether to agree to an extension past yearend of the Fed’s emergency powers, something that had been expected to be an easy call.
- Quote of the day has to be the observation by Dr. Celine Gounder, also a member of the Biden virus advisory group, who told CNN Tuesday that politicizing mask wearing is like politicizing toilet paper.
- Upcoming economic data includes that 7a ET MBA reading of mortgage applications, the 8:30a report on housing starts and the EIA oil stocks report at 10:30a. The morning’s retail sales report came in weaker than expected after two exceptionally strong previous reports, as Kevin Kastner writes about elsewhere on this macenews.com site. Five Fed regional bank presidents have public appearances Wednesday.
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- Contact this reporter: denny@macenews.com.