A risky re-election strategy
Good news out of Massachusetts today, in the category of responsible Republicans acting in the public interest. Gov. Charlie Baker has signed a bill that allows all residents to have a vote-by-mail option for the 2020 election. Registered voters will receive a pre-addressed, postage-paid application they can sign and send back to receive a mail-in ballot. This is not only a great outcome for the people of Massachusetts, who won’t have to choose between their health and their freedom to vote in November, but also a step forward for voting rights advocates everywhere. In a continuing trend, statewide and local Republican leaders are rejecting the baseless claim that mail-in voting is fraudulent and recognizing the importance of offering voters this safe alternative amid the pandemic. Does your state have a vote-by-mail plan in place for November? If not, contact your lawmakers and demand it. —Mindy Finn
1. The tweets shall rise again
How was your Monday? President Trump spent much of his on Twitter, defending the Confederate flag and opining on other racially charged topics. Exploiting racial grievance as a re-election strategy, Trump criticized NASCAR for banning Confederate flags from its events and said Black driver Bubba Wallace owes fans an apology for promoting a "hoax." He also lashed out at the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians for considering name changes, throwing in an attack on Sen. Elizabeth Warren for good measure. And, claiming victory in his pandemic response, he also referred to COVID-19 as the "China Virus" again. All in all, he tweeted 24 times. Nice work if you can get it. —Business Insider
— McEnany equivocates. Trying to defend the indefensible, White House Press Sec. Kayleigh McEnany struggled yesterday to craft a meaningful explanation for Trump’s consistent support of symbols of the Confederacy. She settled on arguing that Trump was speaking only in the abstract. "The president has made clear he was not taking a position one way or the other," she said. —The Washington Post
— State of emergency in Atlanta. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency yesterday and authorized the activation of up to 1,000 National Guard troops to restore order after a weekend of violence in Atlanta left five people dead, including an 8-year-old girl. Troops will be stationed at specific sites throughout the capital city. —USA Today
— A senseless attack. A statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass was inexplicably torn from its base in Rochester, N.Y., on Sunday, 168 years to the day since he delivered one of his greatest speeches there. The statue, which was found damaged next to a river gorge, about 50 feet from its pedestal, will be replaced. —The Guardian
MORE: Amy Cooper faces charges after calling police on Black bird watcher —The New York Times
2. PPP for VIPs
Congress designed the Paycheck Protection Program to help small businesses weather fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. But the program’s $521 billion in taxpayer-funded loans also went to well-heeled and politically connected recipients across the economy, including law offices, charities, restaurant chains, and wealth managers, according to data released for the first time yesterday. Further, nearly 90,000 companies in the program took aid without promising on their applications they would rehire workers or create jobs. —The Wall Street Journal
— More congressional help on the way? Regular folks could see a second round of economic assistance with another stimulus check soon. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was previously opposed to a second round of stimulus checks, said yesterday that President Trump has called for them, so that may sway reluctant Senate Republicans. —Forbes
— "COVID-19 has literally hit home." Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has tested positive for the coronavirus, though she currently has no symptoms. She made the announcement on social media a day after she hosted a press conference attended by police, three Atlanta City Council members, media, and family members of an 8-year-old shooting victim. —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
— Bolsonaro ill with COVID-19. Just three days after he had lunch at the home of U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Todd Chapman, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for the coronavirus. Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly downplayed the risks of the virus and refused to social distance, began experiencing symptoms of a cough and high fever yesterday. —The Guardian
MORE: Stark racial disparities emerge as families struggle to get enough food —Politico
3. CO Ed Board: A policy that helps no one
"In a much-anticipated update on foreign students attending U.S. colleges and universities, ICE said such students won’t be allowed to enter the country if they are attending one of the growing number of schools with no in-person classes this upcoming academic year. If students are already in the U.S. and classes at their school are taught completely online, they must transfer to another school with face-to-face instruction or leave the country.
The guidelines are not only cruel but nonsensical. They hurt just about everyone—students, the universities and colleges they might attend, and the states that will now feel a new economic pinch. And all at the worst possible time." —The Charlotte Observer
MORE: ICE tells students on visas they must leave US if schools go online-only —The Hill
4. At issue: Qualified immunity
Qualified immunity has become a focal point of the debate on policing following the death of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis police custody in May. Activists believe reforming the doctrine could increase the accountability of law enforcement. Others say eliminating it would subject police departments to frivolous lawsuits and lead to a mass exit of officers from the workforce.
— The Supreme Court created the doctrine in 1967 to provide government officials a "good faith" defense if they believed their conduct was legal.
— On Capitol Hill, House Democrats recently passed a bill that calls for eliminating the doctrine. Senate Republicans' policing reform bill leaves the issue off the table, and Sen. Tim Scott has said that amending qualified immunity would be a "poison pill" for getting any legislation passed.
— Though police unions strongly support the doctrine, it may not be as impactful as it appears. Law Prof. Joanna Schwartz says weak cases against officers are often weeded out by the system before the doctrine can even be invoked. In a study of nearly 1,200 lawsuits, fewer than 4% were dismissed on qualified immunity grounds. —CBS News
MORE: Defund the police? Europeans redirect them —The Christian Science Monitor
5. WaPo Ed Board: Pass facial recognition laws
"[Facial recognition technology] failures are particularly insidious given that communities of color are disproportionately policed, which means the mug shot repositories officers draw from are disproportionately composed of black and brown faces. Law enforcement also should be barred from running facial recognition searches without a warrant.
Then there's what happens after a search has been run: Never should an individual be arrested on the basis of an algorithm match alone...and suspects deserve to know when they've been identified based on a facial recognition system." —The Washington Post
6. Global human rights roundup
Time's running out for TikTok in Hong Kong. The short-form video app will exit the Hong Kong market within days, according to a spokesman for the company. Owned by China-based ByteDance, TikTok made the decision following China's establishment of a sweeping new national security law for the semi-autonomous city. TikTok has also said it will not comply with any requests made by the Chinese government to censor content or for access to TikTok's user data. —Reuters
— China amps up "political policing." China has launched a special task force to rein in dissent over Beijing's handling of the coronavirus and protests in Hong Kong. The task force will "crack down on all kinds of infiltration, subversion, sabotage, violent terrorist activities, ethnic separatist activities, and extreme religious activities," according to notes from a task force meeting. —Al Jazeera
— Russian journalist found guilty. A Russian court has found journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva guilty of justifying "terrorism,” ending a trial her supporters say illustrates growing censorship. Prokopyeva, who freelances for the Russian service of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, criticized the state for its handling of dissenting opinions on a radio program in 2018. —Al Jazeera
— UK sanctions Russia and others. The United Kingdom has imposed economic sanctions on dozens of individuals and organizations from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, and North Korea under new British powers to punish human rights offenders. Foreign Sec. Dominic Raab said yesterday that the sanctions target those behind "some of the notorious human rights violations in recent years." —Al Jazeera
MORE: Khashoggi murder trial begins in Turkey —NPR
7. WaPo Ed Board: Genocide, plain and simple
"What has been known until now about China's persecution of the Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang province has focused on cultural genocide: concentration camps intended to eradicate their language, traditions, and ways of life. This was cruel enough. But new evidence has surfaced that China has also imposed on the Uighurs a form of demographic genocide with forced sterilizations and other measures aimed at reducing the population." —The Washington Post
MORE: Representatives of China's Uighurs file evidence to International Criminal Court —The Wall Street Journal
8. Beware of fake newspeople
We've all heard of fake news...but fake newspeople? Yep, it's a thing. A network of at least 19 fake personas has spent the past year placing more than 90 opinion pieces in 46 mostly conservative publications. The articles heaped praise on the United Arab Emirates and advocated for a tougher approach to Qatar, Turkey, Iran, and its proxy groups in Iraq and Lebanon.
— Members of the network used slightly modified avatars as profile pictures and false biographical backstories to buttress their credibility. Some authors pretended to be journalists, either freelancers or former full-time employees of notable news services.
— Media outlets that were duped into publishing pieces from members of the network include The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The National Interest, and RealClear Markets.
— "This vast influence operation highlights the ease with which malicious actors can exploit the identity of real people, dupe international news outlets, and have propaganda of unknown provenance legitimized through reputable media," said Marc Owen Jones, an assistant professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, who first noticed suspicious posts. —The Daily Beast
9. The Economist: A meeting of frenemies
"Though [Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador] is a fervent nationalist, his foreign-policy priority has been to shield Mexico from Trump's animus. The summit [with Trump on Wednesday] will showcase his success. The two leaders are ideological foes but in some ways kindred spirits: populists whose strengths are in the realm of symbols rather than the substance of government." —The Economist
MORE: Justin Trudeau snubs Nafta meeting with Trump in Washington —The Guardian
10. An American Story: Common Sense Camp
Los Angeles-based parenting coach and educator Oona Hanson and her husband, Paul, have joked for years that their kids, Gwendolyn, 17, and Harris, 12, could use a "Common Sense Camp." With summer camps being canceled this summer due to the pandemic, they finally had the opportunity.
— Hanson tried to mirror the summer camp curriculum with her own personal twist by using the book "How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn Before You've Grown Up" by Catherine Newman. Lessons include things like "Kitchen Confidence," "Safety and Emergency Preparedness," "Laundry and Cleaning," and less physical lessons like "Anti-Racism" and "Social Skills."
— The kids then have a chance to reinforce and practice what they have learned daily. Shaping the life lessons through the lens of "camp" helps the kids focus, and gives them the structure to stick to their goals.
— "Being able to do something you couldn't do before—that is self-esteem," Hanson said. "Being someone who knows how to do things builds the social-emotional skills and the resilience that are even more important than the actual list of skills that we're trying to teach." —Yahoo! News
Ed. Note: We are spotlighting ways that Americans are helping each other through the coronavirus crisis and recent unrest, and promoting American values. Would you like to suggest an "American Story" from your local news? If so, please forward a link to the story to editor@topline.com. Thank you!
It saddens me that there are people who believe everyone must stand for the national anthem in honor of soldiers who have died for us, yet don't care to wear a mask so that fewer frontline workers have to make the same sacrifice. —Amy P., California
Can Republicans be sued that obstruct voters' right to vote? —Kate S., Illinois
The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
Got feedback about THE TOPLINE? Send it to Melissa Amour, Managing Editor, at editor@thetopline.com.
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