AG Barr faces a contentious House panel

Social media's rising popularity and its role in the election of Donald Trump illuminated the persistent threat disinformation poses to free societies, particularly when fueled by foreign adversaries. Now, the coronavirus pandemic reveals how disinformation can have not only political but also fatal consequences. A Pew Research survey finds that 1 in 4 Americans think the COVID-19 pandemic is "definitely" (5%) or "probably" (20%) planned by powerful people, which means they're less likely to trust authorities' guidance for containing the virus. In the case of a contagious virus, we're all impacted if even 25% of the country fails to take action to protect themselves and their communities from COVID-19. —Mindy Finn

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** 1. A grill on the Hill
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Attorney General William Barr was questioned by the House Judiciary Committee today for the first time in his tenure as the nation's top law enforcement official. The occasionally heated hearing covered an array of issues, including the Russia Investigation, the Roger Stone and Michael Flynn cases, the nation's coronavirus response, the upcoming presidential election, the 2020 Census, systemic racism in law enforcement, and the current unrest in Portland, Ore. ([link removed])
* — What happened in Lafayette Park? The panel also questioned Barr on the incidents in Washington, D.C., on June 1. Barr said he first learned President Trump might come out of the White House "sometime in the afternoon" and that he only learned "later in the afternoon" that he might visit St. John's Church for his photo-op—denying his original order to clear the protesters was related to the photo-op. —ABC News ([link removed])
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* — Parks and wreck. Acting Chief of the U.S. Park Police Gregory Monahan also testified about the Lafayette Park incident, defending agents' use of tear gas to clear the square. He characterized the gathering of protesters there on June 1 as "one of the most violent protests that I've been a part of in my 23 years with the U.S. Park Police." —Yahoo! News ([link removed])
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* — The other side. In a prepared statement delivered to the committee, Maj. Adam DeMarco, a National Guard commander who was present in Lafayette Park on June 1, alleges that protesters were "behaving peacefully, exercising their 1st Amendment rights," before the forcible clearing of the square. DeMarco described the law enforcement response as an "unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force." —Defense One ([link removed])

MORE: Ayer: Bill Barr's unconstitutional campaign to re-elect the president —The Atlantic ([link removed])


** 2. Tuccille: Right or left, a jackbooted thug is still a thug
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"[Y]ou can't preserve a free society if support for limited government and civil liberties are situational, depending on who is on the receiving end. If you think it's fine to set enforcers to rousting people if you dislike their causes, you're just weaponizing the law and hoping that your side will, somehow, stay in power indefinitely. That's a no-win tactic." —Reason ([link removed])

MORE: Wall of Moms, Don't Shoot Portland sue federal Homeland Security, Justice departments —The Oregonian ([link removed])


** 3. States contemplate reversal of reopenings
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As coronavirus cases continue to rise, states are largely going their own way. They're relying on their own public-health indicators rather than federal guidelines as they consider whether to reclose portions of their economies—especially shops, bars, and restaurants, which they blame for a rise in infections. Yesterday, President Trump said he favored states' decisions to reopen. "I really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states that they're not opening," he said. "We'll see what happens with them." —The Wall Street Journal ([link removed])
* — That explains it. Remember Trump’s ballyhooed shift in tone on the pandemic last week? Turns out, his senior advisers began presenting coronavirus data to him in terms of which electorally important states are (or could be) most affected by COVID-19, in order to sway him into taking stronger action on the virus. Now it all makes sense. —The Daily Beast ([link removed])

* — If baseball is struggling... Just days into its season, Major League Baseball is already dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19 among players and staff, which has led some to question how schools will be able to reopen. Worse, coronavirus cases in youths have greatly increased in Florida, with total infections up 34% and hospitalizations up 23% between July 16 and 24, according to the Florida Dept. of Health. —Axios ([link removed])
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* — DNC preps for convention. Face masks, questionnaires, and daily tests for COVID-19 are part of the health protocols that will be in place for attendees at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis., scheduled for Aug. 17-20 at the Wisconsin Center. —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ([link removed])

MORE: Pandemic is overwhelming US public health capacity in many states. What now? —NPR ([link removed])


** 4. Germany rejects Russia
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Germany has rejected President Trump's proposal for Russia to be re-admitted to the "Group of Seven" meeting of leading economies. Russia had been a member of the G7 (then G8)—which comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the U.S.—until its expulsion in 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula and backed a rebellion in eastern Ukraine. ([link removed])
* — Trump said in June it was "common sense" for Russia to be invited to return to the group. "The problem is many of the things that we talk about are about Putin, so we're just sitting around wasting time because then you have to finish your meeting and somebody has to call Putin or deal with Putin on different things. And I say have him in the room," he said. ([link removed])

* — Heiko Maas, Germany's foreign secretary, said there was no prospect of re-admitting Russia until it had resolved the situation in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. "The reason for Russia's exclusion was the annexation of Crimea and intervention in eastern Ukraine," he said. "As long as we do not have a solution there, I see no chance for this." —Business Insider ([link removed])


** 5. WaPo Ed Board: No country for asylum-seekers
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"Canada is among the United States's closest allies; gratuitous America-bashing is not the norm there. That a Canadian judge would give a failing grade to this country's commitment to human rights where they concern refugees is a damning rebuke." —The Washington Post ([link removed])

MORE: US-Canada asylum treaty unconstitutional, judge finds, citing 'cruel' US behavior —NPR ([link removed])
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** 6. Voting shifts in FL could hurt Trump
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In Florida, President Trump may be his own worst enemy. Republicans once dominated vote-by-mail in the state, but that's all changed since Trump's campaign to denigrate the practice. Democrats have doubled the number of their voters who have requested mail ballots compared to 2016, while Republicans have increased their numbers by only about 20%. Some Republicans now worry that Trump's tweeting could prevent GOP voters from taking advantage of what election and health officials agree is the easiest and safest way to vote in a pandemic. —Associated Press ([link removed])
* — Vote-by-mail. Donors are pouring more than $100 million into an intensifying national debate over whether it should be easier to vote by mail. In the battleground of Wisconsin, cash-strapped cities have received funding from a left-leaning organization to help expand mail-in voting, while a conservative group is spending heavily to fight cases related to mail-in balloting procedures in court. —WSLS ([link removed])

* — Gerrymandering. Arkansas, Nevada, North Dakota, and Oregon are on the cusp of approving anti-gerrymandering petitions for the November ballot, which would allow voters to decide whether to institute an independent redistricting commission before maps are redrawn for the new decade. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made gathering signatures to qualify for the ballot especially difficult. —The Fulcrum ([link removed])
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* — Ranked-choice voting. The Maine Republican Party has appealed a ruling that determined that its signature-gathering effort to repeal the state's ranked-choice voting law came up short. The state GOP is seeking a people's veto on the November ballot, with the hope of preventing the use of RCV in the upcoming presidential election. —Bangor Daily News ([link removed])


** 7. Domke & Douglas: Now is the time for civic action on voting
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"Today, clearing the path to a 'more perfect' democracy looks a lot like it did 100 years ago—collective, citizen-led activism leading to incremental progress, with the occasional great leap forward in policy. Now is the moment for a leap." —The Fulcrum ([link removed])

Ed. Note: David Domke and Charles Douglas are co-founders of Common Power, a Seattle-based organization that works "to foster, support, and amplify a democracy that is just and inclusive."


** 8. A new terrorist threat?
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Pandemic. Economic turmoil. Social unrest. Election anxieties. There's a lot to worry about right now. But experts and law enforcement officials who monitor violent extremist activity say the threat of terrorism is also a concern in both the U.S. and Europe, due to the aforementioned global problems and accelerated radicalization on social media. ([link removed])
* — A recent report records 14 terrorist incidents, including attacks and disrupted plots, from Jan. 1 to May 8. Thirteen of them were classified as right-wing, and the other was recorded as being religiously motivated in the context of jihadism. ([link removed])

* — "We see an increasing percentage of plots and attacks in the United States shifting over the past couple of years from jihadist motivations, increasingly, to far-right activity," said report co-author Seth Jones, who directs the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ([link removed])
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* — Jones said the threat of terrorism had probably increased in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the response to lockdowns and other restrictions, and activists energized by the country's increasingly polarized politics. —NBC News ([link removed])


** 9. Jurecic & Wittes: NeverTrumpers never say die
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"It is possible for [former Vice President Joe] Biden to beat Trump without attracting many conservative votes. But it is not possible for him to win in a giant landslide without winning moderate conservative votes. Biden is now running far ahead in the major swing states, and running competitively in solidly Republican states like Georgia and Texas, because a whole lot of people who are traditional Republican voters are thinking about abandoning their party’s nominee." —The Atlantic ([link removed])

MORE: Anti-Trump Gen Z Republicans are mobilizing to save the 'dying' GOP —Newsweek ([link removed])


** 10. An American Story: EastWest Food Rescue
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It all started with a message on Facebook. On April 29, George Ahearn, who had heard about farmers in Washington State who were giving away potatoes and onions, wanted to know if someone had a truck he could borrow to haul the discarded crops to western Washington food banks. The response was immediate and dramatic. ([link removed])
* — A convoy of four trucks, including two with trailers, made the trip east, helping to provide quite a bounty for local food banks. "We brought back 9.36 tons when my original goal was 2,000 pounds," Ahearn said. ([link removed])
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— EastWest Food Rescue is now a registered nonprofit organization, having delivered more than 2.4 million pounds of crops to more than 160 food banks. Not only is it helping with food security, but the organization is paying the farmers, who saw the market for some of their crops vanish during the coronavirus pandemic. ([link removed])

* — The results have been gratifying for Nancy Balin, who answered Ahearn's original request because she had a truck and is now one of three directors of the program. "It's amazing and easily the most important thing I have ever done in my life," she said. —The Seattle Times ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Would you like to suggest "An American Story" from your local news? If so, please forward a link to the story to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) . Thank you!
I can't help but note the obvious disconnect. We have a tax-cheating draft-dodging adulterer con-artist impeached gangster president claiming to be fighting crime, while he and his cronies work tirelessly to undermine confidence in the upcoming election so they can stay in power. —Tim P., New Mexico
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** 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.
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